Genesis 47:29

47:29 The time ¹  for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh ²  and show me kindness and faithfulness. ³  Do not bury me in Egypt,

Numbers 20:24-28

20:24 “Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors, ⁴  for he will not enter into the land I have given to the Israelites because both of you ⁵  rebelled against my word ⁶  at the waters of Meribah. 20:25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up on Mount Hor. 20:26 Remove Aaron’s priestly garments ⁷  and put them on Eleazar his son, and Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors ⁸  and will die there.”

20:27 So Moses did as the Lord commanded; and they went up Mount Hor in the sight ⁹  of the whole community. 20:28 And Moses removed Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. And Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

Numbers 27:12-14

Leadership Change

27:12 ¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim range, ¹¹  and see ¹²  the land I have given ¹³  to the Israelites. 27:13 When you have seen it, you will be gathered ¹⁴  to your ancestors, ¹⁵  as Aaron your brother was gathered to his ancestors. ¹⁶  27:14 For ¹⁷  in the wilderness of Zin when the community rebelled against me, you ¹⁸  rebelled against my command ¹⁹  to show me as holy ²⁰  before their eyes over the water – the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.”

Deuteronomy 3:23-26

Denial to Moses of the Promised Land

3:23 Moreover, at that time I pleaded with the Lord, 3:24 “O, Lord God, ²¹  you have begun to show me ²²  your greatness and strength. ²³  (What god in heaven or earth can rival your works and mighty deeds?) 3:25 Let me please cross over to see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River – this good hill country and the Lebanon!” ²⁴  3:26 But the Lord was angry at me because of you and would not listen to me. Instead, he ²⁵  said to me, “Enough of that! ²⁶  Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.

Deuteronomy 34:5

34:5 So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab as the Lord had said.

Job 7:1

The Brevity of Life

7:1 “Does not humanity have hard service ²⁷  on earth?

Are not their days also

like the days of a hired man? ²⁸ 

Job 14:5

14:5 Since man’s days ²⁹  are determined, ³⁰ 

the number of his months is under your control; ³¹ 

you have set his limit ³²  and he cannot pass it.

Job 14:14

14:14 If a man dies, will he live again? ³³ 

All the days of my hard service ³⁴  I will wait ³⁵ 

until my release comes. ³⁶ 

Isaiah 38:1

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. ³⁷  The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’”

Isaiah 38:5

38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor ³⁸  David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life,

John 7:30

7:30 So then they tried to seize Jesus, ³⁹  but no one laid a hand on him, because his time ⁴⁰  had not yet come.

Hebrews 9:27

9:27 And just as people ⁴¹  are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment, ⁴² 

[47:29]  ¹ tn Heb “days.”

[47:29]  ² sn On the expression put your hand under my thigh see Gen 24:2.

[47:29]  ³ tn Or “deal with me in faithful love.”

[20:24]  ⁴ sn This is the standard poetic expression for death. The bones would be buried, often with the bones of relatives in the same tomb, giving rise to the expression.

[20:24]  ⁵ tn The verb is in the second person plural form, and so it is Moses and Aaron who rebelled, and so now because of that Aaron first and then Moses would die without going into the land.

[20:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “mouth.”

[20:26]  ⁷ tn The word “priestly” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[20:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “will be gathered”; this is a truncated form of the usual expression “gathered to his ancestors,” found in v. 24. The phrase “to his ancestors” is supplied in the translation here.

[20:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “eyes.”

[27:12]  ¹⁰ sn See further J. Lindblom, “Lot Casting in the Old Testament,” VT 12 (1962): 164-78; E. Lipinski, “Urim and Thummim,” VT 20 (1970): 495-96; and S. E. Loewenstamm, “The Death of Moses,” Tarbiz 27 (1957/58): 142-57.

[27:12]  ¹¹ tc The Greek version adds “which is Mount Nebo.” This is a typical scribal change to harmonize two passages.

[27:12]  ¹² tn The imperative could be subordinated to the first to provide a purpose clause, although a second instruction fits well enough.

[27:12]  ¹³ tn This perfect tense would best be classified as a perfect of resolve: “which I have decided to give.” God had not yet given the land to them, but it was certain he would.

[27:13]  ¹⁴ tn The first verb is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, and the second verb is also. In such parallel clauses, the first may be subordinated, here as a temporal clause.

