Joshua 8:27

8:27 But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in accordance with the Lord’s orders to Joshua. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 20:14

20:14 However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city – all its plunder – you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you.

Job 27:16-17

27:16 If he piles up silver like dust

and stores up clothing like mounds of clay,

27:17 what he stores up ²  a righteous man will wear,

and an innocent man will inherit his silver.

Psalms 39:6

39:6 Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. ³ 

Surely they accumulate worthless wealth

without knowing who will eventually haul it away.” ⁴ 

Proverbs 13:22

13:22 A benevolent ⁵  person leaves an inheritance ⁶  for his grandchildren, ⁷ 

but the wealth of a sinner is stored up for the righteous. ⁸ 

Proverbs 28:20

28:20 A faithful person ⁹  will have an abundance of blessings,

but the one who hastens ¹⁰  to gain riches will not go unpunished.

Jeremiah 17:11

17:11 The person who gathers wealth by unjust means

is like the partridge that broods over eggs but does not hatch them. ¹¹ 

Before his life is half over he will lose his ill-gotten gains. ¹² 

At the end of his life it will be clear he was a fool.” ¹³ 

Luke 12:20-21

12:20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life ¹⁴  will be demanded back from ¹⁵  you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ ¹⁶  12:21 So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, ¹⁷  but is not rich toward God.”

[8:27]  ¹ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua.”

[27:17]  ² tn The text simply repeats the verb from the last clause. It could be treated as a separate short clause: “He may store it up, but the righteous will wear it. But it also could be understood as the object of the following verb, “[what] he stores up the righteous will wear.” The LXX simply has, “All these things shall the righteous gain.”

[39:6]  ³ tn Heb “surely, as an image man walks about.” The preposition prefixed to “image” indicates identity here.

[39:6]  ⁴ tc Heb “Surely [in] vain they strive, he accumulates and does not know who gathers them.” The MT as it stands is syntactically awkward. The verb forms switch from singular (“walks about”) to plural (“they strive”) and then back to singular (“accumulates and does not know”), even though the subject (generic “man”) remains the same. Furthermore there is no object for the verb “accumulates” and no plural antecedent for the plural pronoun (“them”) attached to “gathers.” These problems can be removed if one emends the text from הֶבֶל יֶהֱמָיוּן (hevel yehemaun, “[in] vain they strive”) to הֶבְלֵי הָמוֹן (hevley hamon, “vain things of wealth”). This assumes a misdivision in the MT and a virtual dittography of vav (ו) between the mem and nun of המון. The present translation follows this emendation.

[13:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “good.”

[13:22]  ⁶ sn In ancient Israel the idea of leaving an inheritance was a sign of God’s blessing; blessings extended to the righteous and not the sinners.

[13:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “the children of children.”

[13:22]  ⁸ sn In the ultimate justice of God, the wealth of the wicked goes to the righteous after death (e.g., Ps 49:10, 17).

[28:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “a man of faithfulness,” although the context does not indicate this should be limited only to males.

[28:20]  ¹⁰ sn The proverb is not rebuking diligent labor. One who is eager to get rich quickly is the opposite of the faithful person. The first person is faithful to God and to the covenant community; the second is trying to get rich as quickly as possible, at the least without doing an honest day’s work and at the worst dishonestly. In a hurry to gain wealth, he falls into various schemes and will pay for it. Tg. Prov 28:20 interprets this to say he hastens through deceit and wrongdoing.

[17:11]  ¹¹ tn The meaning of this line is somewhat uncertain. The word translated “broods over” occurs only here and Isa 34:15. It is often defined on the basis of an Aramaic cognate which means “to gather” with an extended meaning of “to gather together under her to hatch.” Many commentators go back to a Rabbinic explanation that the partridge steals the eggs of other birds and hatches them out only to see the birds depart when they recognize that she is not the mother. Modern studies question the validity of this zoologically. Moreover, W. L. Holladay contests the validity on the basis of the wording “and she does hatch them” (Heb “bring them to birth”). See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:498, and see also P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, J. F. Drinkard, Jeremiah 1-25 (WBC), 229. The point of the comparison is that the rich gather their wealth but they do not get to see the fruits of it.

[17:11]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text merely says “it.” But the antecedent might be ambiguous in English so the reference to wealth gained by unjust means is here reiterated for clarity.

[17:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “he will be [= prove to be] a fool.”

[12:20]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “your soul,” but ψυχή (yuch) is frequently used of one’s physical life. It clearly has that meaning in this context.

[12:20]  ¹⁵ tn Or “required back.” This term, ἀπαιτέω (apaitew), has an economic feel to it and is often used of a debt being called in for repayment (BDAG 96 s.v. 1).

[12:20]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” The words “for yourself” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[12:21]  ¹⁷ sn It is selfishness that is rebuked here, in the accumulation of riches for himself. Recall the emphasis on the first person pronouns throughout the parable.