Jeremiah 35:7

35:7 Do not build houses. Do not plant crops. Do not plant a vineyard or own one. ¹  Live in tents all your lives. If you do these things you will ²  live a long time in the land that you wander about on.’ ³ 

Numbers 16:14

16:14 Moreover, ⁴  you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey, nor given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you think you can blind ⁵  these men? We will not come up.”

Numbers 16:2

16:2 and rebelled against Moses, along with some of the Israelites, 250 leaders ⁶  of the community, chosen from the assembly, ⁷  famous men. ⁸ 

Numbers 5:26

5:26 Then the priest will take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water.

Psalms 37:16

37:16 The little bit that a godly man owns is better than

the wealth of many evil men, ⁹ 

Psalms 37:1

Psalm 37 ¹⁰ 

By David.

37:1 Do not fret ¹¹  when wicked men seem to succeed! ¹² 

Do not envy evildoers!

Psalms 6:6

6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;

all night long I drench my bed in tears; ¹³ 

my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. ¹⁴ 

[35:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Don’t plant a vineyard and it shall not be to you [= and you shall/must not have one].”

[35:7]  ² tn Heb “Don’t…and don’t…but live…in order that you might….”

[35:7]  ³ sn Heb “where you are sojourning.” The terms “sojourn” and “sojourner” referred to a person who resided in a country not his own, without the rights and privileges of citizenship as a member of a nation, state, or principality. In the ancient Near East such people were dependent on the laws of hospitality rather than the laws of state for protection and provision of legal rights. Perhaps the best illustration of this is Abraham who “sojourned” among the Philistines and the Hittites in Canaan and was dependent upon them for grazing and water rights and for a place to bury his wife (cf. Gen 20-24). What is described here is the typical lifestyle of a nomadic tribe.

[16:14]  ⁴ tn Here אַף (’af) has the sense of “in addition.” It is not a common use.

[16:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “will you bore out the eyes of these men?” The question is “Will you continue to mislead them?” (or “hoodwink” them). In Deut 16:19 it is used for taking a bribe; something like that kind of deception is intended here. They are simply stating that Moses is a deceiver who is misleading the people with false promises.

[16:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “princes” (so KJV, ASV).

[16:2]  ⁷ tn These men must have been counselors or judges of some kind.

[16:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “men of name,” or “men of renown.”

[37:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “Better [is] a little to the godly one than the wealth of many evil ones.” The following verses explain why this is true. Though a godly individual may seem to have only meager possessions, he always has what he needs and will eventually possess the land. The wicked may prosper for a brief time, but will eventually be destroyed by divine judgment and lose everything.

[37:1]  ¹⁰ sn Psalm 37. The psalmist urges his audience not to envy the wicked, but to trust in and obey the Lord, for he will destroy sinners and preserve the godly. When the smoke of judgment clears, the wicked will be gone, but the godly will remain and inherit God’s promised blessings. The psalm is an acrostic; every other verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[37:1]  ¹¹ tn The verb form is singular (see vv. 3-10 as well, where the second person verbs and pronouns are also singular). The psalmist’s exhortation has a wisdom flavor to it; it is personalized for each member of his audience.

[37:1]  ¹² tn Heb “over sinners.” The context indicates that the psalmist has in mind the apparent power and success of sinners. See v. 7b.

[6:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”

[6:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”