Genesis 22:12

22:12 “Do not harm the boy!” ¹  the angel said. ²  “Do not do anything to him, for now I know ³  that you fear ⁴  God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.”

Genesis 22:1

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22:1 Some time after these things God tested ⁵  Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham ⁶  replied.

Genesis 18:3

18:3 He said, “My lord, ⁷  if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by and leave your servant. ⁸ 

Nehemiah 7:2

7:2 I then put in charge over Jerusalem ⁹  my brother Hanani and Hananiah ¹⁰  the chief of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many do.

Psalms 103:11

103:11 For as the skies are high above the earth,

so his loyal love towers ¹¹  over his faithful followers. ¹² 

Psalms 103:17

103:17 But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, ¹³ 

and is faithful to their descendants, ¹⁴ 

Psalms 112:1-2

Psalm 112 ¹⁵ 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ¹⁶  who obeys ¹⁷  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ¹⁸ 

112:2 His descendants ¹⁹  will be powerful on the earth;

the godly ²⁰  will be blessed.

Psalms 115:13

115:13 He will bless his loyal followers, ²¹ 

both young and old. ²² 

Psalms 147:11

147:11 The Lord takes delight in his faithful followers, ²³ 

and in those who wait for his loyal love.

Ecclesiastes 8:12

8:12 Even though a sinner might commit a hundred crimes ²⁴  and still live a long time, ²⁵ 

yet I know that it will go well with God-fearing people ²⁶  – for they stand in fear ²⁷  before him.

Ecclesiastes 12:13

12:13 Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: ²⁸ 

Fear God and keep his commandments,

because this is the whole duty ²⁹  of man.

Malachi 3:16

3:16 Then those who respected ³⁰  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ³¹  A scroll ³²  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

Malachi 4:2

4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ³³  will rise with healing wings, ³⁴  and you will skip about ³⁵  like calves released from the stall.

Acts 13:26

13:26 Brothers, ³⁶  descendants ³⁷  of Abraham’s family, ³⁸  and those Gentiles among you who fear God, ³⁹  the message ⁴⁰  of this salvation has been sent to us.

Revelation 15:4

15:4 Who will not fear you, O Lord,

and glorify ⁴¹  your name, because you alone are holy? ⁴² 

All nations ⁴³  will come and worship before you

for your righteous acts ⁴⁴  have been revealed.”

Revelation 19:5

19:5 Then ⁴⁵  a voice came from the throne, saying:

“Praise our God

all you his servants,

and all you who fear Him,

both the small and the great!”

[22:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Do not extend your hand toward the boy.”

[22:12]  ² tn Heb “and he said, ‘Do not extend…’”; the referent (the angel) has been specified in the context for clarity. The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[22:12]  ³ sn For now I know. The test was designed to see if Abraham would be obedient (see v. 1).

[22:12]  ⁴ sn In this context fear refers by metonymy to obedience that grows from faith.

[22:1]  ⁵ sn The Hebrew verb used here means “to test; to try; to prove.” In this passage God tests Abraham to see if he would be obedient. See T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 44-48. See also J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (OBT), 9-30; and J. I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham,” GTJ 1 (1980): 19-35.

[22:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:3]  ⁷ tc The MT has the form אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Master”) which is reserved for God. This may reflect later scribal activity. The scribes, knowing it was the Lord, may have put the proper pointing with the word instead of the more common אֲדֹנִי (’adoni, “my master”).

[18:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “do not pass by from upon your servant.”

[7:2]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[7:2]  ¹⁰ tn Some have suggested that “Hananiah” is another name for Hanani, Nehemiah’s brother, so that only one individual is mentioned here. However, the third person plural in v. 3 indicates two people are in view.

[103:11]  ¹¹ tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.

[103:11]  ¹² tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[103:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “but the loyal love of the Lord [is] from everlasting to everlasting over those who fear him.”

[103:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and his righteousness to sons of sons.”

