Matthew 6:25

Do Not Worry

6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry ¹  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?

Job 2:4

2:4 But ²  Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for ³  skin! ⁴  Indeed, a man will give up ⁵  all that he has to save his life! ⁶ 

Proverbs 6:4-5

6:4 Permit no sleep to your eyes ⁷ 

or slumber to your eyelids.

6:5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare, ⁸ 

and like a bird from the trap ⁹  of the fowler.

Mark 13:15-16

13:15 The one on the roof ¹⁰  must not come down or go inside to take anything out of his house. ¹¹  13:16 The one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.

Luke 17:31-33

17:31 On that day, anyone who is on the roof, ¹²  with his goods in the house, must not come down ¹³  to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back. 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife! ¹⁴  17:33 Whoever tries to keep ¹⁵  his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life ¹⁶  will preserve it.

[6:25]  ¹ tn Or “do not be anxious,” and so throughout the rest of this paragraph.

[2:4]  ² tn The form is the simply preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive. However, the speech of Satan is in contrast to what God said, even though in narrative sequence.

[2:4]  ³ tn The preposition בְּעַד (bÿ’ad) designates interest or advantage arising from the idea of protection for (“for the benefit of”); see IBHS 201-2 §11.2.7a.

[2:4]  ⁴ sn The meaning of the expression is obscure. It may come from the idea of sacrificing an animal or another person in order to go free, suggesting the expression that one type of skin that was worth less was surrendered to save the more important life. Satan would then be saying that Job was willing for others to die for him to go free, but not himself. “Skin” would be a synecdoche of the part for the whole (like the idiomatic use of skin today for a person in a narrow escape). The second clause indicates that God has not even scratched the surface because Job has been protected. His “skin” might have been scratched, but not his flesh and bone! But if his life had been put in danger, he would have responded differently.

[2:4]  ⁵ tc The LXX has “make full payment, pay a full price” (LSJ 522 s.v. ἐκτίνω).

[2:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “Indeed, all that a man has he will give for his life.”

[6:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “do not give sleep to your eyes.” The point is to go to the neighbor and seek release from the agreement immediately (cf. NLT “Don’t rest until you do”).

[6:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the hand.” Most translations supply “of the hunter.” The word “hand” can signify power, control; so the meaning is that of a gazelle freeing itself from a snare or a trap that a hunter set.

[6:5]  ⁹ tc Heb “hand” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV). Some mss and versions have it as “trap,” which may very well represent an interpretation too.

[13:15]  ¹⁰ sn Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.

[13:15]  ¹¹ sn The nature of the judgment coming upon them will be so quick and devastating that one will not have time to come down or go inside to take anything out of his house. It is best just to escape as quickly as possible.

[17:31]  ¹² sn Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.

[17:31]  ¹³ sn The swiftness and devastation of the judgment will require a swift escape. There is no time to come down from one’s roof and pick up anything from inside one’s home.

[17:32]  ¹⁴ sn An allusion to Gen 19:26. The warning about Lot’s wife is not to look back and long to be where one used to be. The world is being judged, and the person who delays or turns back will be destroyed.

[17:33]  ¹⁵ tn Or “tries to preserve”; Grk “seeks to gain.”

[17:33]  ¹⁶ sn Whoever loses his life. Suffering and persecution caused by the world, even to death, cannot stop God from saving (Luke 12:4-6).