Numbers 14:13-20

14:13 Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear ¹  it – for you brought up this people by your power from among them – 14:14 then they will tell it to the inhabitants ²  of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, ³  that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night. 14:15 If you kill ⁴  this entire people at once, ⁵  then the nations that have heard of your fame will say, 14:16 ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’ 14:17 So now, let the power of my Lord ⁶  be great, just as you have said, 14:18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, ⁷  forgiving iniquity and transgression, ⁸  but by no means clearing ⁹  the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ ¹⁰  14:19 Please forgive ¹¹  the iniquity of this people according to your great loyal love, ¹²  just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.”

14:20 Then the Lord said, “I have forgiven them as you asked. ¹³ 

Genesis 18:23-33

18:23 Abraham approached and said, “Will you sweep away the godly along with the wicked? 18:24 What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare ¹⁴  the place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it? 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge ¹⁵  of the whole earth do what is right?” ¹⁶ 

18:26 So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom fifty godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

18:27 Then Abraham asked, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord ¹⁷  (although I am but dust and ashes), ¹⁸  18:28 what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy ¹⁹  the whole city because five are lacking?” ²⁰  He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

18:29 Abraham ²¹  spoke to him again, ²²  “What if forty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”

18:30 Then Abraham ²³  said, “May the Lord not be angry ²⁴  so that I may speak! ²⁵  What if thirty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

18:31 Abraham ²⁶  said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

18:32 Finally Abraham ²⁷  said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

18:33 The Lord went on his way ²⁸  when he had finished speaking ²⁹  to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home. ³⁰ 

Exodus 32:10-14

32:10 So now, leave me alone ³¹  so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”

32:11 But Moses sought the favor ³²  of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 32:12 Why ³³  should the Egyptians say, ³⁴  ‘For evil ³⁵  he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy ³⁶  them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent ³⁷  of this evil against your people. 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ³⁸  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ³⁹  I will give to your descendants, ⁴⁰  and they will inherit it forever.’” 32:14 Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.

Exodus 32:31-32

32:31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, ⁴¹  and they have made for themselves gods of gold. 32:32 But now, if you will forgive their sin…, ⁴²  but if not, wipe me out ⁴³  from your book that you have written.” ⁴⁴ 

Exodus 34:9

34:9 and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord ⁴⁵  go among us, for we ⁴⁶  are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Deuteronomy 9:19-20

9:19 For I was terrified at the Lord’s intense anger ⁴⁷  that threatened to destroy you. But he ⁴⁸  listened to me this time as well. 9:20 The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him ⁴⁹  too.

Psalms 106:23

106:23 He threatened ⁵⁰  to destroy them,

but ⁵¹  Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him ⁵² 

and turned back his destructive anger. ⁵³ 

Isaiah 37:4

37:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ⁵⁴  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ⁵⁵  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ⁵⁶ 

Jeremiah 15:1

15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ⁵⁷  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ⁵⁸  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ⁵⁹ 

Amos 7:2-6

7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ⁶⁰ 

How can Jacob survive? ⁶¹ 

He is too weak!” ⁶² 

7:3 The Lord decided not to do this. ⁶³  “It will not happen,” the Lord said.

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ⁶⁴  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ⁶⁵  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

7:5 I said, “Sovereign Lord, stop!

How can Jacob survive? ⁶⁶ 

He is too weak!” ⁶⁷ 

7:6 The Lord decided not to do this. ⁶⁸  The sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.”

James 5:16

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ⁶⁹ 

James 5:1

Warning to the Rich

5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud ⁷⁰  over the miseries that are coming on you.

James 5:16

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ⁷¹ 

[14:13]  ¹ tn The construction is unusual in that we have here a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive with no verb before it to establish the time sequence. The context requires that this be taken as a vav (ו) consecutive. It actually forms the protasis for the next verse, and would best be rendered “when…then they will say.”

[14:14]  ² tn The singular participle is to be taken here as a collective, representing all the inhabitants of the land.

[14:14]  ³ tn “Face to face” is literally “eye to eye.” It only occurs elsewhere in Isa 52:8. This expresses the closest communication possible.

[14:15]  ⁴ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of מוּת (mut), וְהֵמַתָּה (vÿhemattah). The vav (ו) consecutive makes this also a future time sequence verb, but again in a conditional clause.

[14:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “as one man.”

[14:17]  ⁶ tc The form in the text is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay), the word that is usually used in place of the tetragrammaton. It is the plural form with the pronominal suffix, and so must refer to God.

[14:18]  ⁷ tn The expression is רַב־חֶסֶד (rav khesed) means “much of loyal love,” or “faithful love.” Some have it “totally faithful,” but that omits the aspect of his love.

[14:18]  ⁸ tn Or “rebellion.”

[14:18]  ⁹ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the verbal activity of the imperfect tense, which here serves as a habitual imperfect. Negated it states what God does not do; and the infinitive makes that certain.

[14:18]  ¹⁰ sn The Decalogue adds “to those who hate me.” The point of the line is that the effects of sin, if not the sinful traits themselves, are passed on to the next generation.

[14:19]  ¹¹ tn The verb סְלַח־נָא (selakh-na’), the imperative form, means “forgive” (see Ps 130:4), “pardon,” “excuse.” The imperative is of course a prayer, a desire, and not a command.

[14:19]  ¹² tn The construct unit is “the greatness of your loyal love.” This is the genitive of specification, the first word being the modifier.

[14:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “forgiven according to your word.” The direct object, “them,” is implied.

[18:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lift up,” perhaps in the sense of “bear with” (cf. NRSV “forgive”).

[18:25]  ¹⁵ tn Or “ruler.”

