Exodus 23:25

23:25 You must serve ¹  the Lord your God, and he ²  will bless your bread and your water, ³  and I will remove sickness from your midst.

Exodus 23:2

23:2 “You must not follow a crowd ⁴  in doing evil things; ⁵  in a lawsuit you must not offer testimony that agrees with a crowd so as to pervert justice, ⁶ 

Exodus 20:5

20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, ⁷  for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous ⁸  God, responding to ⁹  the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations ¹⁰  of those who reject me, ¹¹ 

Job 5:18

5:18 For ¹²  he ¹³  wounds, ¹⁴  but he also bandages;

he strikes, but his hands also heal.

Psalms 41:3-4

41:3 The Lord supports ¹⁵  him on his sickbed;

you completely heal him from his illness. ¹⁶ 

41:4 As for me, I said: ¹⁷ 

“O Lord, have mercy on me!

Heal me, for I have sinned against you!

Psalms 103:3

103:3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,

who heals all your diseases, ¹⁸ 

Psalms 147:3

147:3 He heals ¹⁹  the brokenhearted,

and bandages their wounds.

Isaiah 57:18

57:18 I have seen their behavior, ²⁰ 

but I will heal them and give them rest,

and I will once again console those who mourn. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 8:22

8:22 There is still medicinal ointment ²²  available in Gilead!

There is still a physician there! ²³ 

Why then have my dear people ²⁴ 

not been restored to health? ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 33:6

33:6 But I will most surely ²⁶  heal the wounds of this city and restore it and its people to health. ²⁷  I will show them abundant ²⁸  peace and security.

Hosea 6:1

Superficial Repentance Breeds False Assurance of God’s Forgiveness

6:1 “Come on! Let’s return to the Lord!

He himself has torn us to pieces,

but he will heal us!

He has injured ²⁹  us,

but he will bandage our wounds!

James 5:11-16

5:11 Think of how we regard ³⁰  as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. ³¹  5:12 And above all, my brothers and sisters, ³²  do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall into judgment.

Prayer for the Sick

5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. 5:14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint ³³  him with oil in the name of the Lord. 5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up – and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ³⁴  5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ³⁵ 

[23:25]  ¹ tn The perfect tense, masculine plural, with vav (ו) consecutive is in sequence with the preceding: do not bow down to them, but serve Yahweh. It is then the equivalent of an imperfect of instruction or injunction.

[23:25]  ² tn The LXX reads “and I will bless” to make the verb conform with the speaker, Yahweh.

[23:25]  ³ sn On this unusual clause B. Jacob says that it is the reversal of the curse in Genesis, because the “bread and water” represent the field work and ground suitability for abundant blessing of provisions (Exodus, 734).

[23:2]  ⁴ tn The word רָבִּים (rabbim), here rendered “crowd,” is also used infrequently to refer to the “mighty,” people of importance in society (Job 35:9; cf. Lev 19:15).

[23:2]  ⁵ tn For any individual to join a group that is bent on acting wickedly would be a violation of the Law and would incur personal responsibility.

[23:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will not answer in a lawsuit to turn after the crowd to turn.” The form translated “agrees with” (Heb “to turn after”) is a Qal infinitive construct from נָטָה (natah); the same root is used at the end of the verse but as a Hiphil infinitive construct, “to pervert [justice].”

[20:5]  ⁷ tn The combination of these two verbs customarily refers to the worship of pagan deities (e.g., Deut 17:3: 30:17; Jer 8:2; see J. J. Stamm and M. E. Andrew, The Ten Commandments in Recent Research [SBT], 86). The first verb is לאֹ־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה (lo’ tishtakhaveh), now to be classified as a hishtaphel imperfect from חָוָה (khavah; BDB 1005 s.v. שׁחה), “to cause oneself to be low to the ground.” It is used of the true worship of God as well. The second verb is וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם (vÿlo’ to’ovdem). The two could be taken as a hendiadys: “you will not prostrate yourself to serve them.” In an interesting side comment U. Cassuto (Exodus, 242) offers an explanation of the spelling of the second verb: he suggests that it was spelled with the qamets khatuf vowel to show contempt for pagan worship, as if their conduct does not even warrant a correct spelling of the word “serve.” Gesenius says that the forms like this are anomalous, but he wonders if they were pointed as if the verb was a Hophal with the meaning “you shall not allow yourself to be brought to worship them” (GKC 161 §60.b). But this is unlikely.

[20:5]  ⁸ sn The word “jealous” is the same word often translated “zeal” or “zealous.” The word describes a passionate intensity to protect or defend something that is jeopardized. The word can also have the sense of “envy,” but in that case the object is out of bounds. God’s zeal or jealousy is to protect his people or his institutions or his honor. Yahweh’s honor is bound up with the life of his people.

