Judges 16:6

16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me what makes you so strong and how you can be subdued and humiliated.” ¹ 

Judges 16:13

16:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you can be subdued.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven braids of my hair ²  into the fabric on the loom ³  and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.”

Judges 16:16

16:16 She nagged him ⁴  every day and pressured him until he was sick to death of it. ⁵ 

Genesis 3:6

3:6 When ⁶  the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, ⁷  was attractive ⁸  to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, ⁹  she took some of its fruit and ate it. ¹⁰  She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. ¹¹ 

Job 2:9

2:9 Then ¹²  his wife said to him, “Are you still holding firmly to your integrity? ¹³  Curse ¹⁴  God, and die!” ¹⁵ 

Proverbs 7:21

7:21 She persuaded him ¹⁶  with persuasive words; ¹⁷ 

with her smooth talk ¹⁸  she compelled him. ¹⁹ 

Luke 11:8

11:8 I tell you, even though the man inside ²⁰  will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of the first man’s ²¹  sheer persistence ²²  he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

Luke 18:4-5

18:4 For ²³  a while he refused, but later on ²⁴  he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, ²⁵  18:5 yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out ²⁶  by her unending pleas.’” ²⁷ 

[16:6]  ¹ tn Heb “how you can be subdued in order to be humiliated.”

[16:13]  ² tn Heb “head” (also in the following verse). By metonymy the head is mentioned in the Hebrew text in place of the hair on it.

[16:13]  ³ tn Heb “with the web.” For a discussion of how Delilah did this, see C. F. Burney, Judges, 381, and G. F. Moore, Judges (ICC), 353-54.

[16:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “forced him with her words.”

[16:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “and his spirit was short [i.e., impatient] to the point of death.”

[3:6]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.

[2:9]  ¹² tn The versions have some information here that is interesting, albeit fanciful. The Targum calls her “Dinah.” The LXX has “when a long time had passed.” But the whole rendering of the LXX is paraphrastic: “How long will you hold out, saying, ‘Behold, I wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my deliverance?’ for behold, your memorial is abolished from the earth, even your sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb which I bore in vain with sorrows, and you yourself sit down to spend the night in the open air among the corruption of worms, and I am a wanderer and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting for the setting sun, that I may rest from my labors and pains that now beset me, but say some word against the Lord and die.”

[2:9]  ¹³ sn See R. D. Moore, “The Integrity of Job,” CBQ 45 (1983): 17-31. The reference of Job’s wife to his “integrity” could be a precursor of the conclusion reached by Elihu in 32:2 where he charged Job with justifying himself rather than God.

[2:9]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is literally בָּרַךְ, (barakh, “bless”). As in the earlier uses, the meaning probably has more to do with renouncing God than of speaking a curse. The actual word may be taken as a theological euphemism for the verb קִלֵּל (qillel, “curse”). If Job’s wife had meant that he was trying to justify himself rather than God, “bless God” might be translated “speak well of God,” the resolution accepted by God in 42:7-8 following Job’s double confession of having spoken wrongly of God (40:3-5; 42:1-6).

[2:9]  ¹⁵ tn The imperative with the conjunction in this expression serves to express the certainty that will follow as the result or consequence of the previous imperative (GKC 324-25 §110.f).

[7:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “she turned him aside.” This expression means that she persuaded him. This section now begins the description of the capitulation, for the flattering speech is finished.

[7:21]  ¹⁷ sn The term לֶקַח (leqakh) was used earlier in Proverbs for wise instruction; now it is used ironically for enticement to sin (see D. W. Thomas, “Textual and Philological Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 280-92).

[7:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “smooth of her lips”; cf. NAB “smooth lips”; NASB “flattering lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause representing what she says.

[7:21]  ¹⁹ tn The verb means “to impel; to thrust; to banish,” but in this stem in this context “to compel; to force” into some action. The imperfect tense has the nuance of progressive imperfect to parallel the characteristic perfect of the first colon.

[11:8]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man in bed in the house) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:8]  ²¹ tn Grk “his”; the referent (the first man mentioned) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:8]  ²² tn The term ἀναίδεια (anaideia) is hard to translate. It refers to a combination of ideas, a boldness that persists over time, or “audacity,” which comes close. It most likely describes the one making the request, since the unit’s teaching is an exhortation about persistence in prayer. Some translate the term “shamelessness” which is the term’s normal meaning, and apply it to the neighbor as an illustration of God responding for the sake of his honor. But the original question was posed in terms of the first man who makes the request, not of the neighbor, so the teaching underscores the action of the one making the request.

[18:4]  ²³ tn Grk “And for.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[18:4]  ²⁴ tn Grk “after these things.”

[18:4]  ²⁵ tn Grk “man,” but the singular ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used as a generic in comparison to God.

[18:5]  ²⁶ tn The term ὑπωπιάζω (Jupwpiazw) in this context means “to wear someone out by continual annoying” (L&N 25.245).

[18:5]  ²⁷ tn Grk “by her continual coming,” but the point of annoyance to the judge is her constant pleas for justice (v. 3).