Genesis 3:19

3:19 By the sweat of your brow ¹  you will eat food

until you return to the ground, ² 

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” ³ 

Genesis 3:23

3:23 So the Lord God expelled him ⁴  from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken.

Job 4:19

4:19 how much more to those who live in houses of clay, ⁵ 

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed ⁶  like ⁷  a moth?

Job 33:6

33:6 Look, I am just like you in relation to God;

I too have been molded ⁸  from clay.

Psalms 103:14

103:14 For he knows what we are made of; ⁹ 

he realizes ¹⁰  we are made of clay. ¹¹ 

Ecclesiastes 3:7

3:7 A time to rip, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silent, and a time to speak.

Ecclesiastes 3:20

3:20 Both go to the same place,

both come from the dust,

and to dust both return.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was,

and the life’s breath ¹²  returns to God who gave it.

Isaiah 64:8

64:8 Yet, ¹³  Lord, you are our father.

We are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the product of your labor. ¹⁴ 

Romans 9:20

9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being ¹⁵  – to talk back to God? ¹⁶  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ¹⁷ 

Romans 9:1

Israel’s Rejection Considered

9:1 ¹⁸ I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me ¹⁹  in the Holy Spirit –

Colossians 1:1-2

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁰  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 to the saints, the faithful ²¹  brothers and sisters ²²  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ²³  from God our Father! ²⁴ 

Colossians 4:7

Personal Greetings and Instructions

4:7 Tychicus, a dear brother, faithful minister, and fellow slave ²⁵  in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. ²⁶ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁷  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

[3:19]  ¹ tn The expression “the sweat of your brow” is a metonymy, the sweat being the result of painful toil in the fields.

[3:19]  ² sn Until you return to the ground. The theme of humankind’s mortality is critical here in view of the temptation to be like God. Man will labor painfully to provide food, obviously not enjoying the bounty that creation promised. In place of the abundance of the orchard’s fruit trees, thorns and thistles will grow. Man will have to work the soil so that it will produce the grain to make bread. This will continue until he returns to the soil from which he was taken (recalling the creation in 2:7 with the wordplay on Adam and ground). In spite of the dreams of immortality and divinity, man is but dust (2:7), and will return to dust. So much for his pride.

[3:19]  ³ sn In general, the themes of the curse oracles are important in the NT teaching that Jesus became the cursed one hanging on the tree. In his suffering and death, all the motifs are drawn together: the tree, the sweat, the thorns, and the dust of death (see Ps 22:15). Jesus experienced it all, to have victory over it through the resurrection.

[3:23]  ⁴ tn The verb is the Piel preterite of שָׁלַח (shalakh), forming a wordplay with the use of the same verb (in the Qal stem) in v. 22: To prevent the man’s “sending out” his hand, the Lord “sends him out.”

[4:19]  ⁵ sn Those who live in houses of clay are human beings, for the human body was made of clay (Job 10:9; 33:6; and Isa 64:7). In 2 Cor 4:7 the body is an “earthen vessel” – a clay pot. The verse continues the analogy: houses have foundations, and the house of clay is founded on dust, and will return to dust (Gen 3:19; Ps 103:14). The reasoning is that if God finds defects in angels, he will surely find them in humans who are inferior to the angels because they are but dust. In fact, they are easily crushed like the moth.

[4:19]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verb is in the plural, suggesting “they crush.” But since there is no subject expressed, the verb may be given an impersonal subject, or more simply, treated as a passive (see GKC 460 §144.g).

[4:19]  ⁷ tn The prepositional compound לִפְנֵי (lifne) normally has the sense of “before,” but it has been used already in 3:24 in the sense of “like.” That is the most natural meaning of this line. Otherwise, the interpretation must offer some explanation of a comparison between how quickly a moth and a human can be crushed. There are suggestions for different readings here; see for example G. R. Driver, “Linguistic and Textual Problems: Jeremiah,” JQR 28 (1937/38): 97-129 for a change to “bird’s nest”; and J. A. Rimbach, “‘Crushed before the Moth’ (Job 4:19),” JBL 100 (1981): 244-46, for a change of the verb to “they are pure before their Maker.” However, these are unnecessary emendations.

[33:6]  ⁸ tn The verb means “nipped off,” as a potter breaks off a piece of clay when molding a vessel.

[103:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “our form.”

[103:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “remembers.”

[103:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “we [are] clay.”

[12:7]  ¹² tn Or “spirit.” The likely referent is the life’s breath that originates with God. See Eccl 3:19, as well as Gen 2:7; 6:17; 7:22.

[64:8]  ¹³ tn On the force of וְעַתָּה (vÿ’attah) here, see HALOT 902 s.v. עַתָּה.

[64:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the work of your hand.”

[9:20]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “O man.”

[9:20]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “On the contrary, O man, who are you to talk back to God?”

[9:20]  ¹⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9.

[9:1]  ¹⁸ sn Rom 9:1–11:36. These three chapters are among the most difficult and disputed in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. One area of difficulty is the relationship between Israel and the church, especially concerning the nature and extent of Israel’s election. Many different models have been constructed to express this relationship. For a representative survey, see M. Barth, The People of God (JSNTSup), 22-27. The literary genre of these three chapters has been frequently identified as a diatribe, a philosophical discussion or conversation evolved by the Cynic and Stoic schools of philosophy as a means of popularizing their ideas (E. Käsemann, Romans, 261 and 267). But other recent scholars have challenged the idea that Rom 9–11 is characterized by diatribe. Scholars like R. Scroggs and E. E. Ellis have instead identified the material in question as midrash. For a summary and discussion of the rabbinic connections, see W. R. Stegner, “Romans 9.6-29 – A Midrash,” JSNT 22 (1984): 37-52.

[9:1]  ¹⁹ tn Or “my conscience bears witness to me.”

[1:1]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ²² tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ²³ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ²⁴ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[4:7]  ²⁵ tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

[4:7]  ²⁶ tn Grk “all things according to me.”

[1:1]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.