Genesis 4:10
Context4:10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? 1 The voice 2 of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!
Exodus 2:23-24
Context2:23 3 During 4 that long period of time 5 the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites 6 groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry 7 because of their slave labor went up to God. 2:24 God heard their groaning, 8 God remembered 9 his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob,
Exodus 3:7
Context3:7 The Lord said, “I have surely seen 10 the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 11
Exodus 22:21-24
Context22:21 “You must not wrong 12 a foreigner 13 nor oppress him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
22:22 “You must not afflict 14 any widow or orphan. 22:23 If you afflict them 15 in any way 16 and they cry to me, I will surely hear 17 their cry, 22:24 and my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless. 18
Exodus 22:27
Context22:27 for it is his only covering – it is his garment for his body. 19 What else can he sleep in? 20 And 21 when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.
Deuteronomy 15:9
Context15:9 Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude 22 be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite 23 and you do not lend 24 him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be regarded as having sinned. 25
Nehemiah 5:1-5
Context5:1 Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. 26 5:2 There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain 27 grain in order to eat and stay alive.” 5:3 There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.” 5:4 Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king 28 on our fields and our vineyards. 5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, 29 and our children are just like their children, 30 still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. 31 Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, 32 since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” 33
Job 31:38-39
Context31:38 “If my land cried out against me 35
and all its furrows wept together,
31:39 if I have eaten its produce without paying, 36
or caused the death 37 of its owners, 38
Job 34:28
Context34:28 so that they caused 39 the cry of the poor
to come before him,
so that he hears 40 the cry of the needy.
Proverbs 21:13
Context21:13 The one who shuts his ears 41 to the cry 42 of the poor,
he too will cry out and will not be answered. 43
Luke 18:7
Context18:7 Won’t 44 God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out 45 to him day and night? 46 Will he delay 47 long to help them?
James 5:4
Context5:4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
[4:10] 1 sn What have you done? Again the
[4:10] 2 tn The word “voice” is a personification; the evidence of Abel’s shed blood condemns Cain, just as a human eyewitness would testify in court. For helpful insights, see G. von Rad, Biblical Interpretations in Preaching; and L. Morris, “The Biblical Use of the Term ‘Blood,’” JTS 6 (1955/56): 77-82.
[2:23] 3 sn The next section of the book is often referred to as the “Call of Moses,” and that is certainly true. But it is much more than that. It is the divine preparation of the servant of God, a servant who already knew what his destiny was. In this section Moses is shown how his destiny will be accomplished. It will be accomplished because the divine presence will guarantee the power, and the promise of that presence comes with the important “I AM” revelation. The message that comes through in this, and other “I will be with you” passages, is that when the promise of God’s presence is correctly appropriated by faith, the servant of God can begin to build confidence for the task that lies ahead. It will no longer be, “Who am I that I should go?” but “I AM with you” that matters. The first little section, 2:23-25, serves as a transition and introduction, for it records the
[2:23] 4 tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator “And it was” (cf. KJV, ASV “And it came to pass”). This has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.
[2:23] 5 tn Heb “in those many days.”
[2:23] 6 tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”
[2:23] 7 tn “They cried out” is from זָעַק (za’aq), and “desperate cry” is from שַׁוְעָה (shava’h).
[2:24] 8 sn The word for this painfully intense “groaning” appears elsewhere to describe a response to having two broken arms (Ezek 30:24).
[2:24] 9 sn The two verbs “heard” and “remembered,” both preterites, say far more than they seem to say. The verb שָׁמַע (shama’, “to hear”) ordinarily includes responding to what is heard. It can even be found in idiomatic constructions meaning “to obey.” To say God heard their complaint means that God responded to it. Likewise, the verb זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”) means to begin to act on the basis of what is remembered. A prayer to God that says, “Remember me,” is asking for more than mere recollection (see B. S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel [SBT], 1-8). The structure of this section at the end of the chapter is powerful. There are four descriptions of the Israelites, with a fourfold reaction from God. On the Israelites’ side, they groaned (אָנַח [’anakh], נְאָקָה [nÿ’aqah]) and cried out (זָעַק [za’aq], שַׁוְעָה [shav’ah]) to God. On the divine side God heard (שָׁמָע, shama’) their groaning, remembered (זָכַר, zakhar) his covenant, looked (רָאָה, ra’ah) at the Israelites, and took notice (יָדַע, yada’) of them. These verbs emphasize God’s sympathy and compassion for the people. God is near to those in need; in fact, the deliverer had already been chosen. It is important to note at this point the repetition of the word “God.” The text is waiting to introduce the name “Yahweh” in a special way. Meanwhile, the fourfold repetition of “God” in vv. 24-25 is unusual and draws attention to the statements about his attention to Israel’s plight.
[3:7] 10 tn The use of the infinitive absolute with the perfect tense intensifies the statement: I have surely seen – there is no doubt that I have seen and will do something about it.
[3:7] 11 sn Two new words are introduced now to the report of suffering: “affliction” and “pain/suffering.” These add to the dimension of the oppression of God’s people.
