Genesis 23:4

23:4 “I am a temporary settler ¹  among you. Grant ²  me ownership ³  of a burial site among you so that I may ⁴  bury my dead.” ⁵ 

Genesis 47:9

47:9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, “All ⁶  the years of my travels ⁷  are 130. All ⁸  the years of my life have been few and painful; ⁹  the years of my travels are not as long as those of my ancestors.” ¹⁰ 

Genesis 47:1

Joseph’s Wise Administration

47:1 Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father, my brothers, their flocks and herds, and all that they own have arrived from the land of

Canaan. They are now ¹¹  in the land of Goshen.”

Genesis 29:14-15

29:14 Then Laban said to him, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” ¹²  So Jacob ¹³  stayed with him for a month. ¹⁴ 

29:15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Should you work ¹⁵  for me for nothing because you are my relative? ¹⁶  Tell me what your wages should be.”

Psalms 39:12

39:12 Hear my prayer, O Lord!

Listen to my cry for help!

Do not ignore my sobbing! ¹⁷ 

For I am dependent on you, like one residing outside his native land;

I am at your mercy, just as all my ancestors were. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 119:19

119:19 I am like a foreigner in this land. ¹⁹ 

Do not hide your commands from me!

Psalms 119:1

Psalm 119 ²⁰ 

א (Alef)

119:1 How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, ²¹ 

who obey ²²  the law of the Lord.

Psalms 1:1

Book 1
(Psalms 1-41)

Psalm 1 ²³ 

1:1 How blessed ²⁴  is the one ²⁵  who does not follow ²⁶  the advice ²⁷  of the wicked, ²⁸ 

or stand in the pathway ²⁹  with sinners,

or sit in the assembly ³⁰  of scoffers! ³¹ 

Psalms 2:11

2:11 Serve ³²  the Lord in fear!

Repent in terror! ³³ 

[23:4]  ¹ tn Heb “a resident alien and a settler.”

[23:4]  ² tn Heb “give,” which is used here as an idiom for “sell” (see v. 9). The idiom reflects the polite bartering that was done in the culture at the time.

[23:4]  ³ tn Or “possession.”

[23:4]  ⁴ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction expresses purpose.

[23:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “bury my dead out of my sight.” The last phrase “out of my sight” has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[47:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “the days of.”

[47:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “sojournings.” Jacob uses a term that depicts him as one who has lived an unsettled life, temporarily residing in many different places.

[47:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “the days of.”

[47:9]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew word רַע (ra’) can sometimes mean “evil,” but that would give the wrong connotation here, where it refers to pain, difficulty, and sorrow. Jacob is thinking back through all the troubles he had to endure to get to this point.

[47:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they have not reached the days of the years of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.”

[47:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Look they [are] in the land of Goshen.” Joseph draws attention to the fact of their presence in Goshen.

[29:14]  ¹² tn Heb “indeed, my bone and my flesh are you.” The expression sounds warm enough, but the presence of “indeed” may suggest that Laban had to be convinced of Jacob’s identity before permitting him to stay. To be one’s “bone and flesh” is to be someone’s blood relative. For example, the phrase describes the relationship between Abimelech and the Shechemites (Judg 9:2; his mother was a Shechemite); David and the Israelites (2 Sam 5:1); David and the elders of Judah (2 Sam 19:12,); and David and his nephew Amasa (2 Sam 19:13, see 2 Sam 17:2; 1 Chr 2:16-17).

[29:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a month of days.”

[29:15]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is the perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; the nuance in the question is deliberative.

[29:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my brother.” The term “brother” is used in a loose sense; actually Jacob was Laban’s nephew.

[39:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “do not be deaf to my tears.”

[39:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “For a resident alien [am] I with you, a sojourner like all my fathers.”

[119:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I am a resident alien in the land.” Resident aliens were especially vulnerable and in need of help. They needed to know the social and legal customs of the land to avoid getting into trouble. The translation (note the addition of “like”) assumes the psalmist is speaking metaphorically, not literally.

