Genesis 3:6

3:6 When ¹  the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, ²  was attractive ³  to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, ⁴  she took some of its fruit and ate it. ⁵  She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. ⁶ 

Exodus 20:17

20:17 “You shall not covet ⁷  your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.” ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 5:21

5:21 You must not desire ⁹  another man’s ¹⁰  wife, nor should you crave his ¹¹  house, his field, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, or anything else he owns.” ¹² 

Deuteronomy 5:1

The Opening Exhortation

5:1 Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said to them: ¹³  “Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am about to deliver to you today; learn them and be careful to keep them!

Deuteronomy 8:14

8:14 be sure ¹⁴  you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery,

Jeremiah 22:17

22:17 But you are always thinking and looking

for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means.

Your eyes and your heart are set

on killing some innocent person

and committing fraud and oppression. ¹⁵ 

Habakkuk 2:9-11

2:9 The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. ¹⁶ 

He does this so he can build his nest way up high

and escape the clutches of disaster. ¹⁷ 

2:10 Your schemes will bring shame to your house.

Because you destroyed many nations, you will self-destruct. ¹⁸ 

2:11 For the stones in the walls will cry out,

and the wooden rafters will answer back. ¹⁹ 

Luke 12:15

12:15 Then ²⁰  he said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from ²¹  all types of greed, ²²  because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Luke 12:1

Fear God, Not People

12:1 Meanwhile, ²³  when many thousands of the crowd had gathered so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus ²⁴  began to speak first to his disciples, “Be on your guard against ²⁵  the yeast of the Pharisees, ²⁶  which is hypocrisy. ²⁷ 

Luke 6:9

6:9 Then ²⁸  Jesus said to them, “I ask you, ²⁹  is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?”

James 1:14-15

1:14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. 1:15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.

[3:6]  ¹ tn Heb “And the woman saw.” The clause can be rendered as a temporal clause subordinate to the following verb in the sequence.

[3:6]  ² tn Heb “that the tree was good for food.” The words “produced fruit that was” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[3:6]  ³ tn The Hebrew word תַּאֲוָה (ta’avah, translated “attractive” here) actually means “desirable.” This term and the later term נֶחְמָד (nekhmad, “desirable”) are synonyms.

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “that good was the tree for food, and that desirable it was to the eyes, and desirable was the tree to make one wise.” On the connection between moral wisdom and the “knowledge of good and evil,” see the note on the word “evil” in 2:9.

[3:6]  ⁵ tn The pronoun “it” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied (here and also after “ate” at the end of this verse) for stylistic reasons.

[3:6]  ⁶ sn This pericope (3:1-7) is a fine example of Hebrew narrative structure. After an introductory disjunctive clause that introduces a new character and sets the stage (3:1), the narrative tension develops through dialogue, culminating in the action of the story. Once the dialogue is over, the action is told in a rapid sequence of verbs – she took, she ate, she gave, and he ate.

[20:17]  ⁷ tn The verb חָמַד (khamad) focuses not on an external act but on an internal mental activity behind the act, the motivation for it. The word can be used in a very good sense (Ps 19:10; 68:16), but it has a bad connotation in contexts where the object desired is off limits. This command is aimed at curtailing the greedy desire for something belonging to a neighbor, a desire that leads to the taking of it or the attempt to take it. It was used in the story of the Garden of Eden for the tree that was desired.

[20:17]  ⁸ sn See further G. Wittenburg, “The Tenth Commandment in the Old Testament,” Journal for Theology in South Africa 21 (1978): 3-17: and E. W. Nicholson, “The Decalogue as the Direct Address of God,” VT 27 (1977): 422-33.

[5:21]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew verb used here (חָמַד, khamad) is different from the one translated “crave” (אָוַה, ’avah) in the next line. The former has sexual overtones (“lust” or the like; cf. Song of Sol 2:3) whereas the latter has more the idea of a desire or craving for material things.

[5:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your neighbor’s.” See note on the term “fellow man” in v. 19.

[5:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your neighbor’s.” The pronoun is used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:21]  ¹² tn Heb “or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

[5:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “and Moses called to all Israel and he said to them”; NAB, NASB, NIV “Moses summoned (convened NRSV) all Israel.”

[8:14]  ¹⁴ tn The words “be sure” are not in the Hebrew text; vv. 12-14 are part of the previous sentence. For stylistic reasons a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 12 in the translation and the words “be sure” repeated from v. 11 to indicate the connection.

[22:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Your eyes and your heart do not exist except for dishonest gain and for innocent blood to shed [it] and for fraud and for oppression to do [them].” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to English style and the significance of “eyes” and “heart” explained before they are introduced into the translation.

[2:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who profits unjustly by evil unjust gain for his house.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to place his nest in the heights in order to escape from the hand of disaster.”

[2:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you planned shame for your house, cutting off many nations, and sinning [against] your life.”

[2:11]  ¹⁹ sn The house mentioned in vv. 9-10 represents the Babylonian empire, which became great through imperialism. Here the materials of this “house” (the stones in the walls, the wooden rafters) are personified as witnesses who testify that the occupants have built the house through wealth stolen from others.

[12:15]  ²⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[12:15]  ²¹ tn See L&N 13.154 for this use of the middle voice of φυλάσσω (fulassw) in this verse.

[12:15]  ²² tn Or “avarice,” “covetousness.” Note the warning covers more than money and gets at the root attitude – the strong desire to acquire more and more possessions and experiences.

[12:1]  ²³ tn The phrase ἐν οἷς (en Jois) can be translated “meanwhile.”

[12:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:1]  ²⁵ tn According to L&N 27.59, “to pay attention to, to keep on the lookout for, to be alert for, to be on your guard against.” This is another Lukan present imperative calling for constant vigilance.

[12:1]  ²⁶ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[12:1]  ²⁷ sn The pursuit of popularity can lead to hypocrisy, if one is not careful.

[6:9]  ²⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[6:9]  ²⁹ sn With the use of the plural pronoun (“you”), Jesus addressed not just the leaders but the crowd with his question to challenge what the leadership was doing. There is irony as well. As Jesus sought to restore on the Sabbath (but improperly according to the leaders’ complaints) the leaders were seeking to destroy, which surely is wrong. The implied critique recalls the OT: Isa 1:1-17; 58:6-14.