Proverbs 14:30

14:30 A tranquil spirit ¹  revives the body, ² 

but envy ³  is rottenness to the bones. ⁴ 

Genesis 26:14

26:14 He had ⁵  so many sheep ⁶  and cattle ⁷  and such a great household of servants that the Philistines became jealous ⁸  of him.

Genesis 37:11

37:11 His brothers were jealous ⁹  of him, but his father kept in mind what Joseph said. ¹⁰ 

Job 5:2

5:2 For ¹¹  wrath kills the foolish person, ¹² 

and anger ¹³  slays the silly one.

Matthew 27:18

27:18 (For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy.) ¹⁴ 

Acts 5:17

Further Trouble for the Apostles

5:17 Now the high priest rose up, and all those with him (that is, the religious party of the Sadducees ¹⁵ ), ¹⁶  and they were filled with jealousy. ¹⁷ 

Acts 7:9

7:9 The ¹⁸  patriarchs, because they were jealous of Joseph, sold ¹⁹  him into Egypt. But ²⁰  God was with him,

Acts 17:5

17:5 But the Jews became jealous, ²¹  and gathering together some worthless men from the rabble in the marketplace, ²²  they formed a mob ²³  and set the city in an uproar. ²⁴  They attacked Jason’s house, ²⁵  trying to find Paul and Silas ²⁶  to bring them out to the assembly. ²⁷ 

Romans 1:29

1:29 They are filled ²⁸  with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with ²⁹  envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,

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 ³⁰  wisdom does not come ³¹  from above but is earthly, natural, ³²  demonic. 3:16 For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice.

James 4:5-6

4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ³³  “The spirit that God ³⁴  caused ³⁵  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ³⁶  4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ³⁷ 

James 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ³⁸  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ³⁹  from your passions that battle inside you? ⁴⁰ 

James 3:12

3:12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, ⁴¹  or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.

[14:30]  ¹ tn Heb “heart of healing.” The genitive מַרְפֵּא (marpe’, “healing”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a healing heart.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) is a metonymy for the emotional state of a person (BDB 660 s.v. 6). A healthy spirit is tranquil, bringing peace to the body (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 158).

[14:30]  ² tn Heb “life of the flesh” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NIV “gives life to the body.”

[14:30]  ³ tn The term קִנְאָה (qin’ah, “envy”) refers to passionate zeal or “jealousy” (so NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT), depending on whether the object is out of bounds or within one’s rights. In the good sense one might be consumed with zeal to defend the institutions of the sanctuary. But as envy or jealousy the word describes an intense and sometimes violent excitement and desire that is never satisfied.

[14:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “rottenness of bones.” The term “bones” may be a synecdoche representing the entire body; it is in contrast with “flesh” of the first colon. One who is consumed with envy finds no tranquility or general sense of health in body or spirit.

[26:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “and there was to him.”

[26:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “possessions of sheep.”

[26:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “possessions of cattle.”

[26:14]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb translated “became jealous” refers here to intense jealousy or envy that leads to hostile action (see v. 15).

[37:11]  ⁹ sn Joseph’s brothers were already jealous of him, but this made it even worse. Such jealousy easily leads to action, as the next episode in the story shows. Yet dreams were considered a form of revelation, and their jealousy was not only of the favoritism of their father, but of the dreams. This is why Jacob kept the matter in mind.

[37:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “kept the word.” The referent of the Hebrew term “word” has been specified as “what Joseph said” in the translation for clarity, and the words “in mind” have been supplied for stylistic reasons.

[5:2]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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….”

[27:18]  ¹⁴ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[5:17]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on Sadducees in 4:1.

[5:17]  ¹⁶ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[5:17]  ¹⁷ sn Filled with jealousy. In Acts, the term “jealousy” (ζήλος, zhlos) occurs only here and in Acts 13:45. It is a key term in Judaism for religiously motivated rage (1 Macc 2:24; 1QH 14:13-15; m. Sanhedrin 9:5). It was a zeal motivated by a desire to maintain the purity of the faith.

[7:9]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “And the.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:9]  ¹⁹ tn The meaning “sell” for the middle voice of ἀποδίδωμι (apodidwmi) is given by BDAG 110 s.v. 5.a. See Gen 37:12-36, esp. v. 28.

[7:9]  ²⁰ tn Though the Greek term here is καί (kai), in context this remark is clearly contrastive: Despite the malicious act, God was present and protected Joseph.

[17:5]  ²¹ tn Grk “becoming jealous.” The participle ζηλώσαντες (zhlwsante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. So elsewhere in Acts (5:17; 7:9; 13:45).

[17:5]  ²² tn Literally ἀγοραῖος (agoraio") refers to the crowd in the marketplace, although BDAG 14-15 s.v. ἀγοραῖος 1 gives the meaning, by extension, as “rabble.” Such a description is certainly appropriate in this context. L&N 15.127 translates the phrase “worthless men from the streets.”

[17:5]  ²³ tn On this term, which is a NT hapax legomenon, see BDAG 745 s.v. ὀχλοποιέω.

[17:5]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 458 s.v. θορυβέω 1 has “set the city in an uproar, start a riot in the city” for the meaning of ἐθορύβουν (eqoruboun) in this verse.

[17:5]  ²⁵ sn The attack took place at Jason’s house because this was probably the location of the new house church.

[17:5]  ²⁶ tn Grk “them”; the referents (Paul and Silas) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:5]  ²⁷ tn BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος 2 has “in a Hellenistic city, a convocation of citizens called together for the purpose of transacting official business, popular assembly προάγειν εἰς τὸν δ. Ac 17:5.”

[1:29]  ²⁸ tn Grk “being filled” or “having been filled,” referring to those described in v. 28. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:29]  ²⁹ tn Grk “malice, full of,” continuing the description. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:15]  ³⁰ tn Grk “This.”

[3:15]  ³¹ tn Grk “come down”; “descend.”

[3:15]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ³⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ 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.

[4:6]  ³⁷ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.

[4:1]  ³⁸ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ³⁹ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[3:12]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.