Genesis 12:4

12:4 So Abram left, ¹  just as the Lord had told him to do, ²  and Lot went with him. (Now ³  Abram was 75 years old ⁴  when he departed from Haran.)

Genesis 17:23

17:23 Abraham took his son Ishmael and every male in his household (whether born in his house or bought with money) ⁵  and circumcised them ⁶  on that very same day, just as God had told him to do.

Genesis 18:19

18:19 I have chosen him ⁷  so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep ⁸  the way of the Lord by doing ⁹  what is right and just. Then the Lord will give ¹⁰  to Abraham what he promised ¹¹  him.”

Genesis 22:16

22:16 and said, “‘I solemnly swear by my own name,’ ¹²  decrees the Lord, ¹³  ‘that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,

Genesis 22:18

22:18 Because you have obeyed me, ¹⁴  all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ¹⁵  using the name of your descendants.’”

Psalms 112:1-2

Psalm 112 ¹⁶ 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ¹⁷  who obeys ¹⁸  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ¹⁹ 

112:2 His descendants ²⁰  will be powerful on the earth;

the godly ²¹  will be blessed.

Psalms 128:1-6

Psalm 128 ²² 

A song of ascents. ²³ 

128:1 How blessed is every one of the Lord’s loyal followers, ²⁴ 

each one who keeps his commands! ²⁵ 

128:2 You ²⁶  will eat what you worked so hard to grow. ²⁷ 

You will be blessed and secure. ²⁸ 

128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ²⁹ 

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ³⁰  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

128:4 Yes indeed, the man who fears the Lord

will be blessed in this way. ³¹ 

128:5 May the Lord bless you ³²  from Zion,

that you might see ³³  Jerusalem ³⁴  prosper

all the days of your life,

128:6 and that you might see ³⁵  your grandchildren. ³⁶ 

May Israel experience peace! ³⁷ 

Matthew 5:19

5:19 So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others ³⁸  to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 7:24

Hearing and Doing

7:24 “Everyone ³⁹  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ⁴⁰  a wise man ⁴¹  who built his house on rock.

Matthew 7:1

Do Not Judge

7:1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ⁴² 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁴³  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Galatians 5:6

5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight – the only thing that matters is faith working through love. ⁴⁴ 

Hebrews 11:8

11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going.

James 2:21

2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

[12:4]  ¹ sn So Abram left. This is the report of Abram’s obedience to God’s command (see v. 1).

[12:4]  ² tn Heb “just as the Lord said to him.”

[12:4]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause (note the pattern conjunction + subject + implied “to be” verb) is parenthetical, telling the age of Abram when he left Haran.

[12:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “was the son of five years and seventy year[s].”

[17:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “Ishmael his son and all born in his house and all bought with money, every male among the men of the house of Abraham.”

[17:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “circumcised the flesh of their foreskin.” The Hebrew expression is somewhat pleonastic and has been simplified in the translation.

[18:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “For I have known him.” The verb יָדַע (yada’) here means “to recognize and treat in a special manner, to choose” (see Amos 3:2). It indicates that Abraham stood in a special covenantal relationship with the Lord.

[18:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they will keep.” The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive carries on the subjective nuance of the preceding imperfect verbal form (translated “so that he may command”).

[18:19]  ⁹ tn The infinitive construct here indicates manner, explaining how Abraham’s children and his household will keep the way of the Lord.

[18:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “bring on.” The infinitive after לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) indicates result here.

[18:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “spoke to.”

[22:16]  ¹² tn Heb “By myself I swear.”

[22:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “the oracle of the Lord.” The phrase refers to a formal oracle or decree from the Lord.

[22:18]  ¹⁴ tn In the Hebrew text this causal clause comes at the end of the sentence. The translation alters the word order for stylistic reasons.

[22:18]  ¹⁵ tn Traditionally the verb is taken as passive (“will be blessed”) here, as if Abraham’s descendants were going to be a channel or source of blessing to the nations. But the Hitpael is better understood here as reflexive/reciprocal, “will bless [i.e., pronounce blessings on] themselves/one another” (see also Gen 26:4). Elsewhere the Hitpael of the verb “to bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11. Earlier formulations of this promise (see Gen 12:2; 18:18) use the Niphal stem. (See also Gen 28:14.)

[112:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[112:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[112:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “His seed will be mighty on the earth, the generation of the godly.” The Hebrew term דוֹר (dor, “generation”) could be taken as parallel to “offspring” and translated “posterity,” but the singular more likely refers to the godly as a class. See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.

[128:1]  ²² sn Psalm 128. The psalmist observes that the godly individual has genuine happiness because the Lord rewards such a person with prosperity and numerous children.

[128:1]  ²³ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[128:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “every fearer of the Lord.”

[128:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the one who walks in his ways.”

[128:2]  ²⁶ tn The psalmist addresses the representative God-fearing man, as indicated by the references to “your wife” (v. 3) and “the man” (v. 4), as well as the second masculine singular pronominal and verbal forms in vv. 2-6.

[128:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the work of your hands, indeed you will eat.”

[128:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “how blessed you [will be] and it will be good for you.”

[128:3]  ²⁹ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

[128:3]  ³⁰ tn One could translate “sons” (see Ps 127:3 and the note on the word “sons” there), but here the term seems to refer more generally to children of both genders.

[128:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “look, indeed thus will the man, the fearer of the Lord, be blessed.”

[128:5]  ³² tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer (note the imperatives that are subordinated to this clause in vv. 5b-6a). Having described the blessings that typically come to the godly, the psalmist concludes by praying that this ideal may become reality for the representative godly man being addressed.

[128:5]  ³³ tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding jussive.

[128:5]  ³⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[128:6]  ³⁵ tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the jussive in v. 5a.

[128:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “sons to your sons.”

[128:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “peace [be] upon Israel.” The statement is understood as a prayer (see Ps 125:5).

[5:19]  ³⁸ tn Grk “teaches men” ( in a generic sense, people).

[7:24]  ³⁹ tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[7:24]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[7:24]  ⁴¹ tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.

[7:1]  ⁴² sn The point of the statement do not judge so that you will not be judged is that the standards we apply to others God applies to us. The passive verbs in this verse look to God’s action.

[1:1]  ⁴³ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[5:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “but faith working through love.”