[112:1]  ¹⁵ sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[112:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[112:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “His seed will be mighty on the earth, the generation of the godly.” The Hebrew term דוֹר (dor, “generation”) could be taken as parallel to “offspring” and translated “posterity,” but the singular more likely refers to the godly as a class. See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.

[115:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “the fearers of the Lord.”

[115:13]  ²² tn Heb “the small along with the great.” The translation assumes that “small” and “great” here refer to age (see 2 Chr 15:13). Another option is to translate “both the insignificant and the prominent” (see Job 3:19; cf. NEB “high and low alike”).

[147:11]  ²³ tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[8:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “does evil one hundred [times].”

[8:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and prolongs his [life].”

[8:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “those who fear God.”

[8:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “they fear.”

[12:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “The end of the matter, everything having been heard.”

[12:13]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

[3:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

[3:16]  ³² sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12-15).

[4:2]  ³³ tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

[4:2]  ³⁴ sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

[4:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”

[13:26]  ³⁶ tn Grk “Men brothers,” but this is both awkward and unnecessary in English.

[13:26]  ³⁷ tn Grk “sons”

[13:26]  ³⁸ tn Or “race.”

[13:26]  ³⁹ tn Grk “and those among you who fear God,” but this is practically a technical term for the category called God-fearers, Gentiles who worshiped the God of Israel and in many cases kept the Mosaic law, but did not take the final step of circumcision necessary to become a proselyte to Judaism. See further K. G. Kuhn, TDNT 6:732-34, 743-44. Note how Paul includes God-fearing Gentiles as recipients of this promise.

[13:26]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “word.”

[15:4]  ⁴¹ tn Or “and praise.”

[15:4]  ⁴² sn Because you alone are holy. In the Greek text the sentence literally reads “because alone holy.” Three points can be made in connection with John’s language here: (1) Omitting the second person, singular verb “you are” lays stress on the attribute of God’s holiness. (2) The juxtaposition of alone with holy stresses the unique nature of God’s holiness and complete “otherness” in relationship to his creation. It is not just moral purity which is involved in the use of the term holy, though it certainly includes that. It is also the pervasive OT idea that although God is deeply involved in the governing of his creation, he is to be regarded as separate and distinct from it. (3) John’s use of the term holy is also intriguing since it is the term ὅσιος (Josios) and not the more common NT term ἅγιος (Jagios). The former term evokes images of Christ’s messianic status in early Christian preaching. Both Peter in Acts 2:27 and Paul in Acts 13:35 apply Psalm 16:10 (LXX) to Jesus, referring to him as the “holy one” (ὅσιος). It is also the key term in Acts 13:34 (Isa 55:3 [LXX]) where it refers to the “holy blessings” (i.e., forgiveness and justification) brought about through Jesus in fulfillment of Davidic promise. Thus, in Rev 15:3-4, when John refers to God as “holy,” using the term ὅσιος in a context where the emphasis is on both God and Christ, there might be an implicit connection between divinity and the Messiah. This is bolstered by the fact that the Lamb is referred to in other contexts as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (cf. 1:5; 17:14; 19:16 and perhaps 11:15; G. K. Beale, Revelation [NIGTC], 796-97).

[15:4]  ⁴³ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[15:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Or perhaps, “your sentences of condemnation.” On δικαίωμα (dikaiwma) in this context BDAG 249 s.v. 2. states, “righteous deed…δι᾿ ἑνὸς δικαιώματος (opp. παράπτωμα) Ro 5:18. – B 1:2 (cp. Wengst, Barnabas-brief 196, n.4); Rv 15:4 (here perh.= ‘sentence of condemnation’ [cp. Pla., Leg. 9, 864e; ins fr. Asia Minor: LBW 41, 2 [κατὰ] τὸ δι[καί]ωμα τὸ κυρω[θέν]= ‘acc. to the sentence which has become valid’]; difft. Wengst, s. above); 19:8.”

[19:5]  ⁴⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.