Job 31:13-16

31:13 “If I have disregarded the right of my male servants

or my female servants

when they disputed ¹  with me,

31:14 then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment; ² 

when he intervenes, ³ 

how will I respond to him?

31:15 Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? ⁴ 

Did not the same one form us in the womb?

31:16 If I have refused to give the poor what they desired, ⁵ 

or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

Job 36:5

36:5 Indeed, God is mighty; and he does not despise people, ⁶ 

he ⁷  is mighty, and firm ⁸  in his intent. ⁹ 

Proverbs 17:5

17:5 The one who mocks the poor ¹⁰  insults ¹¹  his Creator;

whoever rejoices over disaster will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 19:7

19:7 All the relatives ¹²  of a poor person hate him; ¹³ 

how much more do his friends avoid him –

he pursues them ¹⁴  with words, but they do not respond. ¹⁵ 

Proverbs 19:17

19:17 The one who is gracious ¹⁶  to the poor lends ¹⁷  to the Lord,

and the Lord ¹⁸  will repay him ¹⁹  for his good deed. ²⁰ 

Proverbs 19:22

19:22 What is desirable ²¹  for a person is to show loyal love, ²² 

and a poor person is better than a liar. ²³ 

Matthew 6:25-26

Do Not Worry

6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry ²⁴  about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? 6:26 Look at the birds in the sky: ²⁵  They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds ²⁶  them. Aren’t you more valuable ²⁷  than they are?

Matthew 11:5

11:5 The blind see, the ²⁸  lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.

Matthew 26:11

26:11 For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me! ²⁹ 

Luke 6:20

6:20 Then ³⁰  he looked up ³¹  at his disciples and said:

“Blessed ³²  are you who are poor, ³³  for the kingdom of God belongs ³⁴  to you.

Luke 14:13

14:13 But when you host an elaborate meal, ³⁵  invite the poor, the crippled, ³⁶  the lame, and ³⁷  the blind. ³⁸ 

Philippians 4:11-13

4:11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in any circumstance. 4:12 I have experienced times of need and times of abundance. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, ³⁹  whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing. 4:13 I am able to do all things ⁴⁰  through the one ⁴¹  who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:1

Christian Practices

4:1 So then, my brothers and sisters, ⁴²  dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!

Philippians 1:6-9

1:6 For I am sure of this very thing, ⁴³  that the one ⁴⁴  who began a good work in ⁴⁵  you will perfect it ⁴⁶  until the day of Christ Jesus. 1:7 For ⁴⁷  it is right for me to think this about all of you, because I have you in my heart, ⁴⁸  since both in my imprisonment ⁴⁹  and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel all of you became partners in God’s grace ⁵⁰  together with me. 1:8 For God is my witness that I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 1:9 And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight

Hebrews 13:5

13:5 Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” ⁵¹ 

James 2:5-6

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ⁵²  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor! ⁵³  Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts?

[31:13]  ¹ tn This construction is an adverbial clause using the temporal preposition, the infinitive from רִיב (riv, “contend”), and the suffix which is the subjective genitive.

[31:14]  ² tn Heb “arises.” The LXX reads “takes vengeance,” an interpretation that is somewhat correct but unnecessary. The verb “to rise” would mean “to confront in judgment.”

[31:14]  ³ tn The verb פָקַד (paqad) means “to visit,” but with God as the subject it means any divine intervention for blessing or cursing, anything God does that changes a person’s life. Here it is “visit to judge.”

[31:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “him,” but the plural pronoun has been used in the translation to indicate that the referent is the servants mentioned in v. 13 (since the previous “him” in v. 14 refers to God).

[31:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “kept the poor from [their] desire.”

[36:5]  ⁶ tn The object “people” is not in the Hebrew text but is implied.

[36:5]  ⁷ tn The text simply repeats “mighty.”

[36:5]  ⁸ tn The last two words are simply כֹּחַ לֵב (koakh lev, “strong in heart”), meaning something like “strong; firm in his decisions.”

