Leviticus 1:14

From the Birds

1:14 “‘If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering from the birds, ¹  he must present his offering from the turtledoves or from the young pigeons. ² 

Leviticus 5:7

5:7 “‘If he cannot afford an animal from the flock, ³  he must bring his penalty for guilt for his sin that he has committed, ⁴  two turtledoves or two young pigeons, ⁵  to the Lord, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering.

Leviticus 12:8

12:8 If she cannot afford a sheep, ⁶  then she must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, ⁷  one for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering, and the priest is to make atonement on her behalf, and she will be clean.’” ⁸ 

Leviticus 12:1

Purification of a Woman after Childbirth

12:1 The Lord spoke to Moses:

Leviticus 2:8

2:8 “‘You must bring the grain offering that must be made from these to the Lord. Present it to the priest, ⁹  and he will bring it to the altar.

Job 34:19

34:19 who shows no partiality to princes,

and does not take note of ¹⁰  the rich more than the poor,

because all of them are the work of his hands?

Proverbs 17:5

17:5 The one who mocks the poor ¹¹  insults ¹²  his Creator;

whoever rejoices over disaster will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 22:2

22:2 The rich and the poor meet together; ¹³ 

the Lord is the creator of them both. ¹⁴ 

Luke 6:20

6:20 Then ¹⁵  he looked up ¹⁶  at his disciples and said:

“Blessed ¹⁷  are you who are poor, ¹⁸  for the kingdom of God belongs ¹⁹  to you.

Luke 21:2-4

21:2 He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ²⁰  21:3 He ²¹  said, “I tell you the truth, ²²  this poor widow has put in more than all of them. ²³  21:4 For they all offered their gifts out of their wealth. ²⁴  But she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had to live on.” ²⁵ 

Luke 21:2

21:2 He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ²⁶ 

Colossians 1:9

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ²⁷  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ²⁸  to fill ²⁹  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Colossians 1:12

1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share ³⁰  in the saints’ ³¹  inheritance in the light.

James 2:5-6

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ³²  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! ³³  Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts?

[1:14]  ¹ tn Heb “from the [category] ‘bird.’”

[1:14]  ² tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT) or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168, with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14).

[5:7]  ³ tn Heb “and if his hand does not reach enough of a flock animal” (see the note on v. 11 below). The term translated “animal from the flock” (שֶׂה, seh) is often translated “lamb” (e.g., KJV, NASB, NIV, NCV) or “sheep” (e.g., NRSV, TEV, NLT), but it clearly includes either a sheep or a goat here (cf. v. 6), referring to the smaller pasture animals as opposed to the larger ones (i.e., cattle; cf. 4:3). Some English versions use the more generic “animal” (e.g., NAB, CEV).

[5:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he shall bring his guilt which he sinned,” which is an abbreviated form of Lev 5:6, “and he shall bring his [penalty for] guilt to the Lord for his sin which he committed.” The words “for his sin” have been left out in v. 7, and “to the Lord” has been moved so that it follows the mention of the birds.

[5:7]  ⁵ tn See the note on Lev 1:14 above.

[12:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “If her hand cannot find the sufficiency of a sheep.” Many English versions render this as “lamb.”

[12:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168, with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14; cf. Lev 1:14 and esp. 5:7-10).

[12:8]  ⁸ tn Or “she will be[come] pure.”

[2:8]  ⁹ tc There are several person, gender, and voice verb problems in this verse. First, the MT has “And you shall bring the grain offering,” but the LXX and Qumran have “he” rather than “you” (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:185). Second, the MT has “which shall be made” (i.e., the 3rd person masculine Niphal passive verb which, in fact, does not agree with its feminine subject, מִנְחָה, minkhah, “grain offering”), while the LXX has “which he shall make” (3rd person Qal), thus agreeing with the LXX 3rd person verb at the beginning of the verse (see above). Third, the MT has a 3rd person vav consecutive verb “and he shall present it to the priest,” which agrees with the LXX but is not internally consistent with the 2nd person verb at the beginning of the verse in the MT. The BHS editors conjecture that the latter might be repointed to an imperative verb yielding “present it to the priest.” This would require no change of consonants and corresponds to the person of the first verb in the MT. This solution has been tentatively accepted here (cf. also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 26-27), even though it neither resolves the gender problem of the second verb nor fits the general grammatical pattern of the chapter in the MT.

[34:19]  ¹⁰ tn The verb means “to give recognition; to take note of” and in this passage with לִפְנֵי (lifne, “before”) it means to show preferential treatment to the rich before the poor. The word for “rich” here is an unusual word, found parallel to “noble” (Isa 32:2). P. Joüon thinks it is a term of social distinction (Bib 18 [1937]: 207-8).

[17:5]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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).

[22:2]  ¹³ tn The form of the verb is the Niphal perfect of פָּגַשׁ (pagash); it means “to meet together [or, each other]” (cf. KJV, ASV). The point is that rich and poor live side by side in this life, but they are both part of God’s creation (cf. NAB, NASB “have a common bond”). Some commentators have taken this to mean that they should live together because they are part of God’s creation; but the verb form will not sustain that meaning.

[22:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all.” The Lord is sovereign over both groups, that is, he has had the final say whether a person is rich or poor. People would do well to treat all people with respect, for God can as easily reduce the rich to poverty as raise up the poor to wealth.

[6:20]  ¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[6:20]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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.”

[21:2]  ²⁰ sn These two small copper coins were lepta (sing. “lepton”), the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth one-half of a quadrans or 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in value.

[21:3]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[21:3]  ²² tn Grk “Truly, I say to you.”

[21:3]  ²³ sn Has put in more than all of them. With God, giving is weighed evaluatively, not counted. The widow was praised because she gave sincerely and at some considerable cost to herself.

[21:4]  ²⁴ tn Grk “out of what abounded to them.”

[21:4]  ²⁵ tn Or “put in her entire livelihood.”

[21:2]  ²⁶ sn These two small copper coins were lepta (sing. “lepton”), the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth one-half of a quadrans or 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in value.

[1:9]  ²⁷ tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ²⁸ tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ²⁹ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[1:12]  ³⁰ tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.

[1:12]  ³¹ tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”

[2:5]  ³² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:6]  ³³ tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.