Genesis 6:5

6:5 But the Lord saw ¹  that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination ²  of the thoughts ³  of their minds ⁴  was only evil ⁵  all the time. ⁶ 

Genesis 8:21

8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma ⁷  and said ⁸  to himself, ⁹  “I will never again curse ¹⁰  the ground because of humankind, even though ¹¹  the inclination of their minds ¹²  is evil from childhood on. ¹³  I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

Proverbs 4:23

4:23 Guard your heart with all vigilance, ¹⁴ 

for from it are the sources ¹⁵  of life.

Proverbs 6:14

6:14 he plots evil with perverse thoughts ¹⁶  in his heart,

he spreads contention ¹⁷  at all times.

Proverbs 22:15

22:15 Folly is bound up ¹⁸  in the heart of a child, ¹⁹ 

but the rod of discipline ²⁰  will drive it far from him.

Proverbs 24:9

24:9 A foolish scheme ²¹  is sin,

and the scorner is an abomination to people. ²² 

Jeremiah 17:9

17:9 The human mind is more deceitful than anything else.

It is incurably bad. ²³  Who can understand it?

Mark 7:21-23

7:21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 7:22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. 7:23 All these evils come from within and defile a person.”

Romans 3:10-19

3:10 just as it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one,

3:11 there is no one who understands,

there is no one who seeks God.

3:12 All have turned away,

together they have become worthless;

there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” ²⁴ 

3:13 “Their throats are open graves, ²⁵ 

they deceive with their tongues,

the poison of asps is under their lips.” ²⁶ 

3:14 “Their mouths are ²⁷  full of cursing and bitterness.” ²⁸ 

3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,

3:16 ruin and misery are in their paths,

3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.” ²⁹ 

3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ³⁰ 

3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under ³¹  the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Romans 7:18

7:18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. ³² 

Romans 8:7-8

8:7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Galatians 5:19-21

5:19 Now the works of the flesh ³³  are obvious: ³⁴  sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, ³⁵  hostilities, ³⁶  strife, ³⁷  jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, ³⁸  factions, 5:21 envying, ³⁹  murder, ⁴⁰  drunkenness, carousing, ⁴¹  and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

Ephesians 2:1-3

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ⁴²  dead ⁴³  in your transgressions and sins, 2:2 in which ⁴⁴  you formerly lived ⁴⁵  according to this world’s present path, ⁴⁶  according to the ruler of the kingdom ⁴⁷  of the air, the ruler of ⁴⁸  the spirit ⁴⁹  that is now energizing ⁵⁰  the sons of disobedience, ⁵¹  2:3 among whom ⁵²  all of us ⁵³  also ⁵⁴  formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath ⁵⁵  even as the rest… ⁵⁶ 

Titus 3:2-6

3:2 They must not slander ⁵⁷  anyone, but be peaceable, gentle, showing complete courtesy to all people. 3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another. 3:4 ⁵⁸  But “when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 3:5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 3:6 whom he poured out on us in full measure ⁵⁹  through Jesus Christ our Savior.

[6:5]  ¹ sn The Hebrew verb translated “saw” (רָאָה, ra’ah), used here of God’s evaluation of humankind’s evil deeds, contrasts with God’s evaluation of creative work in Gen 1, when he observed that everything was good.

[6:5]  ² tn The noun יֵצֶר (yetser) is related to the verb יָצָר (yatsar, “to form, to fashion [with a design]”). Here it refers to human plans or intentions (see Gen 8:21; 1 Chr 28:9; 29:18). People had taken their God-given capacities and used them to devise evil. The word יֵצֶר (yetser) became a significant theological term in Rabbinic literature for what might be called the sin nature – the evil inclination (see also R. E. Murphy, “Yeser in the Qumran Literature,” Bib 39 [1958]: 334-44).

[6:5]  ³ tn The related verb הָשָׁב (hashav) means “to think, to devise, to reckon.” The noun (here) refers to thoughts or considerations.

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “his heart” (referring to collective “humankind”). The Hebrew term לֵב (lev, “heart”) frequently refers to the seat of one’s thoughts (see BDB 524 s.v. לֵב). In contemporary English this is typically referred to as the “mind.”

[6:5]  ⁵ sn Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil. There is hardly a stronger statement of the wickedness of the human race than this. Here is the result of falling into the “knowledge of good and evil”: Evil becomes dominant, and the good is ruined by the evil.

[6:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the day.”

[8:21]  ⁷ tn The Lord “smelled” (וַיָּרַח, vayyarakh) a “soothing smell” (רֵיחַ הַנִּיהֹחַ, reakh hannihoakh). The object forms a cognate accusative with the verb. The language is anthropomorphic. The offering had a sweet aroma that pleased or soothed. The expression in Lev 1 signifies that God accepts the offering with pleasure, and in accepting the offering he accepts the worshiper.

[8:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the Lord said.”

[8:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[8:21]  ¹⁰ tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.

[8:21]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.

