Genesis 3:17-19

3:17 But to Adam ¹  he said,

“Because you obeyed ²  your wife

and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,

‘You must not eat from it,’

cursed is the ground ³  thanks to you; ⁴ 

in painful toil you will eat ⁵  of it all the days of your life.

3:18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

but you will eat the grain ⁶  of the field.

3:19 By the sweat of your brow ⁷  you will eat food

until you return to the ground, ⁸ 

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” ⁹ 

Psalms 90:3-11

90:3 You make mankind return ¹⁰  to the dust, ¹¹ 

and say, “Return, O people!”

90:4 Yes, ¹²  in your eyes a thousand years

are like yesterday that quickly passes,

or like one of the divisions of the nighttime. ¹³ 

90:5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” ¹⁴ 

In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up;

90:6 in the morning it glistens ¹⁵  and sprouts up;

at evening time it withers ¹⁶  and dries up.

90:7 Yes, ¹⁷  we are consumed by your anger;

we are terrified by your wrath.

90:8 You are aware of our sins; ¹⁸ 

you even know about our hidden sins. ¹⁹ 

90:9 Yes, ²⁰  throughout all our days we experience your raging fury; ²¹ 

the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh. ²² 

90:10 The days of our lives add up to seventy years, ²³ 

or eighty, if one is especially strong. ²⁴ 

But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. ²⁵ 

Yes, ²⁶  they pass quickly ²⁷  and we fly away. ²⁸ 

90:11 Who can really fathom the intensity of your anger? ²⁹ 

Your raging fury causes people to fear you. ³⁰ 

Proverbs 14:32

14:32 The wicked will be thrown down in his trouble, ³¹ 

but the righteous have refuge ³²  even in the threat of death. ³³ 

John 8:21

Where Jesus Came From and Where He is Going

8:21 Then Jesus ³⁴  said to them again, ³⁵  “I am going away, and you will look for me ³⁶  but will die in your sin. ³⁷  Where I am going you cannot come.”

John 8:24

8:24 Thus I told you ³⁸  that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, ³⁹  you will die in your sins.”

Romans 5:15

5:15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. ⁴⁰  For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, ⁴¹  how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!

Romans 5:17

5:17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, ⁴²  death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

Romans 6:23

6:23 For the payoff ⁴³  of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hebrews 9:27

9:27 And just as people ⁴⁴  are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment, ⁴⁵ 

[3:17]  ¹ tn Since there is no article on the word, the personal name is used, rather than the generic “the man” (cf. NRSV).

[3:17]  ² tn The idiom “listen to the voice of” often means “obey.” The man “obeyed” his wife and in the process disobeyed God.

[3:17]  ³ sn For the ground to be cursed means that it will no longer yield its bounty as the blessing from God had promised. The whole creation, Paul writes in Rom 8:22, is still groaning under this curse, waiting for the day of redemption.

[3:17]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase בַּעֲבוּרֶךָ (ba’avurekha) is more literally translated “on your account” or “because of you.” The idiomatic “thanks to you” in the translation tries to capture the point of this expression.

[3:17]  ⁵ sn In painful toil you will eat. The theme of eating is prominent throughout Gen 3. The prohibition was against eating from the tree of knowledge. The sin was in eating. The interrogation concerned the eating from the tree of knowledge. The serpent is condemned to eat the dust of the ground. The curse focuses on eating in a “measure for measure” justice. Because the man and the woman sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, God will forbid the ground to cooperate, and so it will be through painful toil that they will eat.

[3:18]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term עֵשֶׂב (’esev), when referring to human food, excludes grass (eaten by cattle) and woody plants like vines.

[3:19]  ⁷ tn The expression “the sweat of your brow” is a metonymy, the sweat being the result of painful toil in the fields.

[3:19]  ⁸ sn Until you return to the ground. The theme of humankind’s mortality is critical here in view of the temptation to be like God. Man will labor painfully to provide food, obviously not enjoying the bounty that creation promised. In place of the abundance of the orchard’s fruit trees, thorns and thistles will grow. Man will have to work the soil so that it will produce the grain to make bread. This will continue until he returns to the soil from which he was taken (recalling the creation in 2:7 with the wordplay on Adam and ground). In spite of the dreams of immortality and divinity, man is but dust (2:7), and will return to dust. So much for his pride.

[3:19]  ⁹ sn In general, the themes of the curse oracles are important in the NT teaching that Jesus became the cursed one hanging on the tree. In his suffering and death, all the motifs are drawn together: the tree, the sweat, the thorns, and the dust of death (see Ps 22:15). Jesus experienced it all, to have victory over it through the resurrection.

[90:3]  ¹⁰ tn In this context the shortened prefix form does not function as a preterite, but indicates what is typical of the world.

[90:3]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term דַּכָּא (daka’) carries the basic sense of “crushed.” Elsewhere it refers to those who are “crushed” in spirit or contrite of heart (see Ps 34:18; Isa 57:15). If one understands this nuance here, then v. 3 is observing that God leads mankind to repentance (the term שׁוּב, shuv, “return,” which appears twice in this verse, is sometimes used of repentance.) However, the following context laments mankind’s mortality and the brevity of life, so it is doubtful if v. 3 should be understood so positively. It is more likely that דַּכָּא here refers to “crushed matter,” that is, the dust that fills the grave (see HALOT 221 s.v. s.v. I דַּכָּא; BDB 194 s.v. דַּכָּא). In this case one may hear an echo of Gen 3:19.

[90:4]  ¹² tn Or “for.”

