Discovery BoxNehemiah 5:9
Context5:9 Then I 1 said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! 2 Should you not conduct yourselves 3 in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?
Job 31:23
Context31:23 For the calamity from God was a terror to me, 4
and by reason of his majesty 5 I was powerless.
Psalms 112:1
Context112:1 Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the one 7 who obeys 8 the Lord,
who takes great delight in keeping his commands. 9
Psalms 147:11
Context147:11 The Lord takes delight in his faithful followers, 10
and in those who wait for his loyal love.
Proverbs 16:6
Context16:6 Through loyal love and truth 11 iniquity is appeased; 12
through fearing the Lord 13 one avoids 14 evil. 15
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
Context12:13 Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: 16
Fear God and keep his commandments,
because this is the whole duty 17 of man.
12:14 For God will evaluate every deed, 18
including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Isaiah 50:10
Context50:10 Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys 19 his servant?
Whoever walks in deep darkness, 20
without light,
should trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on his God.
Luke 18:2-4
Context18:2 He said, 21 “In a certain city 22 there was a judge 23 who neither feared God nor respected people. 24 18:3 There was also a widow 25 in that city 26 who kept coming 27 to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 18:4 For 28 a while he refused, but later on 29 he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, 30
[5:9] 1 tc The translation reads with the Qere and the ancient versions וָאוֹמַר (va’omar, “and I said”) rather than the MT Kethib, וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer, “and he said”).
[5:9] 2 tn Heb “not good.” The statement “The thing…is not good” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression which emphasizes the intended point (“The thing…is wrong!”) by negating its opposite.
[5:9] 3 tn Heb “[should you not] walk.”
[31:23] 4 tc The LXX has “For the terror of God restrained me.” Several commentators changed it to “came upon me.” Driver had “The fear of God was burdensome.” I. Eitan suggested “The terror of God was mighty upon me” (“Two unknown verbs: etymological studies,” JBL 42 [1923]: 22-28). But the MT makes clear sense as it stands.
[31:23] 5 tn The form is וּמִשְּׂאֵתוֹ (umissÿ’eto); the preposition is causal. The form, from the verb נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to raise; to lift high”), refers to God’s exalted person, his majesty (see Job 13:11).
[112:1] 6 sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
[112:1] 7 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.
[112:1] 9 tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.
[147:11] 10 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
[16:6] 11 sn These two words are often found together to form a nominal hendiadys: “faithful loyal love.” The couplet often characterize the
[16:6] 12 tn Heb “is atoned”; KJV “is purged”; NAB “is expiated.” The verb is from I כָּפַר (kafar, “to atone; to expiate; to pacify; to appease”; HALOT 493-94 s.v. I כפר). This root should not be confused with the identically spelled Homonym II כָּפַר (kafar, “to cover over”; HALOT 494 s.v. II *כפר). Atonement in the OT expiated sins, it did not merely cover them over (cf. NLT). C. H. Toy explains the meaning by saying it affirms that the divine anger against sin is turned away and man’s relation to God is as though he had not sinned (Proverbs [ICC], 322). Genuine repentance, demonstrated by loyalty and truthfulness, appeases the anger of God against one’s sin.
[16:6] 13 tn Heb “fear of the
[16:6] 14 tn Heb “turns away from”; NASB “keeps away from.”
[16:6] 15 sn The Hebrew word translated “evil” (רַע, ra’) can in some contexts mean “calamity” or “disaster,” but here it seems more likely to mean “evil” in the sense of sin. Faithfulness to the
[12:13] 16 tn Heb “The end of the matter, everything having been heard.”
[12:13] 17 tn Heb “This is all men”; or “This is the whole of man.” The phrase זֶה כָּל־הָאָדָם (zeh kol-ha’adam, “this is all men”) features rhetorical elision of a key word. The ambiguity over the elided word has led to no less than five basic approaches: (1) “this is the whole duty of man” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NAB, NIV); (2) “this is the duty of all men” (MLB, ASV margin, RSV margin); (3) “this applies to all men” (NASB, NJPS); (4) “this is the whole duty of all men” (NRSV, Moffatt); and (5) “there is no more to man than this” (NEB). The four-fold repetition of כֹּל (kol, “all”) in 12:13-14 suggests that Qoheleth is emphasizing the “bottom line,” that is, the basic duty of man is simply to fear and obey God: After “all” (כֹּל) has been heard in the book, his conclusion is that the “whole” (כֹּל) duty of man is to obey God because God will bring “all” (כֹּל) acts into judgment, including “all” (כֹּל) that is hidden, whether good or bad. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:596.
[12:14] 18 tn Heb “will bring every deed into judgment.”
[50:10] 19 tn Heb “[who] listens to the voice of his servant?” The interrogative is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
[50:10] 20 tn The plural indicates degree. Darkness may refer to exile and/or moral evil.
[18:2] 21 tn Grk “lose heart, saying.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronominal subject “He.”
[18:2] 23 sn The judge here is apparently portrayed as a civil judge who often handled financial cases.
[18:2] 24 tn Grk “man,” but the singular ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used as a generic in comparison to God.
[18:3] 25 sn This widow was not necessarily old, since many people lived only into their thirties in the 1st century.
[18:3] 27 tn This is an iterative imperfect; the widow did this on numerous occasions.
[18:4] 28 tn Grk “And for.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
[18:4] 29 tn Grk “after these things.”
[18:4] 30 tn Grk “man,” but the singular ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used as a generic in comparison to God.
