Genesis 20:11

20:11 Abraham replied, “Because I thought, ¹  ‘Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of ²  my wife.’

Genesis 42:18

42:18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do as I say ³  and you will live, ⁴  for I fear God. ⁵ 

Nehemiah 5:15

5:15 But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken food and wine from them, in addition to ⁶  forty shekels of silver. Their associates were also domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God.

Psalms 31:19

31:19 How great is your favor, ⁷ 

which you store up for your loyal followers! ⁸ 

In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter ⁹  in you. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 8:13

8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate ¹¹  evil;

I hate arrogant pride ¹²  and the evil way

and perverse utterances. ¹³ 

Proverbs 16:6

16:6 Through loyal love and truth ¹⁴  iniquity is appeased; ¹⁵ 

through fearing the Lord ¹⁶  one avoids ¹⁷  evil. ¹⁸ 

Proverbs 24:11-12

24:11 Deliver those being taken away to death,

and hold back those slipping to the slaughter. ¹⁹ 

24:12 If you say, “But we did not know about this,”

does not the one who evaluates ²⁰  hearts consider?

Does not the one who guards your life know?

Will he not repay each person according to his deeds? ²¹ 

Ecclesiastes 8:12

8:12 Even though a sinner might commit a hundred crimes ²²  and still live a long time, ²³ 

yet I know that it will go well with God-fearing people ²⁴  – for they stand in fear ²⁵  before him.

Ecclesiastes 12:13

12:13 Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: ²⁶ 

Fear God and keep his commandments,

because this is the whole duty ²⁷  of man.

Daniel 3:16-18

3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar, ²⁸  “We do not need to give you a reply ²⁹  concerning this. 3:17 If ³⁰  our God whom we are serving exists, ³¹  he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well. 3:18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”

Daniel 6:13

6:13 Then they said to the king, “Daniel, who is one of the captives ³²  from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the edict that you issued. Three times daily he offers his prayer.” ³³ 

Hosea 5:11

5:11 Ephraim will be oppressed, ³⁴  crushed ³⁵  under judgment, ³⁶ 

because he was determined to pursue worthless idols. ³⁷ 

Micah 6:16

6:16 You implement the regulations of Omri,

and all the practices of Ahab’s dynasty; ³⁸ 

you follow their policies. ³⁹ 

Therefore I will make you an appalling sight, ⁴⁰ 

the city’s ⁴¹  inhabitants will be taunted derisively, ⁴² 

and nations will mock all of you.” ⁴³ 

Matthew 10:28

10:28 Do ⁴⁴  not be afraid of those who kill the body ⁴⁵  but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ⁴⁶ 

Luke 12:5

12:5 But I will warn ⁴⁷  you whom you should fear: Fear the one who, after the killing, ⁴⁸  has authority to throw you ⁴⁹  into hell. ⁵⁰  Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Acts 4:19

4:19 But Peter and John replied, ⁵¹  “Whether it is right before God to obey ⁵²  you rather than God, you decide,

Acts 5:29

5:29 But Peter and the apostles replied, ⁵³  “We must obey ⁵⁴  God rather than people. ⁵⁵ 

[20:11]  ¹ tn Heb “Because I said.”

[20:11]  ² tn Heb “over the matter of.”

[42:18]  ³ tn Heb “Do this.”

[42:18]  ⁴ tn After the preceding imperative, the imperative with vav (ו) can, as here, indicate logical sequence.

[42:18]  ⁵ sn For I fear God. Joseph brings God into the picture to awaken his brothers’ consciences. The godly person cares about the welfare of people, whether they live or die. So he will send grain back, but keep one of them in Egypt. This action contrasts with their crime of selling their brother into slavery.

[5:15]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew term אַחַר (’akhar) is difficult here. It normally means “after,” but that makes no sense here. Some scholars emend it to אַחַד (’akhad) and supply the word “day,” which yields the sense “daily.” Cf. TEV “40 silver coins a day for food and wine.”

[31:19]  ⁷ tn Or “How abundant are your blessings!”

[31:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “for those who fear you.”

[31:19]  ⁹ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 34:21-22).

[31:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you work [your favor] for the ones seeking shelter in you before the sons of men.”

[8:13]  ¹¹ tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

[8:13]  ¹² tn Since both גֵּאָה (ge’ah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (ga’on, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (ga’ah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”

[8:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).

