Genesis 4:7

4:7 Is it not true ¹  that if you do what is right, you will be fine? ²  But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching ³  at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.” ⁴ 

Genesis 44:16

44:16 Judah replied, “What can we say ⁵  to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? ⁶  God has exposed the sin of your servants! ⁷  We are now my lord’s slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

Psalms 90:8

90:8 You are aware of our sins; ⁸ 

you even know about our hidden sins. ⁹ 

Psalms 139:11

139:11 If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me, ¹⁰ 

and the light will turn to night all around me,” ¹¹ 

Psalms 140:11

140:11 A slanderer ¹²  will not endure on ¹³  the earth;

calamity will hunt down a violent man and strike him down. ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 13:21

13:21 Calamity ¹⁵  pursues sinners,

but prosperity rewards the righteous. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 3:11

3:11 Too bad for the wicked sinners!

For they will get exactly what they deserve. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 59:1-2

Injustice Brings Alienation from God

59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak ¹⁸  to deliver you;

his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ¹⁹ 

59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;

your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 59:12

59:12 For you are aware of our many rebellious deeds, ²¹ 

and our sins testify against us;

indeed, we are aware of our rebellious deeds;

we know our sins all too well. ²² 

Romans 2:9

2:9 There will be ²³  affliction and distress on everyone ²⁴  who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, ²⁵ 

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ²⁶ Therefore ²⁷  you are without excuse, ²⁸  whoever you are, ²⁹  when you judge someone else. ³⁰  For on whatever grounds ³¹  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Colossians 4:5

4:5 Conduct yourselves ³²  with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities.

[4:7]  ¹ tn The introduction of the conditional clause with an interrogative particle prods the answer from Cain, as if he should have known this. It is not a condemnation, but an encouragement to do what is right.

[4:7]  ² tn The Hebrew text is difficult, because only one word occurs, שְׂאֵת (sÿ’et), which appears to be the infinitive construct from the verb “to lift up” (נָאָשׂ, na’as). The sentence reads: “If you do well, uplifting.” On the surface it seems to be the opposite of the fallen face. Everything will be changed if he does well. God will show him favor, he will not be angry, and his face will reflect that. But more may be intended since the second half of the verse forms the contrast: “If you do not do well, sin is crouching….” Not doing well leads to sinful attack; doing well leads to victory and God’s blessing.

[4:7]  ³ tn The Hebrew term translated “crouching” (רֹבֵץ, rovets) is an active participle. Sin is portrayed with animal imagery here as a beast crouching and ready to pounce (a figure of speech known as zoomorphism). An Akkadian cognate refers to a type of demon; in this case perhaps one could translate, “Sin is the demon at the door” (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 29, 32-33).

[4:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and toward you [is] its desire, but you must rule over it.” As in Gen 3:16, the Hebrew noun “desire” refers to an urge to control or dominate. Here the desire is that which sin has for Cain, a desire to control for the sake of evil, but Cain must have mastery over it. The imperfect is understood as having an obligatory sense. Another option is to understand it as expressing potential (“you can have [or “are capable of having”] mastery over it.”). It will be a struggle, but sin can be defeated by righteousness. In addition to this connection to Gen 3, other linguistic and thematic links between chaps. 3 and 4 are discussed by A. J. Hauser, “Linguistic and Thematic Links Between Genesis 4:1-6 and Genesis 2–3,” JETS 23 (1980): 297-306.

[44:16]  ⁵ tn The imperfect verbal form here indicates the subject’s potential.

[44:16]  ⁶ tn The Hitpael form of the verb צָדֵק (tsadeq) here means “to prove ourselves just, to declare ourselves righteous, to prove our innocence.”

[44:16]  ⁷ sn God has exposed the sin of your servants. The first three questions are rhetorical; Judah is stating that there is nothing they can say to clear themselves. He therefore must conclude that they have been found guilty.

[90:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “you set our sins in front of you.”

[90:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “what we have hidden to the light of your face.” God’s face is compared to a light or lamp that exposes the darkness around it.

[139:11]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb שׁוּף (shuf), which means “to crush; to wound,” in Gen 3:15 and Job 9:17, is problematic here. For a discussion of attempts to relate the verb to Arabic roots, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 251. Many emend the form to יְשׂוּכֵּנִי (yesukkeniy), from the root שׂכך (“to cover,” an alternate form of סכך), a reading assumed in the present translation.

[139:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and night, light, around me.”

[140:11]  ¹² tn Heb “a man of a tongue.”

[140:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “be established in.”

[140:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for blows.” The Hebrew noun מַדְחֵפֹה (madkhefoh, “blow”) occurs only here in the OT.

[13:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “evil.” The term רָעָה (ra’ah, “evil”) here functions in a metonymical sense meaning “calamity.” “Good” is the general idea of good fortune or prosperity; the opposite, “evil,” is likewise “misfortune” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV) or calamity.

[13:21]  ¹⁶ sn This statement deals with recompense in absolute terms. It is this principle, without allowing for any of the exceptions that Proverbs itself acknowledges, that Job’s friends applied (incorrectly) to his suffering.

[3:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for the work of his hands will be done to him.”

[59:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[59:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”

[59:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”

[59:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “for many are our rebellious deeds before you.”

[59:12]  ²² tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] our rebellious deeds (are) with us, and our sins, we know them.”

[2:9]  ²³ tn No verb is expressed in this verse, but the verb “to be” is implied by the Greek construction. Literally “suffering and distress on everyone…”

[2:9]  ²⁴ tn Grk “every soul of man.”

[2:9]  ²⁵ sn Paul uses the term Greek here and in v. 10 to refer to non-Jews, i.e., Gentiles.

[2:1]  ²⁶ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ²⁷ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ²⁸ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ³⁰ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ³¹ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

[4:5]  ³² tn Grk “walk.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is a common NT idiom for one’s lifestyle, behavior, or manner of conduct (L&N 41.11).