Job 33:12

33:12 Now in this, you are not right – I answer you, ¹ 

for God is greater than a human being. ² 

Job 35:5-7

35:5 Gaze at the heavens and see;

consider the clouds, which are higher than you! ³ 

35:6 If you sin, how does it affect God? ⁴ 

If your transgressions are many,

what does it do to him? ⁵ 

35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God,

or what does he receive from your hand?

Numbers 23:19

23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,

nor a human being, ⁶  that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? ⁷ 

Numbers 23:1

Balaam Blesses Israel

23:1 ⁸ Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

Numbers 16:7

16:7 put fire in them, and set incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses will be holy. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!”

Ecclesiastes 6:10

The Futile Way Life Works

6:10 Whatever has happened was foreordained, ⁹ 

and what happens to a person ¹⁰  was also foreknown.

It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate

because God is more powerful than he is. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 45:9

The Lord Gives a Warning

45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ¹² 

one who is like a mere ¹³  shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter, ¹⁴ 

“What in the world ¹⁵  are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!” ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 49:19

49:19 “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan ¹⁷ 

scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. ¹⁸ 

So too I will chase the Edomites off their land. ¹⁹ 

Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. ²⁰ 

For there is no one like me, and there is no one who can call me to account. ²¹ 

There is no ²²  ruler ²³  who can stand up against me.

Romans 9:20

9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being ²⁴  – to talk back to God? ²⁵  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ²⁶ 

Romans 9:1

Israel’s Rejection Considered

9:1 ²⁷ I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me ²⁸  in the Holy Spirit –

Romans 3:20

3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him ²⁹  by the works of the law, ³⁰  for through the law comes ³¹  the knowledge of sin.

[33:12]  ¹ tn The meaning of this verb is “this is my answer to you.”

[33:12]  ² tc The LXX has “he that is above men is eternal.” Elihu is saying that God is far above Job’s petty problems.

[35:5]  ³ tn The preposition is taken here as a comparative min (מִן). The line could also read “that are high above you.” This idea has appeared in the speech of Eliphaz (22:12), Zophar (11:7ff.), and even Job (9:8ff.).

[35:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “him” (also in v. 7); the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[35:6]  ⁵ tn See Job 7:20.

[23:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “son of man.”

[23:19]  ⁷ tn The verb is the Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “to cause to rise; to make stand”). The meaning here is more of the sense of fulfilling the promises made.

[23:1]  ⁸ sn The first part of Balaam’s activity ends in disaster for Balak – he blesses Israel. The chapter falls into four units: the first prophecy (vv. 1-10), the relocation (vv. 11-17), the second prophecy (vv. 18-24), and a further location (vv. 25-30).

[6:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “already its name was called.”

[6:10]  ¹⁰ tn Or “and what a person (Heb “man”) is was foreknown.”

[6:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he cannot contend with the one who is more powerful than him.” The referent of the “the one who is more powerful than he is” (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The words “with God about his fate” have been added for clarity as well.

[45:9]  ¹² tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”

[45:9]  ¹³ tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[45:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”

[45:9]  ¹⁵ tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.

[45:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your work, there are no hands for it,” i.e., “your work looks like something made by a person who has no hands.”

[49:19]  ¹⁷ tn See the study note on Jer 12:5 for the rendering of this term.

[49:19]  ¹⁸ tn “The pasture-ground on the everflowing river” according to KBL 42 s.v. I אֵיתָן 1. The “everflowing river” refers to the Jordan.

[49:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Behold, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan into the pastureland of everflowing water so [reading כֵּן (ken) for כִּי (ki); or “indeed” (reading כִּי as an asseverative particle with J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 719, n. 6)] I will suddenly chase him [Edom] from upon it [the land].” The sentence has been restructured to better conform with contemporary English style and the significance of the simile drawn from the comparison has been spelled out for the sake of clarity. The form אַרְגִּיעָה (’argi’ah) is functioning here as an adverbial modifier in a verbal hendiadys (cf. GKC 386 §120.g).

[49:19]  ²⁰ tn For the use of the interrogative מִי (mi) in the sense of “whoever” and functioning like an adjective see BDB 567 s.v. מִי g and compare the usage in Prov 9:4, 16.

[49:19]  ²¹ tn For the meaning of this verb in the sense of “arraign” or “call before the bar of justice” compare Job 9:19 and see BDB 417 s.v. יָעַד Hiph.

[49:19]  ²² tn The interrogative מִי (mi) is rendered “there is no one” in each of the last three occurrences in this verse because it is used in a rhetorical question that expects the answer “no one” or “none” and is according to BDB 566 s.v. מִי f(c) equivalent to a rhetorical negative.

[49:19]  ²³ tn The word “shepherd” (רֹעֶה, ro’eh) has been used often in the book of Jeremiah to refer metaphorically to the ruler or leader (cf. BDB 945 s.v. I רָעָה Qal.1.d(2) and compare usage, e.g., in Jer 2:8; 23:1).

[9:20]  ²⁴ tn Grk “O man.”

[9:20]  ²⁵ tn Grk “On the contrary, O man, who are you to talk back to God?”

[9:20]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9.

[9:1]  ²⁷ sn Rom 9:1–11:36. These three chapters are among the most difficult and disputed in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. One area of difficulty is the relationship between Israel and the church, especially concerning the nature and extent of Israel’s election. Many different models have been constructed to express this relationship. For a representative survey, see M. Barth, The People of God (JSNTSup), 22-27. The literary genre of these three chapters has been frequently identified as a diatribe, a philosophical discussion or conversation evolved by the Cynic and Stoic schools of philosophy as a means of popularizing their ideas (E. Käsemann, Romans, 261 and 267). But other recent scholars have challenged the idea that Rom 9–11 is characterized by diatribe. Scholars like R. Scroggs and E. E. Ellis have instead identified the material in question as midrash. For a summary and discussion of the rabbinic connections, see W. R. Stegner, “Romans 9.6-29 – A Midrash,” JSNT 22 (1984): 37-52.

[9:1]  ²⁸ tn Or “my conscience bears witness to me.”

[3:20]  ²⁹ sn An allusion to Ps 143:2.

[3:20]  ³⁰ tn Grk “because by the works of the law no flesh is justified before him.” Some recent scholars have understood the phrase ἒργα νόμου (erga nomou, “works of the law”) to refer not to obedience to the Mosaic law generally, but specifically to portions of the law that pertain to things like circumcision and dietary laws which set the Jewish people apart from the other nations (e.g., J. D. G. Dunn, Romans [WBC], 1:155). Other interpreters, like C. E. B. Cranfield (“‘The Works of the Law’ in the Epistle to the Romans,” JSNT 43 [1991]: 89-101) reject this narrow interpretation for a number of reasons, among which the most important are: (1) The second half of v. 20, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin,” is hard to explain if the phrase “works of the law” is understood in a restricted sense; (2) the plural phrase “works of the law” would have to be understood in a different sense from the singular phrase “the work of the law” in 2:15; (3) similar phrases involving the law in Romans (2:13, 14; 2:25, 26, 27; 7:25; 8:4; and 13:8) which are naturally related to the phrase “works of the law” cannot be taken to refer to circumcision (in fact, in 2:25 circumcision is explicitly contrasted with keeping the law). Those interpreters who reject the “narrow” interpretation of “works of the law” understand the phrase to refer to obedience to the Mosaic law in general.

[3:20]  ³¹ tn Grk “is.”