Numbers 22:4-5

22:4 So the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “Now this mass of people ¹  will lick up everything around us, as the bull devours the grass of the field. Now Balak son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at this time. 22:5 And he sent messengers to Balaam ²  son of Beor at Pethor, which is by the Euphrates River ³  in the land of Amaw, ⁴  to summon him, saying, “Look, a nation has come out of Egypt. They cover the face ⁵  of the earth, and they are settling next to me.

Job 5:2

5:2 For ⁶  wrath kills the foolish person, ⁷ 

and anger ⁸  slays the silly one.

Psalms 105:24-25

105:24 The Lord ⁹  made his people very fruitful,

and made them ¹⁰  more numerous than their ¹¹  enemies.

105:25 He caused them ¹²  to hate his people,

and to mistreat ¹³  his servants.

Proverbs 14:28

14:28 A king’s glory is ¹⁴  the abundance of people,

but the lack of subjects ¹⁵  is the ruin ¹⁶  of a ruler.

Proverbs 27:4

27:4 Wrath is cruel and anger is overwhelming, ¹⁷ 

but who can stand before jealousy? ¹⁸ 

Ecclesiastes 4:4

Labor Motivated by Envy

4:4 Then I considered ¹⁹  all the skillful work ²⁰  that is done:

Surely it is nothing more than ²¹  competition ²²  between one person and another. ²³ 

This also is profitless – like ²⁴  chasing the wind.

Titus 3:3

3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

James 3:14-16

3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. 3:15 Such ²⁵  wisdom does not come ²⁶  from above but is earthly, natural, ²⁷  demonic. 3:16 For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice.

James 4:5

4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ²⁸  “The spirit that God ²⁹  caused ³⁰  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ³¹ 

[22:4]  ¹ tn The word is simply “company,” but in the context he must mean a vast company – a horde of people.

[22:5]  ² sn There is much literature on pagan diviners and especially prophecy in places in the east like Mari (see, for example, H. B. Huffmon, “Prophecy in the Mari Letters,” BA 31 [1968]: 101-24). Balaam appears to be a pagan diviner who was of some reputation; he was called to curse the Israelites, but God intervened and gave him blessings only. The passage forms a nice complement to texts that deal with blessings and curses. It shows that no one can curse someone whom God has blessed.

[22:5]  ³ tn Heb “by the river”; in most contexts this expression refers to the Euphrates River (cf. NAB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[22:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the land of Amaw” (cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV); traditionally “in the land of the sons of his people.” The LXX has “by the river of the land.”

[22:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “eye.” So also in v. 11.

[5:2]  ⁶ tn One of the reasons that commentators transpose v. 1 is that the כִּי (ki, “for”) here seems to follow 4:21 better. If people die without wisdom, it is folly that kills them. But the verse also makes sense after 5:1. He is saying that complaining against God will not bring deliverance (v. 1), but rather, by such impatience the fool will bring greater calamity on himself.

[5:2]  ⁷ tn The two words for “foolish person” are common in wisdom literature. The first, אֱוִיל (’evil), is the fool who is a senseless person; the פֹּתֶה (poteh) is the naive and silly person, the simpleton, the one who is easily led astray. The direct object is introduced with the preposition ל (lamed) in this verse (see GKC 366 §117.n).

[5:2]  ⁸ tn The two parallel nouns are similar; their related verbs are also paralleled in Deut 32:16 with the idea of “vex” and “irritate.” The first word כַּעַשׂ (ka’as) refers to the inner irritation and anger one feels, whereas the second word קִנְאָה (qin’ah) refers to the outward expression of the anger. In Job 6:2, Job will respond “O that my impatience [ka’as] were weighed….”

[105:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[105:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “him,” referring to “his people.”

[105:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his,” referring to “his people.”

[105:25]  ¹² tn Heb “their heart.”

[105:25]  ¹³ tn Or “to deal deceptively.” The Hitpael of נָכַל (nakhal) occurs only here and in Gen 37:18, where it is used of Joseph’s brothers “plotting” to kill him.

[14:28]  ¹⁴ tn The preposition serves as the beth essentiae – the glory is the abundant population, not in it.

[14:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “people.” Cf. NLT “a dwindling nation.”

[14:28]  ¹⁶ sn The word means “ruin; destruction,” but in this context it could be a metonymy of effect, the cause being an attack by more numerous people that will bring ruin to the ruler. The proverb is purely a practical and secular saying, unlike some of the faith teachings in salvation history passages.

[27:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fierceness of wrath and outpouring [= flood] of anger.” A number of English versions use “flood” here (e.g., NASB, NCV, NLT).

[27:4]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “jealousy” here probably has the negative sense of “envy” rather than the positive sense of “zeal.” It is a raging emotion (like “anger” and “wrath,” this word has nuances of heat, intensity) that defies reason at times and can be destructive like a consuming fire (e.g., 6:32-35; Song 8:6-7). The rhetorical question is intended to affirm that no one can survive a jealous rage. (Whether one is the subject who is jealous or the object of the jealousy of someone else is not so clear.)

[4:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “saw.”

[4:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “all the toil and all the skill.” This Hebrew clause (אֶת־כָּל־עָמָל וְאֵת כָּל־כִּשְׁרוֹן, ’et-kol-’amal vÿ’et kol-kishron) is a nominal hendiadys (a figurative expression in which two independent phrases are used to connote the same thing). The second functions adverbially, modifying the first, which retains its full nominal function: “all the skillful work.”

[4:4]  ²¹ tn The phrase “nothing more than” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[4:4]  ²² tn The noun קִנְאַה (qin’ah, “competition”) has a wide range of meanings: “zeal; jealousy; envy; rivalry; competition; suffering; animosity; anger; wrath” (HALOT 1110 s.v.; BDB 888 s.v.). Here, as in 9:6, it denotes “rivalry” (BDB 888 s.v. 1) or “competitive spirit” (HALOT 1110 s.v. 1.b). The LXX rendered it ζῆλος (zhlos, “envy; jealousy”). The English versions reflect this broad range: “rivalry” (NEB, NAB, NASB), “envy” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NRSV, MLB, NIV, NJPS), and “jealousy” (Moffatt).

[4:4]  ²³ tn Heb “a man and his neighbor.”

[4:4]  ²⁴ tn The word “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:15]  ²⁵ tn Grk “This.”

[3:15]  ²⁶ tn Grk “come down”; “descend.”

[3:15]  ²⁷ tn Grk “soulish,” which describes life apart from God, characteristic of earthly human life as opposed to what is spiritual. Cf. 1 Cor 2:14; 15:44-46; Jude 19.

[4:5]  ²⁸ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ²⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ³⁰ tc The Byzantine text and a few other mss (P 33 Ï) have the intransitive κατῴκησεν (katwkhsen) here, which turns τὸ πνεῦμα (to pneuma) into the subject of the verb: “The spirit which lives within us.” But the more reliable and older witnesses (Ì⁷⁴ א B Ψ 049 1241 1739 al) have the causative verb, κατῴκισεν (katwkisen), which implies a different subject and τὸ πνεῦμα as the object: “The spirit that he causes to live within us.” Both because of the absence of an explicit subject and the relative scarcity of the causative κατοικίζω (katoikizw, “cause to dwell”) compared to the intransitive κατοικέω (katoikew, “live, dwell”) in biblical Greek (κατοικίζω does not occur in the NT at all, and occurs one twelfth as frequently as κατοικέω in the LXX), it is easy to see why scribes would replace κατῴκισεν with κατῴκησεν. Thus, on internal and external grounds, κατῴκισεν is the preferred reading.

[4:5]  ³¹ tn Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1-4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18-25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.