Esther 2:23

2:23 The king then had the matter investigated and, finding it to be so, had the two conspirators ¹  hanged on a gallows. ²  It was then recorded in the daily chronicles in the king’s presence.

Esther 6:1

The Turning Point: The King Honors Mordecai

6:1 Throughout that night the king was unable to sleep, ³  so he asked for the book containing the historical records ⁴  to be brought. As the records ⁵  were being read in the king’s presence,

Job 19:23-25

Job’s Assurance of Vindication

19:23 “O that ⁶  my words were written down,

O that they were written on a scroll, ⁷ 

19:24 that with an iron chisel and with lead ⁸ 

they were engraved in a rock forever!

19:25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer ⁹  lives,

and that as the last ¹⁰ 

he will stand upon the earth. ¹¹ 

Psalms 56:8

56:8 You keep track of my misery. ¹² 

Put my tears in your leather container! ¹³ 

Are they not recorded in your scroll? ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 65:6

65:6 Look, I have decreed: ¹⁵ 

I will not keep silent, but will pay them back;

I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, ¹⁶ 

Daniel 7:10

7:10 A river of fire was streaming forth

and proceeding from his presence.

Many thousands were ministering to him;

Many tens of thousands stood ready to serve him. ¹⁷ 

The court convened ¹⁸ 

and the books were opened.

Matthew 12:35-37

12:35 The good person ¹⁹  brings good things out of his ²⁰  good treasury, ²¹  and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury. 12:36 I ²²  tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 12:37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Revelation 20:12

20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then ²³  books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. ²⁴  So ²⁵  the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. ²⁶ 

[2:23]  ¹ tn Heb “they both were hanged.” The referent (the two eunuchs who conspired against the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ² tn Or “on a pole”; KJV, ASV “on a tree.”

[6:1]  ³ tn Heb “and the sleep of the king fled.” In place of the rather innocuous comment of the Hebrew text, the LXX reads here, “And the Lord removed the sleep from the king.” The Greek text thus understands the statement in a more overtly theological way than does the Hebrew text, although even in the Hebrew text there may be a hint of God’s providence at work in this matter. After all, this event is crucial to the later reversal of Haman’s plot to destroy the Jewish people, and a sympathetic reader is likely to look beyond the apparent coincidence.

[6:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “the book of the remembrances of the accounts of the days”; NAB “the chronicle of notable events.”

[6:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the records) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:23]  ⁶ tn The optative is again expressed with the interrogative clause “Who will give that they be written?” Job wishes that his words be preserved long after his death.

[19:23]  ⁷ tn While the sense of this line is clear, there is a small problem and a plausible solution. The last word is indeed סֶפֶר (sefer, “book”), usually understood here to mean “scroll.” But the verb that follows it in the verse is יֻחָקוּ (yukhaqu), from חָקַק (khaqaq, “to engrave; to carve”). While the meaning is clearly that Job wants his words to be retained, the idea of engraving in a book, although not impossible, is unusual. And so many have suggested that the Akkadian word siparru, “copper; brass,” is what is meant here (see Isa 30:8; Judg 5:14). The consonants are the same, and the vowel pattern is close to the original vowel pattern of this segholate noun. Writing on copper or bronze sheets has been attested from the 12th to the 2nd centuries, notably in the copper scroll, which would allow the translation “scroll” in our text (for more bibliography see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 432). But H. S. Gehman notes that in Phoenician our word can mean “inscription” (“SEÝFER, an inscription, in the book of Job,” JBL 63 [1944]: 303-7), making the proposed substitution unnecessary.

[19:24]  ⁸ sn There is some question concerning the use of the lead. It surely cannot be a second description of the tool, for a lead tool would be of no use in chiseling words into a rock. It was Rashi’s idea, followed by Dillmann and Duhm, that lead was run into the cut-out letters. The suggestion that they wrote on lead tablets does not seem to fit the verse (cf. NIV). See further A. Baker, “The Strange Case of Job’s Chisel,” CBQ 31 (1969): 370-79.

[19:25]  ⁹ tn Or “my Vindicator.” The word is the active participle from גָּאַל (ga’al, “to redeem, protect, vindicate”). The word is well-known in the OT because of its identification as the kinsman-redeemer (see the Book of Ruth). This is the near kinsman who will pay off one’s debts, defend the family, avenge a killing, marry the widow of the deceased. The word “redeemer” evokes the wrong connotation for people familiar with the NT alone; a translation of “Vindicator” would capture the idea more. The concept might include the description of the mediator already introduced in Job 16:19, but surely here Job is thinking of God as his vindicator. The interesting point to be stressed here is that Job has said clearly that he sees no vindication in this life, that he is going to die. But he knows he will be vindicated, and even though he will die, his vindicator lives. The dilemma remains though: his distress lay in God’s hiding his face from him, and his vindication lay only in beholding God in peace.

[19:25]  ¹⁰ tn The word אַחֲרוּן (’akharon, “last”) has triggered a good number of interpretations. Here it is an adjectival form and not adverbial; it is an epithet of the vindicator. Some commentators, followed by the RSV, change the form to make it adverbial, and translate it “at last.” T. H. Gaster translates it “even if he were the last person to exist” (“Short notes,” VT 4 [1954]: 78).

[19:25]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew has “and he will rise/stand upon [the] dust.” The verb קוּם (qum) is properly “to rise; to arise,” and certainly also can mean “to stand.” Both English ideas are found in the verb. The concept here is that of God rising up to mete out justice. And so to avoid confusion with the idea of resurrection (which although implicit in these words which are pregnant with theological ideas yet to be revealed, is not explicitly stated or intended in this context) the translation “stand” has been used. The Vulgate had “I will rise,” which introduced the idea of Job’s resurrection. The word “dust” is used as in 41:33. The word “dust” is associated with death and the grave, the very earthly particles. Job assumes that God will descend from heaven to bring justice to the world. The use of the word also hints that this will take place after Job has died and returned to dust. Again, the words of Job come to mean far more than he probably understood.

[56:8]  ¹² tn Heb “my wandering you count, you.” The Hebrew term נֹד (nod, “wandering,” derived from the verbal root נוֹד, nod, “to wander”; cf. NASB) here refers to the psalmist’s “changeable circumstances of life” and may be translated “misery.” The verb סָפַר (safar, “count”) probably carries the nuance “assess” here. Cf. NIV “my lament”; NRSV “my tossings.”

[56:8]  ¹³ tn Traditionally “your bottle.” Elsewhere the Hebrew word נֹאד (no’d, “leather container”) refers to a container made from animal skin which is used to hold wine or milk (see Josh 9:4, 13; Judg 4:19; 1 Sam 16:20). If such a container is metaphorically in view here, then the psalmist seems to be asking God to store up his tears as a reminder of his suffering.

[56:8]  ¹⁴ tn The word “recorded” is supplied in the translation for clarification. The rhetorical question assumes a positive response (see the first line of the verse).

[65:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Look, it is written before me.”

[65:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will pay back into their lap.”

[7:10]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “were standing before him.”

[7:10]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “judgment sat.”

[12:35]  ¹⁹ tn The Greek text reads here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos). The term is generic referring to any person.

[12:35]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here and in the following clause (“his evil treasury”) as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[12:35]  ²¹ sn The treasury here is a metaphorical reference to a person’s heart (cf. BDAG 456 s.v. θησαυρός 1.b and the parallel passage in Luke 6:45).

[12:36]  ²² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:12]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[20:12]  ²⁴ tn Grk “another book was opened, which is of life.”

[20:12]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the books being opened.

[20:12]  ²⁶ tn Grk “from the things written in the books according to their works.”