Genesis 37:35

37:35 All his sons and daughters stood by ¹  him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.” ²  So Joseph’s ³  father wept for him.

Leviticus 19:28

19:28 You must not slash your body for a dead person ⁴  or incise a tattoo on yourself. ⁵  I am the Lord.

Deuteronomy 14:1-2

The Holy and the Profane

14:1 You are children ⁶  of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald ⁷  for the sake of the dead. 14:2 For you are a people holy ⁸  to the Lord your God. He ⁹  has chosen you to be his people, prized ¹⁰  above all others on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 14:2

14:2 For you are a people holy ¹¹  to the Lord your God. He ¹²  has chosen you to be his people, prized ¹³  above all others on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 12:19-20

12:19 Be careful not to overlook the Levites as long as you live in the land.

The Sanctity of Blood

12:20 When the Lord your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say, “I want to eat meat just as I please,” ¹⁴  you may do so as you wish. ¹⁵ 

Deuteronomy 18:1

Provision for Priests and Levites

18:1 The Levitical priests ¹⁶  – indeed, the entire tribe of Levi – will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. ¹⁷ 

Job 1:21

1:21 He said, “Naked ¹⁸  I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. ¹⁹  The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. ²⁰  May the name of the Lord ²¹  be blessed!”

Ezekiel 24:16-18

24:16 “Son of man, realize that I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you with a jolt, ²²  but you must not mourn or weep or shed tears. 24:17 Groan in silence for the dead, ²³  but do not perform mourning rites. ²⁴  Bind on your turban ²⁵  and put your sandals on your feet. Do not cover your lip ²⁶  and do not eat food brought by others.” ²⁷ 

24:18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and my wife died in the evening. In the morning ²⁸  I acted just as I was commanded.

John 11:24

11:24 Martha said, ²⁹  “I know that he will come back to life again ³⁰  in the resurrection at the last day.”

Acts 8:2

8:2 Some ³¹  devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation ³²  over him. ³³ 

[37:35]  ¹ tn Heb “arose, stood”; which here suggests that they stood by him in his time of grief.

[37:35]  ² tn Heb “and he said, ‘Indeed I will go down to my son mourning to Sheol.’” Sheol was viewed as the place where departed spirits went after death.

[37:35]  ³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.

[19:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”

[14:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); TEV, NLT “people.”

[14:1]  ⁷ sn Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald. These were pagan practices associated with mourning the dead; they were not be imitated by God’s people (though they frequently were; cf. 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Hos 7:14 [LXX]; Mic 5:1). For other warnings against such practices see Lev 21:5; Jer 16:5.

[14:2]  ⁸ tn Or “set apart.”

[14:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “The Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[14:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “treasured.” The Hebrew term סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah) describes Israel as God’s choice people, those whom he elected and who are most precious to him (cf. Exod 19:4-6; Deut 14:2; 26:18; 1 Chr 29:3; Ps 135:4; Eccl 2:8 Mal 3:17). See E. Carpenter, NIDOTTE 3:224.

[14:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “set apart.”

[14:2]  ¹² tn Heb “The Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[14:2]  ¹³ tn Or “treasured.” The Hebrew term סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah) describes Israel as God’s choice people, those whom he elected and who are most precious to him (cf. Exod 19:4-6; Deut 14:2; 26:18; 1 Chr 29:3; Ps 135:4; Eccl 2:8 Mal 3:17). See E. Carpenter, NIDOTTE 3:224.

[12:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for my soul desires to eat meat.”

[12:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “according to all the desire of your soul you may eat meat.”

[18:1]  ¹⁶ tn The MT places the terms “priests” and “Levites” in apposition, thus creating an epexegetical construction in which the second term qualifies the first, i.e., “Levitical priests.” This is a way of asserting their legitimacy as true priests. The Syriac renders “to the priest and to the Levite,” making a distinction between the two, but one that is out of place here.

[18:1]  ¹⁷ sn Of his inheritance. This is a figurative way of speaking of the produce of the land the Lord will give to his people. It is the Lord’s inheritance, but the Levites are allowed to eat it since they themselves have no inheritance among the other tribes of Israel.

[1:21]  ¹⁸ tn The adjective “naked” is functioning here as an adverbial accusative of state, explicative of the state of the subject. While it does include the literal sense of nakedness at birth, Job is also using it symbolically to mean “without possessions.”

[1:21]  ¹⁹ sn While the first half of the couplet is to be taken literally as referring to his coming into this life, this second part must be interpreted only generally to refer to his departure from this life. It is parallel to 1 Tim 6:7, “For we have brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out either.”

[1:21]  ²⁰ tn The two verbs are simple perfects. (1) They can be given the nuance of gnomic imperfect, expressing what the sovereign God always does. This is the approach taken in the present translation. Alternatively (2) they could be referring specifically to Job’s own experience: “Yahweh gave [definite past, referring to his coming into this good life] and Yahweh has taken away” [present perfect, referring to his great losses]. Many English versions follow the second alternative.

[1:21]  ²¹ sn Some commentators are troubled by the appearance of the word “Yahweh” on the lips of Job, assuming that the narrator inserted his own name for God into the story-telling. Such thinking is based on the assumption that Yahweh was only a national god of Israel, unknown to anyone else in the ancient world. But here is a clear indication that a non-Israelite, Job, knew and believed in Yahweh.

[24:16]  ²² tn Heb “a strike.”

[24:17]  ²³ tn Or “Groan silently. As to the dead….” Cf. M. Greenberg’s suggestion that דֹּם מֵתִים (dom metim) be taken together and דֹּם be derived from ָדּמַם (damam, “to moan, murmur”). See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:508.

[24:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “(For) the dead mourning you shall not conduct.” In the Hebrew text the word translated “dead” is plural, indicating that mourning rites are in view. Such rites would involve outward demonstrations of one’s sorrow, including wailing and weeping.

[24:17]  ²⁵ sn The turban would normally be removed for mourning (Josh 7:6; 1 Sam 4:12).

[24:17]  ²⁶ sn Mourning rites included covering the lower part of the face. See Lev 13:45.

[24:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the bread of men.” The translation follows the suggestion accepted by M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 2:509) that this refers to a meal brought by comforters to the one mourning. Some repoint the consonantal text to read “the bread of despair” (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 2:56), while others, with support from the Targum and Vulgate, emend the consonantal text to read “the bread of mourners” (see D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:784).

[24:18]  ²⁸ tn This may refer to the following morning. For a discussion of various interpretive options in understanding the chronology reflected in verse 18, see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:790.

[11:24]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Martha said to him.”

[11:24]  ³⁰ tn Or “will rise again.”

[8:2]  ³¹ tn “Some” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[8:2]  ³² sn Made loud lamentation. For someone who was stoned to death, lamentation was normally not allowed (m. Sanhedrin 6:6). The remark points to an unjust death.

[8:2]  ³³ tn Or “mourned greatly for him.”