Job 42:8

42:8 So now take ¹  seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede ²  for you, and I will respect him, ³  so that I do not deal with you ⁴  according to your folly, ⁵  because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ⁶ 

Genesis 12:2

12:2 Then I will make you ⁷  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ⁸ 

and I will make your name great, ⁹ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 18:24-33

18:24 What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare ¹¹  the place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it? 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge ¹²  of the whole earth do what is right?” ¹³ 

18:26 So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom fifty godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

18:27 Then Abraham asked, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord ¹⁴  (although I am but dust and ashes), ¹⁵  18:28 what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy ¹⁶  the whole city because five are lacking?” ¹⁷  He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

18:29 Abraham ¹⁸  spoke to him again, ¹⁹  “What if forty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”

18:30 Then Abraham ²⁰  said, “May the Lord not be angry ²¹  so that I may speak! ²²  What if thirty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

18:31 Abraham ²³  said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

18:32 Finally Abraham ²⁴  said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

18:33 The Lord went on his way ²⁵  when he had finished speaking ²⁶  to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home. ²⁷ 

Genesis 19:29

19:29 So when God destroyed ²⁸  the cities of the region, ²⁹  God honored ³⁰  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ³¹  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ³²  the cities Lot had lived in.

Psalms 106:23

106:23 He threatened ³³  to destroy them,

but ³⁴  Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him ³⁵ 

and turned back his destructive anger. ³⁶ 

Psalms 106:30

106:30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened, ³⁷ 

and the plague subsided.

Ezekiel 22:30

22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ³⁸ 

Acts 27:24

27:24 and said, ³⁹  ‘Do not be afraid, Paul! You must stand before ⁴⁰  Caesar, ⁴¹  and God has graciously granted you the safety ⁴²  of all who are sailing with you.’

Hebrews 11:7

11:7 By faith Noah, when he was warned about things not yet seen, with reverent regard ⁴³  constructed an ark for the deliverance of his family. Through faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

[42:8]  ¹ tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.

[42:8]  ² tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”

[42:8]  ³ tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”

[42:8]  ⁴ tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.

[42:8]  ⁵ tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.

[42:8]  ⁶ sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.

[12:2]  ⁷ tn The three first person verbs in v. 2a should be classified as cohortatives. The first two have pronominal suffixes, so the form itself does not indicate a cohortative. The third verb form is clearly cohortative.

[12:2]  ⁸ sn I will bless you. The blessing of creation is now carried forward to the patriarch. In the garden God blessed Adam and Eve; in that blessing he gave them (1) a fruitful place, (2) endowed them with fertility to multiply, and (3) made them rulers over creation. That was all ruined at the fall. Now God begins to build his covenant people; in Gen 12-22 he promises to give Abram (1) a land flowing with milk and honey, (2) a great nation without number, and (3) kingship.

[12:2]  ⁹ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and be a blessing.” The verb form הְיֵה (hÿyeh) is the Qal imperative of the verb הָיָה (hayah). The vav (ו) with the imperative after the cohortatives indicates purpose or consequence. What does it mean for Abram to “be a blessing”? Will he be a channel or source of blessing for others, or a prime example of divine blessing? A similar statement occurs in Zech 8:13, where God assures his people, “You will be a blessing,” in contrast to the past when they “were a curse.” Certainly “curse” here does not refer to Israel being a source of a curse, but rather to the fact that they became a curse-word or byword among the nations, who regarded them as the epitome of an accursed people (see 2 Kgs 22:19; Jer 42:18; 44:8, 12, 22). Therefore the statement “be a blessing” seems to refer to Israel being transformed into a prime example of a blessed people, whose name will be used in blessing formulae, rather than in curses. If the statement “be a blessing” is understood in the same way in Gen 12:2, then it means that God would so bless Abram that other nations would hear of his fame and hold him up as a paradigm of divine blessing in their blessing formulae.

[18:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “lift up,” perhaps in the sense of “bear with” (cf. NRSV “forgive”).

[18:25]  ¹² tn Or “ruler.”

[18:25]  ¹³ sn Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? For discussion of this text see J. L. Crenshaw, “Popular Questioning of the Justice of God in Ancient Israel,” ZAW 82 (1970): 380-95, and C. S. Rodd, “Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What Is Just?” ExpTim 83 (1972): 137-39.

[18:27]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 30, 31, 32 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[18:27]  ¹⁵ tn The disjunctive clause is a concessive clause here, drawing out the humility as a contrast to the Lord.

[18:28]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) was used earlier to describe the effect of the flood.

[18:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “because of five.”

[18:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:29]  ¹⁹ tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys – the preterite (“he added”) is combined with an adverb “yet” and an infinitive “to speak.”

[18:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:30]  ²¹ tn Heb “let it not be hot to the Lord.” This is an idiom which means “may the Lord not be angry.”

[18:30]  ²² tn After the jussive, the cohortative indicates purpose/result.

[18:31]  ²³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:33]  ²⁵ tn Heb “And the Lord went.”

[18:33]  ²⁶ tn The infinitive construct (“speaking”) serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”

[18:33]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to his place.”

[19:29]  ²⁸ tn The construction is a temporal clause comprised of the temporal indicator, an infinitive construct with a preposition, and the subjective genitive.

[19:29]  ²⁹ tn Or “of the plain”; Heb “of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:29]  ³⁰ tn Heb “remembered,” but this means more than mental recollection here. Abraham’s request (Gen 18:23-32) was that the Lord not destroy the righteous with the wicked. While the requisite minimum number of righteous people (ten, v. 32) needed for God to spare the cities was not found, God nevertheless rescued the righteous before destroying the wicked.

[19:29]  ³¹ sn God’s removal of Lot before the judgment is paradigmatic. He typically delivers the godly before destroying their world.

[19:29]  ³² tn Heb “the overthrow when [he] overthrew.”

[106:23]  ³³ tn Heb “and he said.”

[106:23]  ³⁴ tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”

[106:23]  ³⁵ tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”

[106:23]  ³⁶ tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”

[106:30]  ³⁷ sn The intervention of Phinehas is recounted in Num 25:7-8.

[22:30]  ³⁸ tn Heb “I did not find.”

[27:24]  ³⁹ tn Grk “came to me saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:24]  ⁴⁰ tn BDAG 778 s.v. παρίστημι/παριστάνω 2.a.α states, “Also as a t.t. of legal usage appear before, come before…Καίσαρι σε δεῖ παραστῆναι you must stand before the Emperor (as judge) Ac 27:24.” See Acts 23:11. Luke uses the verb δεῖ (dei) to describe what must occur.

[27:24]  ⁴¹ tn Or “before the emperor” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).

[27:24]  ⁴² tn Grk “God has graciously granted you all who are sailing with you.” The words “the safety of” have been supplied to clarify the meaning of the verb κεχάρισται (kecaristai) in this context.

[11:7]  ⁴³ tn Cf. BDAG 407 s.v. εὐλαβέομαι 2, “out of reverent regard (for God’s command).”