Jeremiah 10:7

10:7 Everyone should revere you, O King of all nations, ¹ 

because you deserve to be revered. ² 

For there is no one like you

among any of the wise people of the nations nor among any of their kings. ³ 

Jeremiah 36:24

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. ⁴ 

Exodus 9:30

9:30 But as for you ⁵  and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear ⁶  the Lord God.”

Proverbs 8:13

8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate ⁷  evil;

I hate arrogant pride ⁸  and the evil way

and perverse utterances. ⁹ 

Proverbs 14:16

14:16 A wise person is cautious ¹⁰  and turns from evil,

but a fool throws off restraint ¹¹  and is overconfident. ¹² 

Proverbs 16:6

16:6 Through loyal love and truth ¹³  iniquity is appeased; ¹⁴ 

through fearing the Lord ¹⁵  one avoids ¹⁶  evil. ¹⁷ 

Proverbs 28:14

28:14 Blessed is the one who is always cautious, ¹⁸ 

but whoever hardens his heart ¹⁹  will fall into evil.

Ecclesiastes 8:12-13

8:12 Even though a sinner might commit a hundred crimes ²⁰  and still live a long time, ²¹ 

yet I know that it will go well with God-fearing people ²²  – for they stand in fear ²³  before him.

8:13 But it will not go well with the wicked,

nor will they ²⁴  prolong their ²⁵  days like a shadow, ²⁶ 

because they ²⁷  do not stand in fear ²⁸  before God.

Malachi 4:2

4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ²⁹  will rise with healing wings, ³⁰  and you will skip about ³¹  like calves released from the stall.

Matthew 27:54

27:54 Now when the centurion ³²  and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were extremely terrified and said, “Truly this one was God’s Son!”

Luke 23:40

23:40 But the other rebuked him, saying, ³³  “Don’t ³⁴  you fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ³⁵ 

Romans 11:20

11:20 Granted! ³⁶  They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear!

Revelation 15:4

15:4 Who will not fear you, O Lord,

and glorify ³⁷  your name, because you alone are holy? ³⁸ 

All nations ³⁹  will come and worship before you

for your righteous acts ⁴⁰  have been revealed.”

[10:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Who should not revere you…?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[10:7]  ² tn Heb “For it is fitting to you.”

[10:7]  ³ tn Heb “their royalty/dominion.” This is a case of substitution of the abstract for the concrete “royalty, royal power” for “kings” who exercise it.

[36:24]  ⁴ 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.

[9:30]  ⁵ tn The verse begins with the disjunctive vav to mark a strong contrastive clause to what was said before this.

[9:30]  ⁶ tn The adverb טֶרֶם (terem, “before, not yet”) occurs with the imperfect tense to give the sense of the English present tense to the verb negated by it (GKC 314-15 §107.c). Moses is saying that he knew that Pharaoh did not really stand in awe of God, so as to grant Israel’s release, i.e., fear not in the religious sense but “be afraid of” God – fear “before” him (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 76).

[8:13]  ⁷ tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

[8:13]  ⁸ tn Since both גֵּאָה (ge’ah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (ga’on, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (ga’ah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”

[8:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).

[14:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fears.” Since the holy name (Yahweh, translated “the Lord”) is not used, it probably does not here mean fear of the Lord, but of the consequences of actions.

[14:16]  ¹¹ tn The Hitpael of עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”) means “to pass over the bounds of propriety; to act insolently” (BDB 720 s.v.; cf. ASV “beareth himself insolently”).

[14:16]  ¹² tn The verb בָּטַח here denotes self-assurance or overconfidence. Fools are not cautious and do not fear the consequences of their actions.

[16:6]  ¹³ sn These two words are often found together to form a nominal hendiadys: “faithful loyal love.” The couplet often characterize the Lord, but here in parallel to the fear of the Lord it refers to the faithfulness of the believer. Such faith and faithfulness bring atonement for sin.

[16:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “is atoned”; KJV “is purged”; NAB “is expiated.” The verb is from I כָּפַר (kafar, “to atone; to expiate; to pacify; to appease”; HALOT 493-94 s.v. I כפר). This root should not be confused with the identically spelled Homonym II כָּפַר (kafar, “to cover over”; HALOT 494 s.v. II *כפר). Atonement in the OT expiated sins, it did not merely cover them over (cf. NLT). C. H. Toy explains the meaning by saying it affirms that the divine anger against sin is turned away and man’s relation to God is as though he had not sinned (Proverbs [ICC], 322). Genuine repentance, demonstrated by loyalty and truthfulness, appeases the anger of God against one’s sin.

[16:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fear of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as an objective genitive: “fearing the Lord.”

[16:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “turns away from”; NASB “keeps away from.”

