Genesis 5:22

5:22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God ¹  for 300 years, ²  and he had other ³  sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:24

5:24 Enoch walked with God, and then he disappeared ⁴  because God took ⁵  him away.

Genesis 6:9

The Judgment of the Flood

6:9 This is the account of Noah. ⁶ 

Noah was a godly man; he was blameless ⁷ 

among his contemporaries. ⁸  He ⁹  walked with ¹⁰  God.

Genesis 48:15

48:15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my fathers

Abraham and Isaac walked –

the God who has been my shepherd ¹¹ 

all my life long to this day,

Genesis 48:1

Manasseh and Ephraim

48:1 After these things Joseph was told, ¹²  “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.

Genesis 2:4

The Creation of Man and Woman

2:4 This is the account ¹³  of the heavens and

the earth ¹⁴  when they were created – when the Lord God ¹⁵  made the earth and heavens. ¹⁶ 

Genesis 3:6

3:6 When ¹⁷  the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, ¹⁸  was attractive ¹⁹  to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, ²⁰  she took some of its fruit and ate it. ²¹  She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. ²² 

Genesis 8:1-2

8:1 But God remembered ²³  Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over ²⁴  the earth and the waters receded. 8:2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, ²⁵  and the rain stopped falling from the sky.

Genesis 20:3

20:3 But God appeared ²⁶  to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead ²⁷  because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” ²⁸ 

Psalms 116:9

116:9 I will serve ²⁹  the Lord

in the land ³⁰  of the living.

Isaiah 38:3

38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ³¹  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ³²  and how I have carried out your will.” ³³  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ³⁴ 

Micah 6:8

6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,

and what the Lord really wants from you: ³⁵ 

He wants you to ³⁶  promote ³⁷  justice, to be faithful, ³⁸ 

and to live obediently before ³⁹  your God.

Luke 1:6

1:6 They ⁴⁰  were both righteous in the sight of God, following ⁴¹  all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. ⁴² 

Acts 23:1

23:1 Paul looked directly ⁴³  at the council ⁴⁴  and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life with a clear conscience ⁴⁵  before God to this day.”

Acts 24:16

24:16 This is the reason ⁴⁶  I do my best to always ⁴⁷  have a clear ⁴⁸  conscience toward God and toward people. ⁴⁹ 

Hebrews 12:28

12:28 So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer worship pleasing to God in devotion and awe.

[5:22]  ¹ sn With the seventh panel there is a digression from the pattern. Instead of simply saying that Enoch lived, the text observes that he “walked with God.” The rare expression “walked with” (the Hitpael form of the verb הָלָךְ, halakh, “to walk” collocated with the preposition אֶת, ’et, “with”) is used in 1 Sam 25:15 to describe how David’s men maintained a cordial and cooperative relationship with Nabal’s men as they worked and lived side by side in the fields. In Gen 5:22 the phrase suggests that Enoch and God “got along.” This may imply that Enoch lived in close fellowship with God, leading a life of devotion and piety. An early Jewish tradition, preserved in 1 En. 1:9 and alluded to in Jude 14, says that Enoch preached about the coming judgment. See F. S. Parnham, “Walking with God,” EvQ 46 (1974): 117-18.

[5:22]  ² tn Heb “and Enoch walked with God, after he became the father of Methuselah, [for] 300 years.”

[5:22]  ³ tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.

[5:24]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew construction has the negative particle אֵין (’en, “there is not,” “there was not”) with a pronominal suffix, “he was not.” Instead of saying that Enoch died, the text says he no longer was present.

[5:24]  ⁵ sn The text simply states that God took Enoch. Similar language is used of Elijah’s departure from this world (see 2 Kgs 2:10). The text implies that God overruled death for this man who walked with him.

[6:9]  ⁶ sn There is a vast body of scholarly literature about the flood story. The following studies are particularly helpful: A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and the Old Testament Parallels; M. Kessler, “Rhetorical Criticism of Genesis 7,” Rhetorical Criticism: Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg (PTMS), 1-17; I. M. Kikawada and A. Quinn, Before Abraham Was; A. R. Millard, “A New Babylonian ‘Genesis Story’,” TynBul 18 (1967): 3-18; G. J. Wenham, “The Coherence of the Flood Narrative,” VT 28 (1978): 336-48.

[6:9]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term תָּמִים (tamim, “blameless”) is used of men in Gen 17:1 (associated with the idiom “walk before,” which means “maintain a proper relationship with,” see 24:40); Deut 18:13 (where it means “blameless” in the sense of not guilty of the idolatrous practices listed before this; see Josh 24:14); Pss 18:23, 26 (“blameless” in the sense of not having violated God’s commands); 37:18 (in contrast to the wicked); 101:2, 6 (in contrast to proud, deceitful slanderers; see 15:2); Prov 2:21; 11:5 (in contrast to the wicked); 28:10; Job 12:4.

[6:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “Noah was a godly man, blameless in his generations.” The singular “generation” can refer to one’s contemporaries, i.e., those living at a particular point in time. The plural “generations” can refer to successive generations in the past or the future. Here, where it is qualified by “his” (i.e., Noah’s), it refers to Noah’s contemporaries, comprised of the preceding generation (his father’s generation), those of Noah’s generation, and the next generation (those the same age as his children). In other words, “his generations” means the generations contemporary with him. See BDB 190 s.v. דוֹר.

[6:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “Noah.” The proper name has been replaced with the pronoun in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:9]  ¹⁰ tn The construction translated “walked with” is used in Gen 5:22, 24 (see the note on this phrase in 5:22) and in 1 Sam 25:15, where it refers to David’s and Nabal’s men “rubbing shoulders” in the fields. Based on the use in 1 Sam 25:15, the expression seems to mean “live in close proximity to,” which may, by metonymy, mean “maintain cordial relations with.”

