Isaiah 66:2

66:2 My hand made them; ¹ 

that is how they came to be,” ²  says the Lord.

I show special favor ³  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ⁴ 

Proverbs 13:13

13:13 The one who despises instruction ⁵  will pay the penalty, ⁶ 

but whoever esteems instruction ⁷  will ⁸  be rewarded. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 36:16

36:16 When they had heard it all, ¹⁰  they expressed their alarm to one another. ¹¹  Then they said to Baruch, “We must certainly give the king a report about everything you have read!” ¹² 

Jeremiah 36:23-25

36:23 As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns ¹³  of the scroll, the king ¹⁴  would cut them off with a penknife ¹⁵  and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. ¹⁶  36:24 Neither he nor any of his attendants showed any alarm when they heard all that had been read. Nor did they tear their clothes to show any grief or sorrow. ¹⁷  36:25 The king did not even listen to Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah, who had urged him not to burn the scroll. ¹⁸ 

[66:2]  ¹ tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ² tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ³ tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”

[13:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “the word.” The term “word” means teaching in general; its parallel “command” indicates that it is the more forceful instruction that is meant. Both of these terms are used for scripture.

[13:13]  ⁶ tc The MT reads יֵחָבֶל (yekhavel, “he will pay [for it]”; cf. NAB, NIV) but the BHS editors suggest revocalizing the text to יְחֻבָּל (yÿkhubal, “he will be broken [for it]”; cf. NRSV “bring destruction on themselves”).

[13:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “fears a commandment”; NIV “respects a command.”

[13:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “he” or “that one” [will be rewarded].

[13:13]  ⁹ tc The LXX adds: “A crafty son will have no good thing, but the affairs of a wise servant will be prosperous; and his path will be directed rightly.”

[36:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all the words.”

[36:16]  ¹¹ tn According to BDB 808 s.v. פָּחַד Qal.1 and 40 s.v. אֶל 3.a, this is an example of the “pregnant” use of a preposition where an implied verb has to be supplied in the translation to conform the normal range of the preposition with the verb that is governing it. The Hebrew text reads: “they feared unto one another.” BDB translates “they turned in dread to each other.” The translation adopted seems more appropriate in this context.

[36:16]  ¹² tn Heb “We must certainly report to the king all these things.” Here the word דְּבָרִים (dÿvarim) must mean “things” (cf. BDB 183 s.v. דָּבָר IV.3) rather than “words” because a verbatim report of all the words in the scroll is scarcely meant. The present translation has chosen to use a form that suggests a summary report of all the matters spoken about in the scroll rather than the indefinite “things.”

[36:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “doors.” This is the only time the word “door” is used in this way but all the commentaries and lexicons agree that it means “columns.” The meaning is figurative based on the similarity of shape.

[36:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he.” The majority of commentaries and English versions are agreed that “he” is the king. However, since a penknife (Heb “a scribe’s razor”) is used to cut the columns off, it is possible that Jehudi himself did it. However, even if Jehudi himself did it, he was acting on the king’s orders.

[36:23]  ¹⁵ sn Heb “a scribe’s razor.” There is some irony involved here since a scribe’s razor was used to trim the sheets to be sewn together, scrape them in preparation for writing, and to erase errors. What was normally used to prepare the scroll was used to destroy it.

[36:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “until the whole scroll was consumed upon the fire which was in the fire pot.”

[36:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words were afraid or tore their clothes.” The sentence has been broken up into two shorter sentences to better conform to English style and some of the terms explained (e.g., tore their clothes) for the sake of clarity.

[36:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And also Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged [or had urged] the king not to burn the scroll, but he did not listen to them.” The translation attempts to lessen the clash in chronological sequencing with the preceding. This sentence is essentially a flash back to a time before the scroll was totally burned (v. 23).