[16:6]  ¹⁷ sn The Hebrew word translated “evil” (רַע, ra’) can in some contexts mean “calamity” or “disaster,” but here it seems more likely to mean “evil” in the sense of sin. Faithfulness to the Lord brings freedom from sin. The verse uses synonymous parallelism with a variant: One half speaks of atonement for sin because of the life of faith, and the other of avoidance of sin because of the fear of the Lord.

[28:14]  ¹⁸ tn Most commentators (and some English versions, e.g., NIV) assume that the participle מְפַחֵד (mÿfakhed, “fears”) means “fears the Lord,” even though “the Lord” is not present in the text. Such an assumption would be more convincing if the word יִרְאַת (yir’at) had been used. It is possible that the verse refers to fearing sin or its consequences. In other words, the one who is always apprehensive about the nature and consequences of sin will avoid sin and find God’s blessing. Of course the assumption that the phrase means “fear the Lord” could be correct as well. There would be little difference in the outcome; in either case sin would be avoided.

[28:14]  ¹⁹ sn The one who “hardens his heart” in this context is the person who refuses to fear sin and its consequences. The image of the “hard heart” is one of a stubborn will, unyielding and unbending (cf. NCV, TEV, NLT). This individual will fall into sin.

[8:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “does evil one hundred [times].”

[8:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “and prolongs his [life].”

[8:12]  ²² tn Heb “those who fear God.”

[8:12]  ²³ tn Heb “they fear.”

[8:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he.”

[8:13]  ²⁵ tn The word “their” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[8:13]  ²⁶ tn The phrase “like a shadow” (כַּצֵּל, katsel) modifies the verb (“prolong”) rather than the noun (“days”). Several English versions misconstrue the line: “he will not prolong his days, [which are] like a shadow” (KJV, ASV); “the man who does not fear God is like a shadow” (NEB); and “he will not prolong his shadowy days” (NAB). It should be rendered “he will not prolong his days like a shadow” (RSV, NRSV, NASB, MLB, NIV). Unlike a shadow that lengthens at sunset, the wicked do not normally live long.

[8:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “he.”

[8:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “they do not fear.”

[4:2]  ²⁹ tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

[4:2]  ³⁰ sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

[4:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”

[27:54]  ³² sn See the note on the word centurion in Matt 8:5.

[23:40]  ³³ tn Grk “But answering, the other rebuking him, said.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.

[23:40]  ³⁴ tn The particle used here (οὐδέ, oude), which expects a positive reply, makes this a rebuke – “You should fear God and not speak!”

[23:40]  ³⁵ tn The words “of condemnation” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[11:20]  ³⁶ tn Grk “well!”, an adverb used to affirm a statement. It means “very well,” “you are correct.”

[15:4]  ³⁷ tn Or “and praise.”

[15:4]  ³⁸ sn Because you alone are holy. In the Greek text the sentence literally reads “because alone holy.” Three points can be made in connection with John’s language here: (1) Omitting the second person, singular verb “you are” lays stress on the attribute of God’s holiness. (2) The juxtaposition of alone with holy stresses the unique nature of God’s holiness and complete “otherness” in relationship to his creation. It is not just moral purity which is involved in the use of the term holy, though it certainly includes that. It is also the pervasive OT idea that although God is deeply involved in the governing of his creation, he is to be regarded as separate and distinct from it. (3) John’s use of the term holy is also intriguing since it is the term ὅσιος (Josios) and not the more common NT term ἅγιος (Jagios). The former term evokes images of Christ’s messianic status in early Christian preaching. Both Peter in Acts 2:27 and Paul in Acts 13:35 apply Psalm 16:10 (LXX) to Jesus, referring to him as the “holy one” (ὅσιος). It is also the key term in Acts 13:34 (Isa 55:3 [LXX]) where it refers to the “holy blessings” (i.e., forgiveness and justification) brought about through Jesus in fulfillment of Davidic promise. Thus, in Rev 15:3-4, when John refers to God as “holy,” using the term ὅσιος in a context where the emphasis is on both God and Christ, there might be an implicit connection between divinity and the Messiah. This is bolstered by the fact that the Lamb is referred to in other contexts as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (cf. 1:5; 17:14; 19:16 and perhaps 11:15; G. K. Beale, Revelation [NIGTC], 796-97).

[15:4]  ³⁹ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[15:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Or perhaps, “your sentences of condemnation.” On δικαίωμα (dikaiwma) in this context BDAG 249 s.v. 2. states, “righteous deed…δι᾿ ἑνὸς δικαιώματος (opp. παράπτωμα) Ro 5:18. – B 1:2 (cp. Wengst, Barnabas-brief 196, n.4); Rv 15:4 (here perh.= ‘sentence of condemnation’ [cp. Pla., Leg. 9, 864e; ins fr. Asia Minor: LBW 41, 2 [κατὰ] τὸ δι[καί]ωμα τὸ κυρω[θέν]= ‘acc. to the sentence which has become valid’]; difft. Wengst, s. above); 19:8.”