Job 18:14

18:14 He is dragged from the security of his tent, ¹ 

and marched off ²  to the king ³  of terrors.

Job 27:18

27:18 The house he builds is as fragile as a moth’s cocoon, ⁴ 

like a hut ⁵  that a watchman has made.

Psalms 52:5-7

52:5 Yet ⁶  God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. ⁷ 

He will scoop you up ⁸  and remove you from your home; ⁹ 

he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)

52:6 When the godly see this, they will be filled with awe,

and will mock the evildoer, saying: ¹⁰ 

52:7 “Look, here is the man who would not make ¹¹  God his protector!

He trusted in his great wealth

and was confident about his plans to destroy others.” ¹² 

Psalms 112:10

112:10 When the wicked ¹³  see this, they will worry;

they will grind their teeth in frustration ¹⁴  and melt away;

the desire of the wicked will perish. ¹⁵ 

Proverbs 10:28

10:28 The hope ¹⁶  of the righteous is joy,

but the expectation of the wicked will remain unfulfilled. ¹⁷ 

Matthew 7:24-27

Hearing and Doing

7:24 “Everyone ¹⁸  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ¹⁹  a wise man ²⁰  who built his house on rock. 7:25 The rain fell, the flood ²¹  came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock. 7:26 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 7:27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” ²² 

Luke 6:47-49

6:47 “Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and puts them into practice ²³  – I will show you what he is like: 6:48 He is like a man ²⁴  building a house, who dug down deep, ²⁵  and laid the foundation on bedrock. When ²⁶  a flood came, the river ²⁷  burst against that house but ²⁸  could not shake it, because it had been well built. ²⁹  6:49 But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice ³⁰  is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When ³¹  the river burst against that house, ³²  it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!” ³³ 

[18:14]  ¹ tn Heb “from his tent, his security.” The apposition serves to modify the tent as his security.

[18:14]  ² tn The verb is the Hiphil of צָעַד (tsa’ad, “to lead away”). The problem is that the form is either a third feminine (Rashi thought it was referring to Job’s wife) or the second person. There is a good deal of debate over the possibility of the prefix t- being a variant for the third masculine form. The evidence in Ugaritic and Akkadian is mixed, stronger for the plural than the singular. Gesenius has some samples where the third feminine form might also be used for the passive if there is no expressed subject (see GKC 459 §144.b), but the evidence is not strong. The simplest choices are to change the prefix to a י (yod), or argue that the ת (tav) can be masculine, or follow Gesenius.

[18:14]  ³ sn This is a reference to death, the king of all terrors. Other identifications are made in the commentaries: Mot, the Ugaritic god of death; Nergal of the Babylonians; Molech of the Canaanites, the one to whom people sent emissaries.

[27:18]  ⁴ tn Heb כָעָשׁ (kha’ash, “like a moth”), but this leaves room for clarification. Some commentators wanted to change it to “bird’s nest” or just “nest” (cf. NRSV) to make the parallelism; see Job 4:14. But the word is not found. The LXX has a double expression, “as moths, as a spider.” So several take it as the spider’s web, which is certainly unsubstantial (cf. NAB, NASB, NLT; see Job 8:14).

[27:18]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew word is the word for “booth,” as in the Feast of Booths. The word describes something that is flimsy; it is not substantial at all.

[52:5]  ⁶ tn The adverb גַּם (gam, “also; even”) is translated here in an adversative sense (“yet”). It highlights the contrastive correspondence between the evildoer’s behavior and God’s response.

[52:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “will tear you down forever.”

[52:5]  ⁸ tn This rare verb (חָתָה, khatah) occurs only here and in Prov 6:27; 25:22; Isa 30:14.

[52:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “from [your] tent.”

[52:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the godly will see and will fear and at him will laugh.”

[52:7]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect verbal form here draws attention to the ongoing nature of the action. The evildoer customarily rejected God and trusted in his own abilities. Another option is to take the imperfect as generalizing, “[here is the man who] does not make.”

[52:7]  ¹² tn Heb “he was strong in his destruction.” “Destruction” must refer back to the destructive plans mentioned in v. 2. The verb (derived from the root עָזַז, ’azaz, “be strong”) as it stands is either an imperfect (if so, probably used in a customary sense) or a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive). However the form should probably be emended to וַיָּעָז (vayya’az), a Qal preterite (with vav [ו] consecutive) from עָזַז. Note the preterite form without vav (ו) consecutive in the preceding line (וַיִּבְטַח, vayyivtakh, “and he trusted”). The prefixed vav (ו) was likely omitted by haplography (note the suffixed vav [ו] on the preceding עָשְׁרוֹ, ’oshro, “his wealth”).

[112:10]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular; the representative wicked individual is in view as typifying the group (note the use of the plural form in v. 10).

[112:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his teeth he will gnash.” In Pss 35:16 and 37:12 this action is associated with a vicious attack.

[112:10]  ¹⁵ tn This could mean that the desires of the wicked will go unfulfilled. Another possibility is that “desire” refers by metonymy to the object desired and acquired. In this case the point is that the wicked will lose what they desired so badly and acquired by evil means (see Ps 10:3).

[10:28]  ¹⁶ sn This proverb contrasts the hopes of the righteous and the wicked. The righteous will see their hopes fulfilled. The saying is concerned with God’s justice. The words תּוֹחֶלֶת (tokhelet, from יָחַל, yakhal) and תִּקְוַת (tiqvat, from קָוָה, qavah) are synonyms, both emphasizing eager expectations, longings, waiting in hope.

[10:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “will perish”; NAB “comes to nought.”

[7:24]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[7:24]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[7:24]  ²⁰ tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.

[7:25]  ²¹ tn Grk “the rivers.”

[7:27]  ²² tn Grk “and great was its fall.”

[6:47]  ²³ tn Grk “and does them.”

[6:48]  ²⁴ tn Here and in v. 49 the Greek text reads ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), while the parallel account in Matt 7:24-27 uses ἀνήρ (anhr) in vv. 24 and 26.

[6:48]  ²⁵ tn There are actually two different Greek verbs used here: “who dug (ἔσκαψεν, eskayen) and dug deep (ἐβάθυνεν, ebaqunen).” Jesus is placing emphasis on the effort to which the man went to prepare his foundation.

[6:48]  ²⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[6:48]  ²⁷ sn The picture here is of a river overflowing its banks and causing flooding and chaos.

[6:48]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

[6:48]  ²⁹ tc Most mss, especially later ones (A C D Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï latt), read “because he built [it] on the rock” rather than “because it had been well built” (Ì^75vid א B L W Ξ 33 579 892 1241 2542 pc sa). The reading of the later mss seems to be a harmonization to Matt 7:25, rendering it most likely secondary.

[6:49]  ³⁰ tn Grk “does not do [them].”

[6:49]  ³¹ tn Grk “against which”; because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative clause was converted to a temporal clause in the translation and a new sentence started here.

[6:49]  ³² tn Grk “it”; the referent (that house) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:49]  ³³ tn Grk “and its crash was great.”