Numbers 16:26

16:26 And he said to the community, “Move away from the tents of these wicked ¹  men, and do not touch anything they have, lest you be destroyed because ²  of all their sins.” ³ 

Deuteronomy 13:13-18

13:13 some evil people ⁴  have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities, ⁵  saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods” (whom you have not known before). ⁶  13:14 You must investigate thoroughly and inquire carefully. If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing is being done among you, ⁷  13:15 you must by all means ⁸  slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate ⁹  with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock. 13:16 You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza ¹⁰  and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin ¹¹  forever – it must never be rebuilt again. 13:17 You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment. ¹²  Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors. 13:18 Thus you must obey the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am giving ¹³  you today and doing what is right ¹⁴  before him. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 141:4

141:4 Do not let me have evil desires, ¹⁶ 

or participate in sinful activities

with men who behave wickedly. ¹⁷ 

I will not eat their delicacies. ¹⁸ 

Romans 16:17

16:17 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹⁹  to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them!

Romans 16:1

Personal Greetings

16:1 Now I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant ²⁰  of the church in Cenchrea,

Colossians 1:11

1:11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of ²¹  all patience and steadfastness, joyfully

Ephesians 5:11

5:11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather ²²  expose them. ²³ 

Ephesians 5:2

5:2 and live ²⁴  in love, just as Christ also loved us ²⁵  and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering ²⁶  to God.

Ephesians 1:10-11

1:10 toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up ²⁷  all things in Christ – the things in heaven ²⁸  and the things on earth. ²⁹  1:11 In Christ ³⁰  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ³¹  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

Revelation 18:4

18:4 Then ³²  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,

[16:26]  ¹ tn The word רָשָׁע (rasha’) has the sense of a guilty criminal. The word “wicked” sometimes gives the wrong connotation. These men were opposing the Lord, and so were condemned as criminals – they were guilty. The idea of “wickedness” therefore applies in that sense.

[16:26]  ² tn The preposition bet (בְּ) in this line is causal – “on account of their sins.”

[16:26]  ³ sn The impression is that the people did not hear what the Lord said to Moses, but only what Moses said to the people as a result. They saw the brilliant cloud, and perhaps heard the sound of his voice, but the relaying of the instructions indicates they did not hear the actual instruction from the Lord himself.

[13:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “men, sons of Belial.” The Hebrew term בְּלִיַּעַל (bÿliyya’al) has the idea of worthlessness, without morals or scruples (HALOT 133-34 s.v.). Cf. NAB, NRSV “scoundrels”; TEV, CEV “worthless people”; NLT “worthless rabble.”

[13:13]  ⁵ tc The LXX and Tg read “your” for the MT’s “their.”

[13:13]  ⁶ tn The translation understands the relative clause as a statement by Moses, not as part of the quotation from the evildoers. See also v. 2.

[13:14]  ⁷ tc Theodotian adds “in Israel,” perhaps to broaden the matter beyond the local village.

[13:15]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “by all means.” Cf. KJV, NASB “surely”; NIV “certainly.”

[13:15]  ⁹ tn Or “put under divine judgment. The Hebrew word (חֵרֶם, kherem) refers to placing persons or things under God’s judgment, usually to the extent of their complete destruction.Though primarily applied against the heathen, this severe judgment could also fall upon unrepentant Israelites (cf. the story of Achan in Josh 7). See also the note on the phrase “divine judgment” in Deut 2:34.

[13:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “street.”

[13:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “mound”; NAB “a heap of ruins.” The Hebrew word תֵּל (tel) refers to this day to a ruin represented especially by a built-up mound of dirt or debris (cf. Tel Aviv, “mound of grain”).

[13:17]  ¹² tn Or “anything that has been put under the divine curse”; Heb “anything of the ban” (cf. NASB). See note on the phrase “divine judgment” in Deut 2:34.

[13:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV).

[13:18]  ¹⁴ tc The LXX and Smr add “and good” to bring the phrase in line with a familiar cliché (cf. Deut 6:18; Josh 9:25; 2 Kgs 10:3; 2 Chr 14:1; etc.). This is an unnecessary and improper attempt to force a text into a preconceived mold.

[13:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord your God.” See note on the word “him” in v. 3.

[141:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “do not turn my heart toward an evil thing.”

[141:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to act sinfully in practices in wickedness with men, doers of evil.”

[141:4]  ¹⁸ sn Their delicacies. This probably refers to the enjoyment that a sinful lifestyle appears to offer.