[36:5]  ⁹ tc There are several problems in this verse: the repetition of “mighty,” the lack of an object for “despise,” and the meaning of “strength of heart.” Many commentators reduce the verse to a single line, reading something like “Lo, God does not reject the pure in heart” (Kissane). Dhorme and Pope follow Nichols with: “Lo, God is mighty in strength, and rejects not the pure in heart.” This reading moved “mighty” to the first line and took the second to be בַּר (bar, “pure”).

[17:5]  ¹⁰ sn The parallelism helps define the subject matter: The one who “mocks the poor” (NAB, NASB, NIV) is probably one who “rejoices [NIV gloats] over disaster.” The poverty is hereby explained as a disaster that came to some. The topic of the parable is the person who mocks others by making fun of their misfortune.

[17:5]  ¹¹ sn The Hebrew word translated “insults” (חֵרֵף, kheref) means “reproach; taunt” (as with a cutting taunt); it describes words that show contempt for or insult God. The idea of reproaching the Creator may be mistaking and blaming God’s providential control of the world (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 337). W. G. Plaut, however, suggests that mocking the poor means holding up their poverty as a personal failure and thus offending their dignity and their divine nature (Proverbs, 187).

[19:7]  ¹² tn Heb “brothers,” but not limited only to male siblings in this context.

[19:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “hate him.” The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) may be nuanced “reject” here (metonymy of effect, cf. CEV). The kind of “dislike” or “hatred” family members show to a poor relative is to have nothing to do with him (NIV “is shunned”). If relatives do this, how much more will the poor person’s friends do so.

[19:7]  ¹⁴ tn The direct object “them” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

[19:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “not they.” The last line of the verse is problematic. The preceding two lines are loosely synonymous in their parallelism, but the third adds something like: “he pursues [them with] words, but they [do] not [respond].” Some simply say it is a corrupt remnant of a separate proverb and beyond restoration. The basic idea does make sense, though. The idea of his family and friends rejecting the poor person reveals how superficial they are, and how they make themselves scarce. Since they are far off, he has to look for them “with words” (adverbial accusative), that is, “send word” for help. But they “are nowhere to be found” (so NIV). The LXX reads “will not be delivered” in place of “not they” – clearly an attempt to make sense out of the cryptic phrase, and, in the process, showing evidence for that text.

[19:17]  ¹⁶ sn The participle חוֹנֵן (khonen, “shows favor to”) is related to the word for “grace.” The activity here is the kind favor shown poor people for no particular reason and with no hope of repayment. It is literally an act of grace.

[19:17]  ¹⁷ tn The form מַלְוֵה (malveh) is the Hiphil participle from לָוָה (lavah) in construct; it means “to cause to borrow; to lend.” The expression here is “lender of the Lord.” The person who helps the poor becomes the creditor of God.

[19:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he.” The referent of the 3rd person masculine singular pronoun is “the Lord” in the preceding line, which has been supplied here in the translation for clarity.

[19:17]  ¹⁹ sn The promise of reward does not necessarily mean that the person who gives to the poor will get money back; the rewards in the book of Proverbs involve life and prosperity in general.

[19:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and his good deed will repay him.” The word גְּמֻלוֹ (gÿmulo) could be (1) the subject or (2) part of a double accusative of the verb. Understanding it as part of the double accusative makes better sense, for then the subject of the verb is God. How “his deed” could repay him is not immediately obvious.

[19:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “the desire of a man” (so KJV). The noun in construct is תַּאֲוַת (ta’avat), “desire [of].” Here it refers to “the desire of a man [= person].” Two problems surface here, the connotation of the word and the kind of genitive. “Desire” can also be translated “lust,” and so J. H. Greenstone has “The lust of a man is his shame” (Proverbs, 208). But the sentence is more likely positive in view of the more common uses of the words. “Man” could be a genitive of possession or subjective genitive – the man desires loyal love. It could also be an objective genitive, meaning “what is desired for a man.” The first would be the more natural in the proverb, which is showing that loyal love is better than wealth.