[90:4]  ¹³ sn The divisions of the nighttime. The ancient Israelites divided the night into distinct periods, or “watches.”

[90:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you bring them to an end [with] sleep.” The Hebrew verb זָרַם (zaram) has traditionally been taken to mean “flood” or “overwhelm” (note the Polel form of a root זרם in Ps 77:17, where the verb is used of the clouds pouring down rain). However, the verb form here is Qal, not Polel, and is better understood as a homonym meaning “to make an end [of life].” The term שֵׁנָה (shenah, “sleep”) can be taken as an adverbial accusative; it is a euphemism here for death (see Ps 76:5-6).

[90:6]  ¹⁵ tn Or “flourishes.” The verb is used of a crown shining in Ps 132:18. Perhaps here in Ps 90:6 it refers to the glistening of the grass in the morning dew.

[90:6]  ¹⁶ tn The Polel form of this verb occurs only here. Perhaps the form should be emended to a Qal (which necessitates eliminating the final lamed [ל] as dittographic). See Ps 37:2.

[90:7]  ¹⁷ tn Or “for.”

[90:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you set our sins in front of you.”

[90:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “what we have hidden to the light of your face.” God’s face is compared to a light or lamp that exposes the darkness around it.

[90:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “for.”

[90:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “all our days pass by in your anger.”

[90:9]  ²² tn Heb “we finish our years like a sigh.” In Ezek 2:10 the word הֶגֶה (hegeh) elsewhere refers to a grumbling or moaning sound. Here a brief sigh or moan is probably in view. If so, the simile pictures one’s lifetime as transient. Another option is that the simile alludes to the weakness that characteristically overtakes a person at the end of one’s lifetime. In this case the phrase could be translated, “we end our lives with a painful moan.”

[90:10]  ²³ tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”

[90:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”

[90:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רהב (“to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).

[90:10]  ²⁶ tn or “for.”

[90:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.

[90:10]  ²⁸ sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).

[90:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Who knows the strength of your anger?”

[90:11]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and like your fear [is] your raging fury.” Perhaps one should emend וּכְיִרְאָתְךְ (ukhyir’otekh, “and like your fear”) to יִרְאָתְךְ (yir’otkh, “your fear”), understanding a virtual dittography (אַפֶּךָ וּכְיִרְאָתְךְ, ’apekha ukhyir’otekh) to have occurred. In this case the psalmist asserts “your fear [is] your raging fury,” that is, your raging fury is what causes others to fear you. The suffix on “fear” is understood as objective.

[14:32]  ³¹ tn The prepositional phrase must be “in his time of trouble” (i.e., when catastrophe comes). Cf. CEV “In times of trouble the wicked are destroyed.” A wicked person has nothing to fall back on in such times.

[14:32]  ³² sn The righteous have hope in a just retribution – they have a place of safety even in death.

[14:32]  ³³ tc The LXX reads this as “in his integrity,” as if it were בְּתוּמּוֹ (bÿtumo) instead of “in his death” (בְּמוֹתוֹ, bÿmoto). The LXX is followed by some English versions (e.g., NAB “in his honesty,” NRSV “in their integrity,” and TEV “by their integrity”).

[8:21]  ³⁴ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:21]  ³⁵ tn The expression οὖν πάλιν (oun palin) indicates some sort of break in the sequence of events, but it is not clear how long. The author does not mention the interval between 8:12-20 and this next recorded dialogue. The feast of Tabernacles is past, and the next reference to time is 10:22, where the feast of the Dedication is mentioned. The interval is two months, and these discussions could have taken place at any time within that interval, as long as one assumes something of a loose chronological framework. However, if the material in the Fourth Gospel is arranged theologically or thematically, such an assumption would not apply.

[8:21]  ³⁶ tn Grk “you will seek me.”

[8:21]  ³⁷ tn The expression ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ὑμῶν ἀποθανεῖσθε (en th Jamartia Jumwn apoqaneisqe) is similar to an expression found in the LXX at Ezek 3:18, 20 and Prov 24:9. Note the singular of ἁμαρτία (the plural occurs later in v. 24). To die with one’s sin unrepented and unatoned would be the ultimate disaster to befall a person. Jesus’ warning is stern but to the point.

[8:24]  ³⁸ tn Grk “thus I said to you.”

[8:24]  ³⁹ tn Grk “unless you believe that I am.” In this context there is an implied predicate nominative (“he”) following the “I am” phrase. What Jesus’ hearers had to acknowledge is that he was who he claimed to be, i.e., the Messiah (cf. 20:31). This view is also reflected in English translations like NIV (“if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be”), NLT (“unless you believe that I am who I say I am”), and CEV (“if you don’t have faith in me for who I am”). For a different view that takes this “I am” and the one in 8:28 as nonpredicated (i.e., absolute), see R. E. Brown, John (AB), 1:533-38. Such a view refers sees the nonpredicated “I am” as a reference to the divine Name revealed in Exod 3:14, and is reflected in English translations like NAB (“if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins”) and TEV (“you will die in your sins if you do not believe that ‘I Am Who I Am’”).

[5:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “but not as the transgression, so also [is] the gracious gift.”

[5:15]  ⁴¹ sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

[5:17]  ⁴² sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

[6:23]  ⁴³ tn A figurative extension of ὀψώνιον (oywnion), which refers to a soldier’s pay or wages. Here it refers to the end result of an activity, seen as something one receives back in return. In this case the activity is sin, and the translation “payoff” captures this thought. See also L&N 89.42.

[9:27]  ⁴⁴ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[9:27]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “and after this – judgment.”