Genesis 3:9-13

3:9 But the Lord God called to ¹  the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ²  3:10 The man replied, ³  “I heard you moving about ⁴  in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 3:11 And the Lord God ⁵  said, “Who told you that you were naked? ⁶  Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” ⁷  3:12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave ⁸  me some fruit ⁹  from the tree and I ate it.” 3:13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this ¹⁰  you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent ¹¹  tricked ¹²  me, and I ate.”

Luke 16:2

16:2 So ¹³  he called the manager ¹⁴  in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? ¹⁵  Turn in the account of your administration, ¹⁶  because you can no longer be my manager.’

Romans 3:19

3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under ¹⁷  the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

[3:9]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb קָרָא (qara’, “to call”) followed by the preposition אֶל־ or לְ (’el- or lÿ, “to, unto”) often carries the connotation of “summon.”

[3:9]  ² sn Where are you? The question is probably rhetorical (a figure of speech called erotesis) rather than literal, because it was spoken to the man, who answers it with an explanation of why he was hiding rather than a location. The question has more the force of “Why are you hiding?”

[3:10]  ³ tn Heb “and he said.”

[3:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “your sound.” If one sees a storm theophany here (see the note on the word “time” in v. 8), then one could translate, “your powerful voice.”

[3:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (the Lord God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:11]  ⁶ sn Who told you that you were naked? This is another rhetorical question, asking more than what it appears to ask. The second question in the verse reveals the Lord God’s real concern.

[3:11]  ⁷ sn The Hebrew word order (“Did you from the tree – which I commanded you not to eat from it – eat?”) is arranged to emphasize that the man’s and the woman’s eating of the fruit was an act of disobedience. The relative clause inserted immediately after the reference to the tree brings out this point very well.

[3:12]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew construction in this sentence uses an independent nominative absolute (formerly known as a casus pendens). “The woman” is the independent nominative absolute; it is picked up by the formal subject, the pronoun “she” written with the verb (“she gave”). The point of the construction is to throw the emphasis on “the woman.” But what makes this so striking is that a relative clause has been inserted to explain what is meant by the reference to the woman: “whom you gave me.” Ultimately, the man is blaming God for giving him the woman who (from the man’s viewpoint) caused him to sin.

[3:12]  ⁹ tn The words “some fruit” here and the pronoun “it” at the end of the sentence are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for stylistic reasons.

[3:13]  ¹⁰ tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun is enclitic, serving as an undeclined particle for emphasis. It gives the sense of “What in the world have you done?” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[3:13]  ¹¹ sn The Hebrew word order puts the subject (“the serpent”) before the verb here, giving prominence to it.

[3:13]  ¹² tn This verb (the Hiphil of נָשָׁא, nasha) is used elsewhere of a king or god misleading his people into false confidence (2 Kgs 18:29 = 2 Chr 32:15 = Isa 36:14; 2 Kgs 19:10 = Isa 37:10), of an ally deceiving a partner (Obad 7), of God deceiving his sinful people as a form of judgment (Jer 4:10), of false prophets instilling their audience with false hope (Jer 29:8), and of pride and false confidence producing self-deception (Jer 37:9; 49:16; Obad 3).

[16:2]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the result of the reports the man received about his manager.

[16:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (the manager) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:2]  ¹⁵ sn Although phrased as a question, the charges were believed by the owner, as his dismissal of the manager implies.

[16:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “stewardship”; the Greek word οἰκονομία (oikonomia) is cognate with the noun for the manager (οἰκονόμος, oikonomo").

[3:19]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “in,” “in connection with.”