[119:1]  ²⁰ sn Psalm 119. The psalmist celebrates God’s law and the guidance it provides his people. He expresses his desire to know God’s law thoroughly so that he might experience the blessings that come to those who obey it. This lengthy psalm exhibits an elaborate acrostic pattern. The psalm is divided into twenty-two sections (corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet), each of which is comprised of eight verses. Each of the verses in the first section (vv. 1-8) begins with the letter alef (א), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This pattern continues throughout the psalm as each new section highlights a successive letter of the alphabet. Each verse in section two (vv. 9-16) begins with the second letter of the alphabet, each verse in section three (vv. 17-24) with the third letter, etc. This rigid pattern creates a sense of order and completeness and may have facilitated memorization.

[119:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness of those who are blameless of way.”

[119:1]  ²² tn Heb “walk in.”

[1:1]  ²³ sn Psalm 1. In this wisdom psalm the author advises his audience to reject the lifestyle of the wicked and to be loyal to God. The psalmist contrasts the destiny of the wicked with that of the righteous, emphasizing that the wicked are eventually destroyed while the godly prosper under the Lord’s protective care.

[1:1]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see v. 3; Pss 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[1:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” (Generic “he” is employed in vv. 2-3). Since the godly man described in the psalm is representative of followers of God (note the plural form צַדִּיקִים [tsadiqim, “righteous, godly”] in vv. 5-6), one could translate the collective singular with the plural “those” both here and in vv. 2-3, where singular pronouns and verbal forms are utilized in the Hebrew text (cf. NRSV). However, here the singular form may emphasize that godly individuals are usually outnumbered by the wicked. Retaining the singular allows the translation to retain this emphasis.

[1:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “walk in.” The three perfect verbal forms in v. 1 refer in this context to characteristic behavior. The sequence “walk–stand–sit” envisions a progression from relatively casual association with the wicked to complete identification with them.

[1:1]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew noun translated “advice” most often refers to the “counsel” or “advice” one receives from others. To “walk in the advice of the wicked” means to allow their evil advice to impact and determine one’s behavior.

[1:1]  ²⁸ tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21).

[1:1]  ²⁹ tn “Pathway” here refers to the lifestyle of sinners. To “stand in the pathway of/with sinners” means to closely associate with them in their sinful behavior.

[1:1]  ³⁰ tn Here the Hebrew term מוֹשַׁב (moshav), although often translated “seat” (cf. NEB, NIV), appears to refer to the whole assembly of evildoers. The word also carries the semantic nuance “assembly” in Ps 107:32, where it is in synonymous parallelism with קָהָל (qahal, “assembly”).

[1:1]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew word refers to arrogant individuals (Prov 21:24) who love conflict (Prov 22:10) and vociferously reject wisdom and correction (Prov 1:22; 9:7-8; 13:1; 15:12). To “sit in the assembly” of such people means to completely identify with them in their proud, sinful plans and behavior.

[2:11]  ³² tn The Hebrew verb translated “serve” refers here to submitting to the Lord’s sovereignty as expressed through the rule of the Davidic king. Such “service” would involve maintaining allegiance to the Davidic king by paying tribute on a regular basis.

[2:11]  ³³ tn Traditionally, “rejoice with trembling” (KJV). The verb גִּיל (gil) normally means “rejoice,” but this meaning does not fit well here in conjunction with “in trembling.” Some try to understand “trembling” (and the parallel יִרְאָה, yir’ah, “fear”) in the sense of “reverential awe” and then take the verbs “serve” and “rejoice” in the sense of “worship” (cf. NASB). But רְעָדָה (rÿ’adah, “trembling”) and its related terms consistently refer to utter terror and fear (see Exod 15:15; Job 4:14; Pss 48:6; 55:5; 104:32; Isa 33:14; Dan 10:11) or at least great emotional distress (Ezra 10:9). It seems more likely here that גִּיל carries its polarized meaning “mourn, lament,” as in Hos 10:5. “Mourn, lament” would then be metonymic in this context for “repent” (referring to one’s rebellious ways). On the meaning of the verb in Hos 10:5, see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Hosea (AB), 556-57.