Numbers 16:28-34

16:28 Then Moses said, “This is how ¹  you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will. ²  16:29 If these men die a natural death, ³  or if they share the fate ⁴  of all men, then the Lord has not sent me. 16:30 But if the Lord does something entirely new, ⁵  and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up ⁶  along with all that they have, and they ⁷  go down alive to the grave, ⁸  then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

16:31 When he had finished ⁹  speaking ¹⁰  all these words, the ground that was under them split open, 16:32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, along with their households, and all Korah’s men, and all their goods. 16:33 They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community. 16:34 All the Israelites ¹¹  who were around them fled at their cry, ¹²  for they said, “What if ¹³  the earth swallows us too?”

Proverbs 9:6

9:6 Abandon your foolish ways ¹⁴  so that you may live, ¹⁵ 

and proceed ¹⁶  in the way of understanding.”

Luke 21:36

21:36 But stay alert at all times, ¹⁷  praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that must ¹⁸  happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Luke 21:2

21:2 He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ¹⁹ 

Colossians 1:20

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, ²⁰  whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Colossians 1:17

1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together ²¹  in him.

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²²  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 4:16

4:16 And after ²³  you have read this letter, have it read ²⁴  to the church of Laodicea. In turn, read the letter from Laodicea ²⁵  as well.

Hebrews 3:12-13

3:12 See to it, ²⁶  brothers and sisters, ²⁷  that none of you has ²⁸  an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes ²⁹  the living God. ³⁰  3:13 But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may become hardened by sin’s deception.

James 4:8-10

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. ³¹  4:9 Grieve, mourn, ³²  and weep. Turn your laughter ³³  into mourning and your joy into despair. 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

Revelation 3:17-19

3:17 Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, ³⁴  and need nothing,” but ³⁵  do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, ³⁶  poor, blind, and naked, 3:18 take my advice ³⁷  and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me ³⁸  white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness ³⁹  will not be exposed, and buy eye salve ⁴⁰  to put on your eyes so you can see! 3:19 All those ⁴¹  I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent!

Revelation 18:4-5

18:4 Then ⁴²  I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so you will not take part in her sins and so you will not receive her plagues, 18:5 because her sins have piled ⁴³  up all the way to heaven ⁴⁴  and God has remembered ⁴⁵  her crimes. ⁴⁶ 

[16:28]  ¹ tn Heb “in this.”

[16:28]  ² tn The Hebrew text simply has כִּי־לֹא מִלִּבִּי (ki-lo’ millibbi, “for not from my heart”). The heart is the center of the will, the place decisions are made (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament). Moses is saying that the things he has done have not come “from the will of man” so to speak – and certainly not from some secret desire on his part to seize power.

[16:29]  ³ tn Heb “if like the death of every man they die.”

[16:29]  ⁴ tn The noun is פְּקֻדָּה (pÿquddah, “appointment, visitation”). The expression refers to a natural death, parallel to the first expression.

[16:30]  ⁵ tn The verb בָּרָא (bara’) is normally translated “create” in the Bible. More specifically it means to fashion or make or do something new and fresh. Here the verb is joined with its cognate accusative to underscore that this will be so different everyone will know it is of God.

[16:30]  ⁶ tn The figures are personifications. But they vividly describe the catastrophe to follow – which was very much like a mouth swallowing them.

[16:30]  ⁷ tn The word is “life” or “lifetime”; it certainly means their lives – they themselves. But the presence of this word suggest more. It is an accusative specifying the state of the subject – they will go down alive to Sheol.

[16:30]  ⁸ tn The word “Sheol” in the Bible can be used four different ways: the grave, the realm of the departed [wicked] spirits or Hell, death in general, or a place of extreme danger (one that will lead to the grave if God does not intervene). The usage here is certainly the first, and very likely the second as well. A translation of “pit” would not be inappropriate. Since they will go down there alive, it is likely that they will sense the deprivation and the separation from the land above. See H. W. Robinson, Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament; N. J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the Old Testament (BibOr 21), 21-23; and A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic, especially ch. 3.

[16:31]  ⁹ tn The initial temporal clause is standard: It begins with the temporal indicator “and it was,” followed here by the Piel infinitive construct with the preposition and the subjective genitive suffix. “And it happened when he finished.”

[16:31]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition lamed (ל) functions here as the direct object of the preceding infinitive. It tells what he finished.

[16:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all Israel.”

[16:34]  ¹² tn Heb “voice.”

[16:34]  ¹³ tn Heb “lest.”