[8:21]  ¹² tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”

[8:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “from his youth.”

[4:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “more than all guarding.” This idiom means “with all vigilance.” The construction uses the preposition מִן (min) to express “above; beyond,” the word “all” and the noun “prison; guard; act of guarding.” The latter is the use here (BDB 1038 s.v. מִשְׁמָר).

[4:23]  ¹⁵ sn The word תּוֹצְאוֹת (tots’ot, from יָצָא, yatsa’) means “outgoings; extremities; sources.” It is used here for starting points, like a fountainhead, and so the translation “sources” works well.

[6:14]  ¹⁶ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of manner, explaining the circumstances that inform his evil plans.

[6:14]  ¹⁷ tn The word “contention” is from the root דִּין (din); the noun means “strife, contention, quarrel.” The normal plural form is represented by the Qere, and the contracted form by the Kethib.

[22:15]  ¹⁸ sn The passive participle is figurative (implied comparison with “binding”); it means that folly forms part of a child’s nature (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 238).

[22:15]  ¹⁹ tn The “heart of a child” (לֶב־נָעַר, lev-na’ar) refers here to the natural inclination of a child to foolishness. The younger child is meant in this context, but the word can include youth. R. N. Whybray suggests that this idea might be described as a doctrine of “original folly” (Proverbs [CBC], 125). Cf. TEV “Children just naturally do silly, careless things.”

[22:15]  ²⁰ tn The word “rod” is a metonymy of adjunct; it represents physical chastening for direction or punishment, to suppress folly and develop potential. The genitive (“discipline”) may be taken as an attributive genitive (“a chastening rod”) or an objective genitive, (“a rod [= punishment] that brings about correction/discipline”).

[24:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “the scheme of folly” (NIV similar). The genitive functions as an attributive genitive, meaning “foolish scheme.” But it could also be interpreted as a genitive of source, the scheme that comes from folly (or from the fool if “folly” were metonymical).

[24:9]  ²² tn Heb “to a man”; cf. CEV “Everyone hates senseless fools.”

[17:9]  ²³ tn Or “incurably deceitful”; Heb “It is incurable.” For the word “deceitful” compare the usage of the verb in Gen 27:36 and a related noun in 2 Kgs 10:19. For the adjective “incurable” compare the usage in Jer 15:18. It is most commonly used with reference to wounds or of pain. In Jer 17:16 it is used metaphorically for a “woeful day” (i.e., day of irreparable devastation).

[3:12]  ²⁴ sn Verses 10-12 are a quotation from Ps 14:1-3.

[3:13]  ²⁵ tn Grk “their throat is an opened grave.”

[3:13]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Pss 5:9; 140:3.

[3:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “whose mouth is.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:14]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Ps 10:7.

[3:17]  ²⁹ sn Rom 3:15-17 is a quotation from Isa 59:7-8.

[3:18]  ³⁰ sn A quotation from Ps 36:1.

[3:19]  ³¹ tn Grk “in,” “in connection with.”

[7:18]  ³² tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”

[5:19]  ³³ tn See the note on the word “flesh” in Gal 5:13.

[5:19]  ³⁴ tn Or “clear,” “evident.”

[5:20]  ³⁵ tn Or “witchcraft.”

[5:20]  ³⁶ tn Or “enmities,” “[acts of] hatred.”

[5:20]  ³⁷ tn Or “discord” (L&N 39.22).

[5:20]  ³⁸ tn Or “discord(s)” (L&N 39.13).

[5:21]  ³⁹ tn This term is plural in Greek (as is “murder” and “carousing”), but for clarity these abstract nouns have been translated as singular.

[5:21]  ⁴⁰ tc ‡ φόνοι (fonoi, “murders”) is absent in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א B 33 81 323 945 pc sa, while the majority of mss (A C D F G Ψ 0122 0278 1739 1881 Ï lat) have the word. Although the pedigree of the mss which lack the term is of the highest degree, homoioteleuton may well explain the shorter reading. The preceding word has merely one letter difference, making it quite possible to overlook this term (φθόνοι φόνοι, fqonoi fonoi).

[5:21]  ⁴¹ tn Or “revelings,” “orgies” (L&N 88.287).

[2:1]  ⁴² tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ⁴³ sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.

[2:2]  ⁴⁴ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

[2:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “walked.”

[2:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

[2:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

[2:2]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

[2:2]  ⁴⁹ sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

[2:2]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “working in.”

[2:2]  ⁵¹ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.

[2:3]  ⁵² sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).

[2:3]  ⁵³ tn Grk “we all.”

[2:3]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “even.”

[2:3]  ⁵⁵ sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”

[2:3]  ⁵⁶ sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.

[3:2]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “discredit,” “damage the reputation of.”

[3:4]  ⁵⁸ tn Verses 4-7 are set as poetry in NA²⁶/NA²⁷. These verses probably constitute the referent of the expression “this saying” in v. 8.

[3:6]  ⁵⁹ tn Or “on us richly.”