Job 24:14-15

24:14 Before daybreak ¹  the murderer rises up;

he kills the poor and the needy;

in the night he is ²  like a thief. ³ 

24:15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,

thinking, ⁴  ‘No eye can see me,’

and covers his face with a mask.

Ecclesiastes 10:12-13

Words and Works of Wise Men and Fools

10:12 The words of a wise person ⁵  win him ⁶  favor, ⁷ 

but the words ⁸  of a fool are self-destructive. ⁹ 

10:13 At the beginning his words ¹⁰  are foolish

and at the end ¹¹  his talk ¹²  is wicked madness, ¹³ 

Ecclesiastes 10:20

10:20 Do not curse a king even in your thoughts,

and do not curse the rich ¹⁴  while in your bedroom; ¹⁵ 

for a bird ¹⁶  might report what you are thinking, ¹⁷ 

or some winged creature ¹⁸  might repeat your ¹⁹  words. ²⁰ 

Matthew 12:36

12:36 I ²¹  tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak.

Jude 1:14-15

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ²²  even prophesied of them, ²³  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ²⁴  with thousands and thousands ²⁵  of his holy ones, 1:15 to execute judgment on ²⁶  all, and to convict every person ²⁷  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ²⁸  that they have committed, ²⁹  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ³⁰ 

[24:14]  ¹ tn The text simply has לָאוֹר (la’or, “at light” or “at daylight”), probably meaning just at the time of dawn.

[24:14]  ² tn In a few cases the jussive is used without any real sense of the jussive being present (see GKC 323 §109.k).

[24:14]  ³ sn The point is that he is like a thief in that he works during the night, just before the daylight, when the advantage is all his and the victim is most vulnerable.

[24:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “saying.”

[10:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “of a wise man’s mouth.”

[10:12]  ⁶ tn The phrase “win him” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[10:12]  ⁷ tn Or “are gracious.” The antithetical parallelism suggests that חֵן (khen) does not denote “gracious character” but “[gain] favor” (e.g., Gen 39:21; Exod 3:21; 11:3; 12:36; Prov 3:4, 34; 13:15; 22:1; 28:23; Eccl 9:11); cf. HALOT 332 s.v. חֵן 2; BDB 336 s.v. חֵן 2. The LXX, on the other hand, rendered חֶן with χάρις (caris, “gracious”). The English versions are divided: “are gracious” (KJV, YLT, ASV, NASB, NIV) and “win him favor” (NEB, RSV, NRSV, NAB, MLB, NJPS, Moffatt).

[10:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “lips.”

[10:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “consume him”; or “engulf him.” The verb I בלע (“to swallow”) creates a striking wordplay on the homonymic root II בלע (“to speak eloquently”; HALOT 134-35 s.v בלע). Rather than speaking eloquently (II בלע, “to speak eloquently”), the fool utters words that are self-destructive (I בלע, “to swallow, engulf”).

[10:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the words of his mouth.”

[10:13]  ¹¹ sn The terms “beginning” and “end” form a merism, a figure of speech in which two opposites are contrasted to indicate totality (e.g., Deut 6:7; Ps 139:8; Eccl 3:2-8). The words of a fool are madness from “start to finish.”

[10:13]  ¹² tn Heb “his mouth.”

[10:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “madness of evil.”

[10:20]  ¹⁴ tn Perhaps the referent is people who are in authority because of their wealth.

[10:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in chambers of your bedroom.”

[10:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a bird of the air.”

[10:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “might carry the voice.” The article is used here with the force of a possessive pronoun.

[10:20]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew phrase בַּעַל הַכְּנָפַיִם (ba’al hakkÿnafayim, “possessor of wings”) is an idiom for a winged creature, that is, a bird (e.g., Prov 1:17; see HALOT 143 s.v. בַּעַל A.6; BDB 127 s.v. בַּעַל 5.a). The term בַּעַל (“master; possessor”) is the construct governing the attributive genitive הַכְּנָפַיִם (“wings”); see IBHS 149-51 §9.5.3b.

[10:20]  ¹⁹ tn The term “your” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[10:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “tell the matter.”

[12:36]  ²¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[1:14]  ²² tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

[1:14]  ²³ tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ²⁴ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ²⁵ tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

[1:15]  ²⁶ tn Grk “against” (κατά [kata] + genitive). English usage is satisfied with “on” at this point, but the parallel is lost in the translation to some degree, for the end of v. 15 says that this judgment is meted out on these sinners because they spoke against him (κατά + genitive).

[1:15]  ²⁷ tn Or “soul.”

[1:15]  ²⁸ tn Grk “of all their works of ungodliness.” The adverb “thoroughly” is part of the following verb “have committed.” See note on verb “committed” later in this verse.

[1:15]  ²⁹ tn The verb in Greek does not simply mean “have committed,” but “have committed in an ungodly way.” The verb ἀσεβέω (asebew) is cognate to the noun ἀσέβεια (asebeia, “ungodliness”). There is no easy way to express this in English, since English does not have a single word that means the same thing. Nevertheless, the tenor of v. 15 is plainly seen, regardless of the translation.

[1:15]  ³⁰ sn An apparent quotation from 1 En. 1:9. There is some doubt as to whether Jude is actually quoting from the text of 1 Enoch; the text here in Jude differs in some respects from the extant text of this pseudepigraphic book. It is sometimes suggested that Jude may instead have been quoting from oral tradition which had roots older than the written text.