[16:6]  ¹⁴ sn These two words are often found together to form a nominal hendiadys: “faithful loyal love.” The couplet often characterize the Lord, but here in parallel to the fear of the Lord it refers to the faithfulness of the believer. Such faith and faithfulness bring atonement for sin.

[16:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “is atoned”; KJV “is purged”; NAB “is expiated.” The verb is from I כָּפַר (kafar, “to atone; to expiate; to pacify; to appease”; HALOT 493-94 s.v. I כפר). This root should not be confused with the identically spelled Homonym II כָּפַר (kafar, “to cover over”; HALOT 494 s.v. II *כפר). Atonement in the OT expiated sins, it did not merely cover them over (cf. NLT). C. H. Toy explains the meaning by saying it affirms that the divine anger against sin is turned away and man’s relation to God is as though he had not sinned (Proverbs [ICC], 322). Genuine repentance, demonstrated by loyalty and truthfulness, appeases the anger of God against one’s sin.

[16:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “fear of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as an objective genitive: “fearing the Lord.”

[16:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “turns away from”; NASB “keeps away from.”

[16:6]  ¹⁸ sn The Hebrew word translated “evil” (רַע, ra’) can in some contexts mean “calamity” or “disaster,” but here it seems more likely to mean “evil” in the sense of sin. Faithfulness to the Lord brings freedom from sin. The verse uses synonymous parallelism with a variant: One half speaks of atonement for sin because of the life of faith, and the other of avoidance of sin because of the fear of the Lord.

[24:11]  ¹⁹ tn The idea of “slipping” (participle from מוֹט, mot) has troubled some commentators. G. R. Driver emends it to read “at the point of” (“Problems in Proverbs,” ZAW 50 [1932]: 146). But the MT as it stands makes good sense. The reference would be general, viz., to help any who are in mortal danger or who might be tottering on the edge of such disaster – whether through sin, or through disease, war, or danger. Several English versions (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV) render this term as “staggering.”

[24:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “weighs” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV) meaning “tests” or “evaluates.”

[24:12]  ²¹ sn The verse completes the saying by affirming that people will be judged responsible for helping those in mortal danger. The verse uses a series of rhetorical questions to affirm that God knows our hearts and we cannot plead ignorance.

[8:12]  ²² tn Heb “does evil one hundred [times].”

[8:12]  ²³ tn Heb “and prolongs his [life].”

[8:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “those who fear God.”

[8:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “they fear.”

[12:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “The end of the matter, everything having been heard.”

[12:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “This is all men”; or “This is the whole of man.” The phrase זֶה כָּל־הָאָדָם (zeh kol-ha’adam, “this is all men”) features rhetorical elision of a key word. The ambiguity over the elided word has led to no less than five basic approaches: (1) “this is the whole duty of man” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NAB, NIV); (2) “this is the duty of all men” (MLB, ASV margin, RSV margin); (3) “this applies to all men” (NASB, NJPS); (4) “this is the whole duty of all men” (NRSV, Moffatt); and (5) “there is no more to man than this” (NEB). The four-fold repetition of כֹּל (kol, “all”) in 12:13-14 suggests that Qoheleth is emphasizing the “bottom line,” that is, the basic duty of man is simply to fear and obey God: After “all” (כֹּל) has been heard in the book, his conclusion is that the “whole” (כֹּל) duty of man is to obey God because God will bring “all” (כֹּל) acts into judgment, including “all” (כֹּל) that is hidden, whether good or bad. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:596.

[3:16]  ²⁸ tc In the MT this word is understood to begin the following address (“answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar’”). However, it seems unlikely that Nebuchadnezzar’s subordinates would address the king in such a familiar way, particularly in light of the danger that they now found themselves in. The present translation implies moving the atnach from “king” to “Nebuchadnezzar.”

[3:16]  ²⁹ tn Aram “to return a word to you.”

[3:17]  ³⁰ tc The ancient versions typically avoid the conditional element of v. 17.

