Exodus 23:26

23:26 No woman will miscarry her young ¹  or be barren in your land. I will fulfill ²  the number of your days.

Deuteronomy 7:13-14

7:13 He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, ³  with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you. 7:14 You will be blessed beyond all peoples; there will be no barrenness ⁴  among you or your livestock.

Deuteronomy 28:11

28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ⁵  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ⁶  promised your ancestors ⁷  he would give you.

Psalms 144:13-14

144:13 Our storehouses ⁸  will be full,

providing all kinds of food. ⁹ 

Our sheep will multiply by the thousands

and fill ¹⁰  our pastures. ¹¹ 

144:14 Our cattle will be weighted down with produce. ¹² 

No one will break through our walls,

no one will be taken captive,

and there will be no terrified cries in our city squares. ¹³ 

Ecclesiastes 9:1-2

Everyone Will Die

9:1 So I reflected on all this, ¹⁴  attempting to clear ¹⁵  it all up.

I concluded that ¹⁶  the righteous and the wise, as well as their works, are in the hand of God;

whether a person will be loved or hated ¹⁷  –

no one knows what lies ahead. ¹⁸ 

9:2 Everyone shares the same fate ¹⁹  –

the righteous and the wicked,

the good and the bad, ²⁰ 

the ceremonially clean and unclean,

those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

What happens to the good person, also happens to the sinner; ²¹ 

what happens to those who make vows, also happens to those who are afraid to make vows.

Luke 12:16-21

12:16 He then ²²  told them a parable: ²³  “The land of a certain rich man produced ²⁴  an abundant crop, 12:17 so ²⁵  he thought to himself, ²⁶  ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ ²⁷  12:18 Then ²⁸  he said, ‘I ²⁹  will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 12:19 And I will say to myself, ³⁰  “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’ 12:20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life ³¹  will be demanded back from ³²  you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ ³³  12:21 So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, ³⁴  but is not rich toward God.”

Luke 16:19

The Rich Man and Lazarus

16:19 “There was a rich man who dressed in purple ³⁵  and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously ³⁶  every day.

[23:26]  ¹ tn Or “abort”; Heb “cast.”

[23:26]  ² sn No one will die prematurely; this applies to the individual or the nation. The plan of God to bless was extensive, if only the people would obey.

[7:13]  ³ tn Heb “will bless the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[7:14]  ⁴ sn One of the ironies about the promises to the patriarchs concerning offspring was the characteristic barrenness of the wives of the men to whom these pledges were made (cf. Gen 11:30; 25:21; 29:31). Their affliction is in each case described by the very Hebrew word used here (עֲקָרָה, ’aqarah), an affliction that will no longer prevail in Canaan.

[28:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[144:13]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here.

[144:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “from kind to kind.” Some prefer to emend the text to מָזוֹן עַל מָזוֹן (mazon ’al mazon, “food upon food”).

[144:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they are innumerable.”

[144:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in outside places.” Here the term refers to pastures and fields (see Job 5:10; Prov 8:26).

[144:14]  ¹² tn Heb “weighted down.” This probably refers (1) to the cattle having the produce from the harvest placed on their backs to be transported to the storehouses (see BDB 687 s.v. סָבַל). Other options are (2) to take this as reference to the cattle being pregnant (see HALOT 741 s.v. סבל pu) or (3) to their being well-fed or fattened (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 288).

[144:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “there [will be] no breach, and there [will be] no going out, and there [will be] no crying out in our broad places.”

[9:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I laid all this to my heart.”

[9:1]  ¹⁵ tn The term וְלָבוּר (velavur, conjunction + Qal infinitive construct from בּוּר, bur, “to make clear”) denotes “to examine; to make clear; to clear up; to explain” (HALOT 116 s.v. בור; BDB 101 s.v. בּוּר). The term is related to Arabic baraw “to examine” (G. R. Driver, “Supposed Arabisms in the Old Testament,” JBL 55 [1936]: 108). This verb is related to the Hebrew noun בֹּר (bor, “cleanness”) and adjective בַּר (bar, “clean”). The term is used in the OT only in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:3; 7:25; 9:1). This use of the infinitive has a connotative sense (“attempting to”), and functions in a complementary sense, relative to the main verb.

[9:1]  ¹⁶ tn The words “I concluded that” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “whether love or hatred.”

[9:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “man does not know anything before them.”

[9:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all things just as to everyone, one fate.”