[19:22]  ²² tn Heb “[is] his loyal love”; NIV “unfailing love”; NRSV “loyalty.”

[19:22]  ²³ sn The second half of the proverb presents the logical inference: The liar would be without “loyal love” entirely, and so poverty would be better than this. A poor person who wishes to do better is preferable to a person who makes promises and does not keep them.

[6:25]  ²⁴ tn Or “do not be anxious,” and so throughout the rest of this paragraph.

[6:26]  ²⁵ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[6:26]  ²⁶ tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”

[6:26]  ²⁷ tn Grk “of more value.”

[11:5]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. Two other conjunctions are omitted in this series.

[26:11]  ²⁹ tn In the Greek text of this clause, “me” is in emphatic position (the first word in the clause). To convey some impression of the emphasis, an exclamation point is used in the translation.

[6:20]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[6:20]  ³¹ tn Grk “lifting up his eyes” (an idiom). The participle ἐπάρας (epara") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[6:20]  ³² sn The term Blessed introduces the first of several beatitudes promising blessing to those whom God cares for. They serve as an invitation to come into the grace God offers.

[6:20]  ³³ sn You who are poor is a reference to the “pious poor” for whom God especially cares. See Ps 14:6; 22:24; 25:16; 34:6; 40:17; 69:29.

[6:20]  ³⁴ sn The present tense (belongs) here is significant. Jesus makes the kingdom and its blessings currently available. This phrase is unlike the others in the list with the possessive pronoun being emphasized. Jesus was saying, in effect, “the kingdom belongs even now to people like you.”

[14:13]  ³⁵ tn This term, δοχή (doch), is a third term for a meal (see v. 12) that could also be translated “banquet, feast.”

[14:13]  ³⁶ sn Normally the term means crippled as a result of being maimed or mutilated (L&N 23.177).

[14:13]  ³⁷ tn Here “and” has been supplied between the last two elements in the series in keeping with English style.

[14:13]  ³⁸ sn This list of needy is like Luke 7:22. See Deut 14:28-29; 16:11-14; 26:11-13.

[4:12]  ³⁹ tn The words “of contentment” are not in the Greek text, but are implied by Paul’s remarks at the end of v. 11.

[4:13]  ⁴⁰ tn The Greek word translated “all things” is in emphatic position at the beginning of the Greek sentence.

[4:13]  ⁴¹ tc Although some excellent witnesses lack explicit reference to the one strengthening Paul (so א* A B D* I 33 1739 lat co Cl), the majority of witnesses (א² D² [F G] Ψ 075 1881 Ï sy) add Χριστῷ (Cristw) here (thus, “through Christ who strengthens me”). But this kind of reading is patently secondary, and is a predictable variant. Further, the shorter reading is much harder, for it leaves the agent unspecified.

[4:1]  ⁴² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.

[1:6]  ⁴³ tn Grk “since I am sure of this very thing.” The verse begins with an adverbial participle that is dependent on the main verb in v. 3 (“I thank”). Paul here gives one reason for his thankfulness.

[1:6]  ⁴⁴ tn The referent is clearly God from the overall context of the paragraph and the mention of “the day of Christ Jesus” at the end, which would be redundant if Christ were referred to here.

[1:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “among.”

[1:6]  ⁴⁶ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text but has been supplied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “Just as.” The sense here is probably, “So I give thanks (v. 3) just as it is right for me…”

[1:7]  ⁴⁸ tn Or possibly “because you have me in your heart.”

[1:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “in my bonds.” The meaning “imprisonment” derives from a figurative extension of the literal meaning (“bonds,” “fetters,” “chains”), L&N 37.115.

[1:7]  ⁵⁰ tn The word “God’s” is supplied from the context (v. 2) to clarify the meaning.

[13:5]  ⁵¹ sn A quotation from Deut 31:6, 8.

[2:5]  ⁵² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:6]  ⁵³ tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.