[18:25]  ¹⁶ sn Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? For discussion of this text see J. L. Crenshaw, “Popular Questioning of the Justice of God in Ancient Israel,” ZAW 82 (1970): 380-95, and C. S. Rodd, “Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What Is Just?” ExpTim 83 (1972): 137-39.

[18:27]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 30, 31, 32 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[18:27]  ¹⁸ tn The disjunctive clause is a concessive clause here, drawing out the humility as a contrast to the Lord.

[18:28]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) was used earlier to describe the effect of the flood.

[18:28]  ²⁰ tn Heb “because of five.”

[18:29]  ²¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:29]  ²² tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys – the preterite (“he added”) is combined with an adverb “yet” and an infinitive “to speak.”

[18:30]  ²³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:30]  ²⁴ tn Heb “let it not be hot to the Lord.” This is an idiom which means “may the Lord not be angry.”

[18:30]  ²⁵ tn After the jussive, the cohortative indicates purpose/result.

[18:31]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:32]  ²⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:33]  ²⁸ tn Heb “And the Lord went.”

[18:33]  ²⁹ tn The infinitive construct (“speaking”) serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”

[18:33]  ³⁰ tn Heb “to his place.”

[32:10]  ³¹ tn The imperative, from the word “to rest” (נוּחַ, nuakh), has the sense of “leave me alone, let me be.” It is a directive for Moses not to intercede for the people. B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 567) reflects the Jewish interpretation that there is a profound paradox in God’s words. He vows the severest punishment but then suddenly conditions it on Moses’ agreement. “Let me alone that I may consume them” is the statement, but the effect is that he has left the door open for intercession. He allows himself to be persuaded – that is what a mediator is for. God could have slammed the door (as when Moses wanted to go into the promised land). Moreover, by alluding to the promise to Abraham God gave Moses the strongest reason to intercede.

[32:11]  ³² tn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 351) draws on Arabic to show that the meaning of this verb (חָלָה, khalah) was properly “make sweet the face” or “stroke the face”; so here “to entreat, seek to conciliate.” In this prayer, Driver adds, Moses urges four motives for mercy: 1) Israel is Yahweh’s people, 2) Israel’s deliverance has demanded great power, 3) the Egyptians would mock if the people now perished, and 4) the oath God made to the fathers.

[32:12]  ³³ tn The question is rhetorical; it really forms an affirmation that is used here as a reason for the request (see GKC 474 §150.e).

[32:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “speak, saying.” This is redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[32:12]  ³⁵ tn The word “evil” means any kind of life-threatening or fatal calamity. “Evil” is that which hinders life, interrupts life, causes pain to life, or destroys it. The Egyptians would conclude that such a God would have no good intent in taking his people to the desert if now he destroyed them.

[32:12]  ³⁶ tn The form is a Piel infinitive construct from כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”) but in this stem, “bring to an end, destroy.” As a purpose infinitive this expresses what the Egyptians would have thought of God’s motive.

[32:12]  ³⁷ tn The verb “repent, relent” when used of God is certainly an anthropomorphism. It expresses the deep pain that one would have over a situation. Earlier God repented that he had made humans (Gen 6:6). Here Moses is asking God to repent/relent over the judgment he was about to bring, meaning that he should be moved by such compassion that there would be no judgment like that. J. P. Hyatt observes that the Bible uses so many anthropomorphisms because the Israelites conceived of God as a dynamic and living person in a vital relationship with people, responding to their needs and attitudes and actions (Exodus [NCBC], 307). See H. V. D. Parunak, “A Semantic Survey of NHM,” Bib 56 (1975): 512-32.

[32:13]  ³⁸ tn Heb “your seed.”

[32:13]  ³⁹ tn “about” has been supplied.

[32:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “seed.”

[32:31]  ⁴¹ tn As before, the cognate accusative is used; it would literally be “this people has sinned a great sin.”

[32:32]  ⁴² tn The apodosis is not expressed; it would be understood as “good.” It is not stated because of the intensity of the expression (the figure is aposiopesis, a sudden silence). It is also possible to take this first clause as a desire and not a conditional clause, rendering it “Oh that you would forgive!”

[32:32]  ⁴³ tn The word “wipe” is a figure of speech indicating “remove me” (meaning he wants to die). The translation “blot” is traditional, but not very satisfactory, since it does not convey complete removal.

[32:32]  ⁴⁴ sn The book that is referred to here should not be interpreted as the NT “book of life” which is portrayed (figuratively) as a register of all the names of the saints who are redeemed and will inherit eternal life. Here it refers to the names of those who are living and serving in this life, whose names, it was imagined, were on the roster in the heavenly courts as belonging to the chosen. Moses would rather die than live if these people are not forgiven (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 356).

[34:9]  ⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” two times here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[34:9]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “it is.” Hebrew uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here in agreement with the noun “people.”

[9:19]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” Although many English versions translate as two terms, this construction is a hendiadys which serves to intensify the emotion (cf. NAB, TEV “fierce anger”).

[9:19]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[9:20]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “Aaron.” The pronoun is used in the translation to avoid redundancy.

[106:23]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and he said.”

[106:23]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”

[106:23]  ⁵² tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”

[106:23]  ⁵³ tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”

[37:4]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:4]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[37:4]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[15:1]  ⁵⁷ tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.

[15:1]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.

[15:1]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”

[7:2]  ⁶⁰ tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2]  ⁶² tn Heb “small.”

[7:3]  ⁶³ tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[7:4]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4]  ⁶⁵ tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).

[7:5]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “stand.”

[7:5]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “small.”

[7:6]  ⁶⁸ tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[5:16]  ⁶⁹ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”

[5:1]  ⁷⁰ tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”

[5:16]  ⁷¹ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”