[22:21] 13 tn Or “alien,” both here and in 23:9. This individual is a resident foreigner; he lives in the land but, aside from provisions such as this, might easily be without legal rights.
[22:22] 14 tn The verb “afflict” is a Piel imperfect from עָנָה (’anah); it has a wide range of meanings: “afflict, oppress, humiliate, rape.” These victims are at the mercy of the judges, businessmen, or villains. The righteous king and the righteous people will not mistreat them (see Isa 1:17; Job 31:16, 17, 21).
[22:23] 15 tn The accusative here is the masculine singular pronoun, which leads S. R. Driver to conclude that this line is out of place, even though the masculine singular can be used in places like this (Exodus, 232). U. Cassuto says its use is to refer to certain classes (Exodus, 292).
[22:23] 16 tn Here again and with “cry” the infinitive absolute functions with a diminished emphasis (GKC 342-43 §113.o).
[22:23] 17 tn Here is the normal use of the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense to emphasize the verb: “I will surely hear,” implying, “I will surely respond.”
[22:24] 18 sn The punishment will follow the form of talionic justice, an eye for an eye, in which the punishment matches the crime. God will use invading armies (“sword” is a metonymy of adjunct here) to destroy them, making their wives widows and their children orphans.
[22:27] 20 tn Literally the text reads, “In what can he lie down?” The cloak would be used for a covering at night to use when sleeping. The garment, then, was the property that could not be taken and not given back – it was the last possession. The modern idiom of “the shirt off his back” gets at the point being made here.
[22:27] 21 tn Heb “and it will be.”
[15:9] 23 tn Heb “your needy brother.”
[15:9] 24 tn Heb “give” (likewise in v. 10).
[15:9] 25 tn Heb “it will be a sin to you.”
[5:1] 26 tn Heb “their brothers the Jews.”
[5:2] 27 tn Heb “take” (so also in v. 3).
[5:4] 28 tn Heb “for the tax of the king.”
[5:5] 29 tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”
[5:5] 30 tn Heb “like their children, our children.”
[5:5] 31 tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).
[5:5] 32 tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.
[5:5] 33 sn The poor among the returned exiles were being exploited by their rich countrymen. Moneylenders were loaning large amounts of money, and not only collecting interest on loans which was illegal (Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:19-20), but also seizing pledges as collateral (Neh 5:3) which was allowed (Deut 24:10). When the debtors missed a payment, the moneylenders would seize their collateral: their fields, vineyards and homes. With no other means of income, the debtors were forced to sell their children into slavery, a common practice at this time (Neh 5:5). Nehemiah himself was one of the moneylenders (Neh 5:10), but he insisted that seizure of collateral from fellow Jewish countrymen was ethically wrong (Neh 5:9).
[31:38] 34 sn Many commentators place vv. 38-40b at the end of v. 34, so that there is no return to these conditional clauses after his final appeal.
[31:38] 35 sn Some commentators have suggested that the meaning behind this is that Job might not have kept the year of release (Deut 15:1), and the law against mixing seed (Lev 19:19). But the context will make clear that the case considered is obtaining the land without paying for it and causing the death of its lawful owner (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 206). Similar to this would be the case of Naboth’s vineyard.
[31:39] 36 tn Heb “without silver.”
[31:39] 37 tc The versions have the verb “grieved” here. The Hebrew verb means “to breathe,” but the form is Hiphil. This verb in that stem could mean something of a contemptuous gesture, like “sniff” in Mal 1:13. But with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in Job 11:20 it means “to cause death,” i.e., “to cause to breathe out; to expire.” This is likely the meaning here, although it is possible that it only meant “to cause suffering” to the people.
[31:39] 38 tn There is some debate over the meaning of בְּעָלֶיהָ (bÿ’aleyha), usually translated “its owners.” Dahood, following others (although without their emendations), thought it referred to “laborers” (see M. Dahood, Bib 41 [1960]: 303; idem, Bib 43 [1962]: 362).
[34:28] 39 tn The verse begins with the infinitive construct of בּוֹא (bo’, “go”), showing the result of their impious actions.
[34:28] 40 tn The verb here is an imperfect; the clause is circumstantial to the preceding clause, showing either the result, or the concomitant action.
[21:13] 41 sn The imagery means “pay no attention to” the cry for help or “refuse to help,” so it is a metonymy of cause for the effect.
[21:13] 42 sn “Cry” here would be a metonymy of effect for the cause, the cause being the great needs of the poor.
[21:13] 43 sn The proverb is teaching that those who show mercy will receive mercy. It involves the principle of talionic justice – those who refuse the needs of others will themselves be refused when they need help (so Luke 16:19-31).
[18:7] 44 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[18:7] 45 sn The prayers have to do with the righteous who cry out to him to receive justice. The context assumes the righteous are persecuted.
[18:7] 46 tn The emphatic particles in this sentence indicate that God will indeed give justice to the righteous.
[18:7] 47 sn The issue of delay has produced a whole host of views for this verse. (1) Does this assume provision to endure in the meantime? Or (2) does it mean God restricts the level of persecution until he comes? Either view is possible.