[27:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “people.”

[27:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “was gathered.” The phrase “to his ancestors” is elided in the Hebrew text, but is an implied repetition from the beginning of the verse, and has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[27:14]  ¹⁷ tn The preposition on the relative pronoun has the force of “because of the fact that.”

[27:14]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is the second masculine plural form.

[27:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “mouth.”

[27:14]  ²⁰ sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.

[3:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “Lord Lord.” The phrase אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה (’adonay yÿhvih) is customarily rendered by Jewish tradition as “Lord God.” Cf. NIV, TEV, NLT “Sovereign Lord.”

[3:24]  ²² tn Heb “your servant.” The pronoun is used in the translation to clarify that Moses is speaking of himself, since in contemporary English one does not usually refer to oneself in third person.

[3:24]  ²³ tn Heb “your strong hand” (so NIV), a symbol of God’s activity.

[3:25]  ²⁴ tn The article is retained in the translation (“the Lebanon,” cf. also NAB, NRSV) to indicate that a region (rather than the modern country of Lebanon) is referred to here. Other recent English versions accomplish this by supplying “mountains” after “Lebanon” (TEV, CEV, NLT).

[3:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” For stylistic reasons the pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation here.

[3:26]  ²⁶ tn Heb “much to you” (an idiom).

[7:1]  ²⁷ tn The word צָבָא (tsava’) is actually “army”; it can be used for the hard service of military service as well as other toil. As a military term it would include the fixed period of duty (the time) and the hard work (toil). Job here is considering the lot of all humans, not just himself.

[7:1]  ²⁸ tn The שָׂכִיר (sakhir) is a hired man, either a man who works for wages, or a mercenary soldier (Jer 46:21). The latter sense may be what is intended here in view of the parallelism, although the next verse seems much broader.

[14:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “his days.”

[14:5]  ³⁰ tn The passive participle is from חָרַץ (kharats), which means “determined.” The word literally means “cut” (Lev 22:22, “mutilated”). E. Dhorme, (Job, 197) takes it to mean “engraved” as on stone; from a custom of inscribing decrees on tablets of stone he derives the meaning here of “decreed.” This, he argues, is parallel to the way חָקַק (khaqaq, “engrave”) is used. The word חֹק (khoq) is an “ordinance” or “statute”; the idea is connected to the verb “to engrave.” The LXX has “if his life should be but one day on the earth, and his months are numbered by him, you have appointed him for a time and he shall by no means exceed it.”

[14:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “[is] with you.” This clearly means under God’s control.

[14:5]  ³² tn The word חֹק (khoq) has the meanings of “decree, decision, and limit” (cf. Job 28:26; 38:10).

[14:14]  ³³ tc The LXX removes the interrogative and makes the statement affirmative, i.e., that man will live again. This reading is taken by D. H. Gard (“The Concept of the Future Life according to the Greek Translator of the Book of Job,” JBL 73 [1954]: 137-38). D. J. A. Clines follows this, putting both of the expressions in the wish clause: “if a man dies and could live again…” (Job [WBC], 332). If that is the way it is translated, then the verbs in the second half of the verse and in the next verse would all be part of the apodosis, and should be translated “would.” The interpretation would not greatly differ; it would be saying that if there was life after death, Job would long for his release – his death. If the traditional view is taken and the question was raised whether there was life after death (the implication of the question being that there is), then Job would still be longing for his death. The point the line is making is that if there is life after death, that would be all the more reason for Job to eagerly expect, to hope for, his death.

[14:14]  ³⁴ tn See Job 7:1.

[14:14]  ³⁵ tn The verb אֲיַחֵל (’ayakhel) may be rendered “I will/would wait” or “I will/would hope.” The word describes eager expectation and longing hope.

[14:14]  ³⁶ tn The construction is the same as that found in the last verse: a temporal preposition עַד (’ad) followed by the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive “release/relief.” Due, in part, to the same verb (חָלַף, khalaf) having the meaning “sprout again” in v. 7, some take “renewal” as the meaning here (J. E. Hartley, Alden, NIV, ESV).

[38:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying”; NRSV “became sick and was at the point of death.”

[38:5]  ³⁸ tn Heb “father” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

[7:30]  ³⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:30]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “his hour.”

[9:27]  ⁴¹ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[9:27]  ⁴² tn Grk “and after this – judgment.”