[20:5]  ⁹ tn Verses 5 and 6 are very concise, and the word פָּקַד (paqad) is difficult to translate. Often rendered “visiting,” it might here be rendered “dealing with” in a negative sense or “punishing,” but it describes positive attention in 13:19. When used of God, it essentially means that God intervenes in the lives of people for blessing or for cursing. Some would simply translate the participle here as “punishing” the children for the sins of the fathers (cf. Lev 18:25; Isa 26:21; Jer 29:32; 36:31; Hos 1:4; Amos 3:2). That is workable, but may not say enough. The verse may indicate that those who hate Yahweh and do not keep his commandments will repeat the sins their fathers committed and suffer for them. Deut 24:16 says that individuals will die for their own sins and not their father’s sins (see also Deut 7:10 and Ezek 18). It may have more to do with patterns of sin being repeated from generation to generation; if the sin and the guilt were not fully developed in the one generation, then left unchecked they would develop and continue in the next. But it may also indicate that the effects of the sins of the fathers will be experienced in the following generations, especially in the case of Israel as a national entity (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 243). God is showing here that his ethical character is displayed in how he deals with sin and righteousness, all of which he describes as giving strong motivation for loyalty to him and for avoiding idolatry. There is a justice at work in the dealings of God that is not present in the pagan world.

[20:5]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew word for “generations” is not found in v. 5 or 6. The numbers are short for a longer expression, which is understood as part of the description of the children already mentioned (see Deut 7:9, where “generation” [דּוֹר, dor] is present and more necessary, since “children” have not been mentioned).

[20:5]  ¹¹ tn This is an important qualification to the principle. The word rendered “reject” is often translated “hate” and carries with it the idea of defiantly rejecting and opposing God and his word. Such people are doomed to carry on the sins of their ancestors and bear guilt with them.

[5:18]  ¹² sn Verses 18-23 give the reasons why someone should accept the chastening of God – the hand that wounds is the same hand that heals. But, of course, the lines do not apply to Job because his suffering is not due to divine chastening.

[5:18]  ¹³ tn The addition of the independent pronoun here makes the subject emphatic, as if to say, “For it is he who makes….”

[5:18]  ¹⁴ tn The imperfect verbs in this verse describe the characteristic activities of God; the classification as habitual imperfect fits the idea and is to be rendered with the English present tense.

[41:3]  ¹⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as jussive, continuing the prayer of v. 2, but the parallel line in v. 3b employs the perfect, suggesting that the psalmist is again speaking in the indicative mood (see v. 1b). The imperfect can be understood as future or as generalizing (see v. 1).

[41:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “all his bed you turn in his illness.” The perfect is used here in a generalizing sense (see v. 1) or in a rhetorical manner to emphasize that the healing is as good as done.

[41:4]  ¹⁷ sn In vv. 4-10 the psalmist recites the prayer of petition and lament he offered to the Lord.

[103:3]  ¹⁸ tn This relatively rare noun refers to deadly diseases (see Deut 29:22; Jer 14:18; 16:4; 2 Chr 21:19).

[147:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the one who heals.”

[57:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his ways” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); TEV “how they acted.”

[57:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “and I will restore consolation to him, to his mourners.”

[8:22]  ²² tn Heb “balm.” The more familiar “ointment” has been used in the translation, supplemented with the adjective “medicinal.”

[8:22]  ²³ tn Heb “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” In this context the questions are rhetorical and expect a positive answer, which is made explicit in the translation.

[8:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:22]  ²⁵ tn Or more clearly, “restored to spiritual health”; Heb “Why then has healing not come to my dear people?”

[33:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Behold I am healing.” For the usage of the particle “behold” indicating certainty see the translator’s note on 1:6. These are the great and hidden things that the Lord promised to reveal. The statements in v. 5 have been somewhat introductory. See the usage of הִנְנִי (hinni) after the introductory “Thus says the Lord” in Jer 32:28, 37.

[33:6]  ²⁷ sn Compare Jer 30:17. Jerusalem is again being personified and her political and spiritual well-being are again in view.

[33:6]  ²⁸ tn The meaning and text of this word is questioned by KBL 749 s.v. עֲתֶרֶת. However, KBL also emends both occurrences of the verb from which BDB 801 s.v. עֲתֶרֶת derives this noun. BDB is more likely correct in seeing this and the usage of the verb in Prov 27:6; Ezek 35:13 as Aramaic loan words from a root meaning to be rich (equivalent to the Hebrew עָשַׁר, ’ashar).

[6:1]  ²⁹ tn “has struck”; NRSV “struck down.”

[5:11]  ³⁰ tn Grk “Behold! We regard…”

[5:11]  ³¹ sn An allusion to Exod 34:6; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 102:13; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2.

[5:12]  ³² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[5:14]  ³³ tn Grk “anointing.”

[5:15]  ³⁴ tn Grk “it will be forgiven him.”

[5:16]  ³⁵ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”