[9:2]  ²⁰ tc The MT reads simply “the good,” but the Greek versions read “the good and the bad.” In contrast to the other four pairs in v. 2 (“the righteous and the wicked,” “those who sacrifice, and those who do not sacrifice,” “the good man…the sinner,” and “those who make vows…those who are afraid to make vows”), the MT has a triad in the second line: לַטּוֹב וְלַטָּהוֹר וְלַטָּמֵא (lattov vÿlattahor vÿlattame’, “the good, and the clean, and the unclean”). This reading in the Leningrad Codex (ca. a.d. 1008) – the basis of the BHS and BHK publications of the MT – is also supported by the Ben Asher text of the First Rabbinic Bible (“the Soncino Bible”) published in a.d. 1488-94. On the other hand, the Greek version in B (Aquila) has two pairs: τῷ ἀγαθῷ καὶ τῷ κακῷ, καὶ τῷ καθαρῷ καὶ τῷ ἀκαθάρτῳ (“the good and the bad, and the clean and the unclean”). Either Aquila inserted καὶ τῷ κακῷ (kai tw kakw, “and the bad”) to fill out a pair and to create six parallel pairs in v. 2, or Aquila reflects an early Hebrew textual tradition tradition of לַטּוֹב וְלַרָע (lattov vÿlara’, “the good and the bad”). Since Aquila is well known for his commitment to a literal – at times even a mechanically wooden – translation of the Hebrew, with no room for improvisation, it is more than likely that Aquila is reflecting an authentic Hebrew textual tradition. Aquila dates to a.d. 130, while the Leningrad Codex dates to a.d. 1008; therefore, the Vorlage of Aquila might have been the original Hebrew textual tradition, being much earlier than the MT of the Leningrad Codex. The alternate textual tradition of Aquila is also seen in the Syriac and Latin versions (but these are dependent upon the Greek = Aquila). On the other hand, the editors of BHK and BHS suggest that the presence of the anomalous לַטּוֹב was an addition to the Hebrew text, and should be deleted. They also suggest that the Greek pair τῷ ἀγαθῷ καὶ τῷ κακῷ (tw agaqw kai tw kakw, “the good and the bad”) does not reflect an alternate textual tradition, but that their Vorlage contained only לַטּוֹב: the Greek version intentionally added καὶ τῷ κακῷ (kai tw kakw, “and the bad”) to create a pair. The English versions are divided. Several follow the Greek: “the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean” (NEB, NAB, RSV, NRSV, NIV, Moffatt, NLT). Others follow the Hebrew: “the good and the clean and the unclean” (KJV, ASV, MLB, NJPS). None, however, delete “the good” (לַטּוֹב) as suggested by the BHK and BHS editors. If the shorter text were original, the addition of καὶ τῷ κακῷ would be intentional. If the longer text were original, the omission of וְלַרָע (“and the bad”) could have caused by unintentional homoioarcton (“similar beginning”) in the three-fold repetition of לט in וְלַרָע וְלַטָּהוֹר וְלַטָּמֵא לַטּוֹב (lattov vÿlara’ vÿlattahor vÿlattame’, “the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean”). The term וְלַרָע (“and the bad”) was accidentally omitted when a scribe skipped from the first occurrence of לט in לַטּוֹב to its second occurrence in the word וְלַטָּהוֹר (“the clean”).

[9:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “As is the good (man), so is the sinner.”

[12:16]  ²² tn Grk “And he.” Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the connection to the preceding statement.

[12:16]  ²³ tn Grk “a parable, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.

[12:16]  ²⁴ tn Or “yielded a plentiful harvest.”

[12:17]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that this is a result of the preceding statement.

[12:17]  ²⁶ tn Grk “to himself, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.

[12:17]  ²⁷ sn I have nowhere to store my crops. The thinking here is prudent in terms of recognizing the problem. The issue in the parable will be the rich man’s solution, particularly the arrogance reflected in v. 19.

[12:18]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[12:18]  ²⁹ sn Note how often the first person pronoun is present in these verses. The farmer is totally self absorbed.

[12:19]  ³⁰ tn Grk “to my soul,” which is repeated as a vocative in the following statement, but is left untranslated as redundant.

[12:20]  ³¹ tn Grk “your soul,” but ψυχή (yuch) is frequently used of one’s physical life. It clearly has that meaning in this context.

[12:20]  ³² tn Or “required back.” This term, ἀπαιτέω (apaitew), has an economic feel to it and is often used of a debt being called in for repayment (BDAG 96 s.v. 1).

[12:20]  ³³ tn Grk “the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” The words “for yourself” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[12:21]  ³⁴ sn It is selfishness that is rebuked here, in the accumulation of riches for himself. Recall the emphasis on the first person pronouns throughout the parable.

[16:19]  ³⁵ sn Purple describes a fine, expensive dye used on luxurious clothing, and by metonymy, refers to clothing colored with that dye. It pictures someone of great wealth.

[16:19]  ³⁶ tn Or “celebrated with ostentation” (L&N 88.255), that is, with showing off. Here was the original conspicuous consumer.