Jeremiah 7:23

7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: ¹  “Obey me. If you do, I ²  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ³  and things will go well with you.”

Isaiah 2:5

2:5 O descendants ⁴  of Jacob,

come, let us walk in the Lord’s guiding light. ⁵ 

Isaiah 30:21

30:21 You ⁶  will hear a word spoken behind you, saying,

“This is the correct ⁷  way, walk in it,”

whether you are heading to the right or the left.

John 12:35

12:35 Jesus replied, ⁸  “The light is with you for a little while longer. ⁹  Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. ¹⁰  The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

John 13:17

13:17 If you understand ¹¹  these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Colossians 2:6

Warnings Against the Adoption of False Philosophies

2:6 Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, ¹²  continue to live your lives ¹³  in him,

[7:23]  ¹ tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

[7:23]  ² tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23]  ³ tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

[2:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “house,” referring to the family line or descendants (likewise in v. 6).

[2:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “let’s walk in the light of the Lord.” In this context, which speaks of the Lord’s instruction and commands, the “light of the Lord” refers to his moral standards by which he seeks to guide his people. One could paraphrase, “let’s obey the Lord’s commands.”

[30:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “your ears” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:21]  ⁷ tn The word “correct’ is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:35]  ⁸ tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”

[12:35]  ⁹ tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”

[12:35]  ¹⁰ sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.

[13:17]  ¹¹ tn Grk “If you know.”

[2:6]  ¹² tn Though the verb παρελάβετε (parelabete) does not often take a double accusative, here it seems to do so. Both τὸν Χριστὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν (ton Criston Ihsoun) and τὸν κύριον (ton kurion) are equally definite insofar as they both have an article, but both the word order and the use of “Christ Jesus” as a proper name suggest that it is the object (cf. Rom 10:9, 10). Thus Paul is affirming that the tradition that was delivered to the Colossians by Epaphras was Christ-centered and focused on him as Lord.

[2:6]  ¹³ tn The present imperative περιπατεῖτε (peripateite) implies, in this context, a continuation of something already begun. This is evidenced by the fact that Paul has already referred to their faith as “orderly” and “firm” (2:5), despite the struggles of some of them with this deceptive heresy (cf. 2:16-23). The verb is used literally to refer to a person “walking” and is thus used metaphorically (i.e., ethically) to refer to the way a person lives his or her life.