[48:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “shepherded me.” The verb has been translated as an English noun for stylistic reasons.

[48:1]  ¹² tn Heb “and one said.” With no expressed subject in the Hebrew text, the verb can be translated with the passive voice.

[2:4]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew phrase אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת (’elle tolÿdot) is traditionally translated as “these are the generations of” because the noun was derived from the verb “beget.” Its usage, however, shows that it introduces more than genealogies; it begins a narrative that traces what became of the entity or individual mentioned in the heading. In fact, a good paraphrase of this heading would be: “This is what became of the heavens and the earth,” for what follows is not another account of creation but a tracing of events from creation through the fall and judgment (the section extends from 2:4 through 4:26). See M. H. Woudstra, “The Toledot of the Book of Genesis and Their Redemptive-Historical Significance,” CTJ 5 (1970): 184-89.

[2:4]  ¹⁴ tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1.

[2:4]  ¹⁵ sn Advocates of the so-called documentary hypothesis of pentateuchal authorship argue that the introduction of the name Yahweh (Lord) here indicates that a new source (designated J), a parallel account of creation, begins here. In this scheme Gen 1:1-2:3 is understood as the priestly source (designated P) of creation. Critics of this approach often respond that the names, rather than indicating separate sources, were chosen to reflect the subject matter (see U. Cassuto, The Documentary Hypothesis). Gen 1:1–2:3 is the grand prologue of the book, showing the sovereign God creating by decree. The narrative beginning in 2:4 is the account of what this God invested in his creation. Since it deals with the close, personal involvement of the covenant God, the narrative uses the covenantal name Yahweh (Lord) in combination with the name God. For a recent discussion of the documentary hypothesis from a theologically conservative perspective, see D. A. Garrett, Rethinking Genesis. For an attempt by source critics to demonstrate the legitimacy of the source critical method on the basis of ancient Near Eastern parallels, see J. H. Tigay, ed., Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism. For reaction to the source critical method by literary critics, see I. M. Kikawada and A. Quinn, Before Abraham Was; R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, 131-54; and Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative, 111-34.

[2:4]  ¹⁶ tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1; the order here is reversed, but the meaning is the same.

[3:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And the woman saw.” The clause can be rendered as a temporal clause subordinate to the following verb in the sequence.

[3:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “that the tree was good for food.” The words “produced fruit that was” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[3:6]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew word תַּאֲוָה (ta’avah, translated “attractive” here) actually means “desirable.” This term and the later term נֶחְמָד (nekhmad, “desirable”) are synonyms.

[3:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “that good was the tree for food, and that desirable it was to the eyes, and desirable was the tree to make one wise.” On the connection between moral wisdom and the “knowledge of good and evil,” see the note on the word “evil” in 2:9.

[3:6]  ²¹ tn The pronoun “it” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied (here and also after “ate” at the end of this verse) for stylistic reasons.

[3:6]  ²² sn This pericope (3:1-7) is a fine example of Hebrew narrative structure. After an introductory disjunctive clause that introduces a new character and sets the stage (3:1), the narrative tension develops through dialogue, culminating in the action of the story. Once the dialogue is over, the action is told in a rapid sequence of verbs – she took, she ate, she gave, and he ate.

[8:1]  ²³ tn The Hebrew word translated “remembered” often carries the sense of acting in accordance with what is remembered, i.e., fulfilling covenant promises (see B. S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel [SBT], especially p. 34).

[8:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “to pass over.”

[8:2]  ²⁵ tn Some (e.g., NIV) translate the preterite verb forms in this verse as past perfects (e.g., “had been closed”), for it seems likely that the sources of the water would have stopped before the waters receded.

[20:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “came.”

[20:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Look, you [are] dead.” The Hebrew construction uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with a second person pronominal particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with by the participle. It is a highly rhetorical expression.

[20:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.

[116:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “walk before” (see Ps 56:13). On the meaning of the Hebrew idiom, see the notes at 2 Kgs 20:3/Isa 38:3.

[116:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “lands, regions.”

[38:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

[38:3]  ³² tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

[38:3]  ³³ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

[38:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”

[6:8]  ³⁵ sn What the Lord really wants from you. Now the prophet switches roles and answers the hypothetical worshiper’s question. He makes it clear that the Lord desires proper attitudes more than ritual and sacrifice.

[6:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ³⁸ tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ³⁹ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”

[1:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[1:6]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “walking in” (an idiom for one’s lifestyle).

[1:6]  ⁴² tn The predicate adjective has the effect of an adverb here (BDF §243).

[23:1]  ⁴³ tn Grk “Paul, looking directly at the council, said.” The participle ἀτενίσας (atenisa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:1]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “the Sanhedrin” (the Sanhedrin was the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

[23:1]  ⁴⁵ tn BDAG 846 s.v. πολιτεύομαι 3 has “W. a double dat. συνειδήσει ἀγαθῇ πεπολίτευμαι τῷ θεῷ I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God Ac 23:1.”

[24:16]  ⁴⁶ tn BDAG 329 s.v. ἐν 9.a, “ἐν τούτῳ πιστεύομεν this is the reason why we believe Jn 16:30; cp. Ac 24:16.”

[24:16]  ⁴⁷ tn BDAG 224 s.v. διά 2.a, “διὰ παντός…always, continually, constantly…Ac 2:25 (Ps 15:8); 10:2; 24:16.” However, the positioning of the adverb “always” in the English translation is difficult; the position used is one of the least awkward.

[24:16]  ⁴⁸ tn BDAG 125 s.v. ἀπρόσκοπος 1 has “ἀ. συνείδησις a clear conscience Ac 24:16.”

[24:16]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “men,” but this is a generic use (Paul does not have only males in view).