[16:17]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[16:1]  ²⁰ tn Or “deaconess.” It is debated whether διάκονος (diakonos) here refers to a specific office within the church. One contextual argument used to support this view is that Phoebe is associated with a particular church, Cenchrea, and as such would therefore be a deacon of that church. In the NT some who are called διάκονος are related to a particular church, yet the scholarly consensus is that such individuals are not deacons, but “servants” or “ministers” (other viable translations for διάκονος). For example, Epaphras is associated with the church in Colossians and is called a διάκονος in Col 1:7, but no contemporary translation regards him as a deacon. In 1 Tim 4:6 Paul calls Timothy a διάκονος; Timothy was associated with the church in Ephesus, but he obviously was not a deacon. In addition, the lexical evidence leans away from this view: Within the NT, the διακον- word group rarely functions with a technical nuance. In any case, the evidence is not compelling either way. The view accepted in the translation above is that Phoebe was a servant of the church, not a deaconess, although this conclusion should be regarded as tentative.

[1:11]  ²¹ tn The expression “for the display of” is an attempt to convey in English the force of the Greek preposition εἰς (eis) in this context.

[5:11]  ²² tn The Greek conjunction καὶ (kai) seems to be functioning here ascensively, (i.e., “even”), but is difficult to render in this context using good English. It may read something like: “but rather even expose them!”

[5:11]  ²³ tn Grk “rather even expose.”

[5:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “walk.” The NT writers often used the verb “walk” (περιπατέω, peripatew) to refer to ethical conduct (cf. Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16; Col 4:5).

[5:2]  ²⁵ tc A number of important witnesses have ὑμᾶς (Jumas, “you”; e.g., א* A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally important witnesses read ἡμᾶς (Jhmas, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א² D F G Ψ 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, hgaphsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (Jumin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being original.

[5:2]  ²⁶ tn Grk “an offering and sacrifice to God as a smell of fragrance.” The first expression, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν (prosforan kai qusian), is probably a hendiadys and has been translated such that “sacrificial” modifies “offering.” The second expression, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (ei" osmhn euwdia", “as a smell of fragrance”) has been translated as “a fragrant offering”; see BDAG 728-29 s.v. ὀσμή 2. Putting these two together in a clear fashion in English yields the translation: “a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”

[1:10]  ²⁷ tn The precise meaning of the infinitive ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι (anakefalaiwsasqai) in v. 10 is difficult to determine since it was used relatively infrequently in Greek literature and only twice in the NT (here and Rom 13:9). While there have been several suggestions, three deserve mention: (1) “To sum up.” In Rom 13:9, using the same term, the author there says that the law may be “summarized in one command, to love your neighbor as yourself.” The idea then in Eph 1:10 would be that all things in heaven and on earth can be summed up and made sense out of in relation to Christ. (2) “To renew.” If this is the nuance of the verb then all things in heaven and earth, after their plunge into sin and ruin, are renewed by the coming of Christ and his redemption. (3) “To head up.” In this translation the idea is that Christ, in the fullness of the times, has been exalted so as to be appointed as the ruler (i.e., “head”) over all things in heaven and earth (including the church). That this is perhaps the best understanding of the verb is evidenced by the repeated theme of Christ’s exaltation and reign in Ephesians and by the connection to the κεφαλή- (kefalh-) language of 1:22 (cf. Schlier, TDNT 3:682; L&N 63.8; M. Barth, Ephesians [AB 34], 1:89-92; contra A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians [WBC], 32-33).

[1:10]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the heavens.”

[1:10]  ²⁹ sn And the things on earth. Verse 10 ends with “in him.” The redundancy keeps the focus on Christ at the expense of good Greek style. Verse 11 repeats the reference with a relative pronoun (“in whom”) – again, at the expense of good Greek style. Although the syntax is awkward, the theology is rich. This is not the first time that a NT writer was so overcome with awe for his Lord that he seems to have lost control of his pen. Indeed, it happened frequently enough that some have labeled their christologically motivated solecisms an “apostolic disease.”

[1:11]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  ³¹ tn Grk “we were appointed by lot.” The notion of the verb κληρόω (klhrow) in the OT was to “appoint a portion by lot” (the more frequent cognate verb κληρονομέω [klhronomew] meant “obtain a portion by lot”). In the passive, as here, the idea is that “we were appointed [as a portion] by lot” (BDAG 548 s.v. κληρόω 1). The words “God’s own” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this sense of the verb. An alternative interpretation is that believers receive a portion as an inheritance: “In Christ we too have been appointed a portion of the inheritance.” See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 226-27, for discussion on this interpretive issue.

[18:4]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.