[9:6]  ¹⁴ tn There are two ways to take this word: either as “fools” or as “foolish ways.” The spelling for “foolishness” in v. 13 differs from this spelling, and so some have taken that as an indicator that this should be “fools.” But this could still be an abstract plural here as in 1:22. Either the message is to forsake fools (i.e., bad company; cf. KJV, TEV) or forsake foolishness (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[9:6]  ¹⁵ tn The two imperatives are joined with vav; this is a volitive sequence in which result or consequence is expressed.

[9:6]  ¹⁶ tn The verb means “go straight, go on, advance” or “go straight on in the way of understanding” (BDB 80 s.v. אָשַׁר).

[21:36]  ¹⁷ sn The call to be alert at all times is a call to remain faithful in looking for the Lord’s return.

[21:36]  ¹⁸ tn For the translation of μέλλω (mellw) as “must,” see L&N 71.36.

[21:2]  ¹⁹ 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.

[1:20]  ²⁰ tc The presence or absence of the second occurrence of the phrase δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (di’ autou, “through him”) is a difficult textual problem to solve. External evidence is fairly evenly divided. Many ancient and excellent witnesses lack the phrase (B D* F G I 0278 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 al latt sa), but equally important witnesses have it (Ì⁴⁶ א A C D¹ Ψ 048^vid 33 Ï). Both readings have strong Alexandrian support, which makes the problem difficult to decide on external evidence alone. Internal evidence points to the inclusion of the phrase as original. The word immediately preceding the phrase is the masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou); thus the possibility of omission through homoioteleuton in various witnesses is likely. Scribes might have deleted the phrase because of perceived redundancy or awkwardness in the sense: The shorter reading is smoother and more elegant, so scribes would be prone to correct the text in that direction. As far as style is concerned, repetition of key words and phrases for emphasis is not foreign to the corpus Paulinum (see, e.g., Rom 8:23, Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 12:7). In short, it is easier to account for the shorter reading arising from the longer reading than vice versa, so the longer reading is more likely original.

[1:17]  ²¹ tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.

[1:1]  ²² tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[4:16]  ²³ tn Grk “when.”

[4:16]  ²⁴ tn The construction beginning with the imperative ποιήσατε ἵνα…ἀναγνωσθῇ (poihsate Jina…anagnwsqh) should be translated as “have it read” where the conjunction ἵνα functions to mark off its clause as the direct object of the imperative ποιήσατε. The content of the clause (“reading the letter”) is what Paul commands with the imperative ποιήσατε. Thus the translation “have it read” has been used here.

[4:16]  ²⁵ sn This letter is otherwise unknown, but some have suggested that it is the letter known today as Ephesians.

[3:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “take care.”

[3:12]  ²⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:12]  ²⁸ tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”

[3:12]  ²⁹ tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”

[3:12]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”

[4:8]  ³¹ tn Or “two-minded” (the same description used in 1:8).

[4:9]  ³² tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[4:9]  ³³ tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”

[3:17]  ³⁴ tn Grk “and have become rich.” The semantic domains of the two terms for wealth here, πλούσιος (plousios, adjective) and πλουτέω (ploutew, verb) overlap considerably, but are given slightly different English translations for stylistic reasons.

[3:17]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:17]  ³⁶ tn All the terms in this series are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[3:18]  ³⁷ tn Grk “I counsel you to buy.”

[3:18]  ³⁸ tn Grk “rich, and.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation, repeating the words “Buy from me” to make the connection clear for the English reader.

[3:18]  ³⁹ tn Grk “the shame of the nakedness of you,” which has been translated as an attributed genitive like καινότητι ζωῆς (kainothti zwh") in Rom 6:4 (ExSyn 89-90).

[3:18]  ⁴⁰ sn The city of Laodicea had a famous medical school and exported a powder (called a “Phrygian powder”) that was widely used as an eye salve. It was applied to the eyes in the form of a paste the consistency of dough (the Greek term for the salve here, κολλούριον, kollourion [Latin collyrium], is a diminutive form of the word for a long roll of bread).

[3:19]  ⁴¹ tn The Greek pronoun ὅσος (Josos) means “as many as” and can be translated “All those” or “Everyone.”

[18:4]  ⁴² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[18:5]  ⁴³ tn On ἐκολλήθησαν (ekollhqhsan) BDAG 556 s.v. κολλάω 2.a.β states, “fig. cling to = come in close contact with (cp. Ps 21:16; 43:26 ἐκολλήθη εἰς γῆν ἡ γαστὴρ ἡμῶν. The act.=‘bring into contact’ PGM 5, 457 κολλήσας τ. λίθον τῷ ὠτίῳ) ἐκολλήθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ἄχρι τ. οὐρανοῦ the sins have touched the heaven = reached the sky (two exprs. are telescoped) Rv 18:5.”

[18:5]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “up to the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[18:5]  ⁴⁵ tn That is, remembered her sins to execute judgment on them.

[18:5]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “her sins.”