[3:17]  ³¹ tn The Aramaic expression used here is very difficult to interpret. The question concerns the meaning and syntax of אִיתַי (’itay, “is” or “exist”). There are several possibilities. (1) Some interpreters take this word closely with the participle later in the verse יָכִל (yakhil, “able”), understanding the two words to form a periphrastic construction (“if our God is…able”; cf. H. Bauer and P. Leander, Grammatik des Biblisch-Aramäischen, 365, §111b). But the separation of the two elements from one another is not an argument in favor of this understanding. (2) Other interpreters take the first part of v. 17 to mean “If it is so, then our God will deliver us” (cf. KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB). However, the normal sense of ’itay is existence; on this point see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 45, §95. The present translation maintains the sense of existence for the verb (“If our God…exists”), even though the statement is admittedly difficult to understand in this light. The statement may be an implicit reference back to Nebuchadnezzar’s comment in v. 15, which denies the existence of a god capable of delivering from the king’s power.

[6:13]  ³² tn Aram “from the sons of the captivity [of].”

[6:13]  ³³ tn Aram “prays his prayer.”

[5:11]  ³⁴ tn The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”) may refer to (1) oppressing the poor and defenseless (BDB 798 s.v. עָשַׁק 1), or more likely to (2) oppression of one nation by another as the judgment of God (Deut 28:29, 33; 1 Chr 16:21; Pss 105:14; 119:121, 122; Isa 52:4; Jer 50:33; Hos 5:11; BDB 798 s.v. 2). The Qal passive participles עָשׁוּק (’ashuq, “oppressed”) and רְצוּץ (rÿtsuts, “crushed”) might refer to a present situation (so KJV, RSV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); however, the context suggests that they refer to a future situation (so NLT). When a participle is used in reference to the future, it often denotes an imminent future situation and may be rendered, “about to” (e.g., Gen 6:17; 15:14; 20:3; 37:30; 41:25; 49:29; Exod 9:17-18; Deut 28:31; 1 Sam 3:11; 1 Kgs 2:2; 20:22; 2 Kgs 7:2). For functions of the participle, see IBHS 627-28 §37.6f.

[5:11]  ³⁵ sn The term רְצוּץ (rÿtsuts, “crushed”) is a metaphor for weakness (e.g., 2 Kgs 18:21; Isa 36:6; 42:3) and oppression (e.g., Deut 28:33; 1 Sam 12:3, 4; Amos 4:1; Isa 58:6). Here it is used as a figure to describe the devastating effects of the Lord’s judgment.

[5:11]  ³⁶ tn Heb “crushed of judgment” (רְצוּץ מִשְׁפָּט, rÿtsuts mishpat). The second term is a genitive of cause (“crushed because of judgment” or “crushed under judgment”) rather than respect (“crushed in judgment,” as in many English versions).

[5:11]  ³⁷ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term translated “worthless idols” is uncertain; cf. KJV “the commandment”; NASB “man’s command”; NAB “filth”; NRSV “vanity.”

[6:16]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the edicts of Omri are kept, and all the deeds of the house of Ahab.”

[6:16]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and you walk in their plans.”

[6:16]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew term שַׁמָּה (shammah) can refer to “destruction; ruin,” or to the reaction it produces in those who witness the destruction.

[6:16]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “her”; the referent (the city) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:16]  ⁴² tn Heb “[an object] of hissing,” which was a way of taunting someone.

[6:16]  ⁴³ tc The translation assumes an emendation of the MT’s עַמִּי (’ammi, “my people”) to עַמִּים (’ammim, “nations”).

[10:28]  ⁴⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[10:28]  ⁴⁵ sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.

[10:28]  ⁴⁶ sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.

[12:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “will show,” but in this reflective context such a demonstration is a warning or exhortation.

[12:5]  ⁴⁸ sn The actual performer of the killing is not here specified. It could be understood to be God (so NASB, NRSV) but it could simply emphasize that, after a killing has taken place, it is God who casts the person into hell.

[12:5]  ⁴⁹ tn The direct object (“you”) is understood.

[12:5]  ⁵⁰ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

[4:19]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[4:19]  ⁵² tn Grk “hear,” but the idea of “hear and obey” or simply “obey” is frequently contained in the Greek verb ἀκούω (akouw; see L&N 36.14).

[5:29]  ⁵³ tn Grk “apostles answered and said.”

[5:29]  ⁵⁴ sn Obey. See 4:19. This response has Jewish roots (Dan 3:16-18; 2 Macc 7:2; Josephus, Ant. 17.6.3 [17.159].

[5:29]  ⁵⁵ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).