Proverbs 5:4-14

5:4 but in the end ¹  she is bitter ²  as wormwood, ³ 

sharp as a two-edged ⁴  sword.

5:5 Her feet go down to death;

her steps lead straight to the grave. ⁵ 

5:6 Lest ⁶  she should make level the path leading to life, ⁷ 

her paths are unstable ⁸  but she does not know it. ⁹ 

5:7 So now, children, ¹⁰  listen to me;

do not turn aside from the words I speak. ¹¹ 

5:8 Keep yourself ¹²  far ¹³  from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

5:9 lest you give your vigor ¹⁴  to others

and your years to a cruel person,

5:10 lest strangers devour ¹⁵  your strength, ¹⁶ 

and your labor ¹⁷  benefit ¹⁸  another man’s house.

5:11 And at the end of your life ¹⁹  you will groan ²⁰ 

when your flesh and your body are wasted away. ²¹ 

5:12 And you will say, “How I hated discipline!

My heart spurned reproof!

5:13 For ²²  I did not obey my teachers ²³ 

and I did not heed ²⁴  my instructors. ²⁵ 

5:14 I almost ²⁶  came to complete ruin ²⁷ 

in the midst of the whole congregation!” ²⁸ 

Proverbs 6:26-35

6:26 for on account ²⁹  of a prostitute one is brought down to a loaf of bread,

but the wife of another man ³⁰  preys on your precious life. ³¹ 

6:27 Can a man hold ³²  fire ³³  against his chest ³⁴ 

without ³⁵  burning his clothes?

6:28 Can ³⁶  a man walk on hot coals

without scorching his feet?

6:29 So it is with ³⁷  the one who has sex with ³⁸  his neighbor’s wife;

no one ³⁹  who touches ⁴⁰  her will escape ⁴¹  punishment. ⁴² 

6:30 People ⁴³  do not despise a thief when he steals

to fulfill his need ⁴⁴  when he is hungry.

6:31 Yet ⁴⁵  if he is caught ⁴⁶  he must repay ⁴⁷  seven times over,

he might even have to give ⁴⁸  all the wealth of his house.

6:32 A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom, ⁴⁹ 

whoever does it destroys his own life. ⁵⁰ 

6:33 He will be beaten and despised, ⁵¹ 

and his reproach will not be wiped away; ⁵² 

6:34 for jealousy kindles ⁵³  a husband’s ⁵⁴  rage,

and he will not show mercy ⁵⁵  when he takes revenge.

6:35 He will not consider ⁵⁶  any compensation; ⁵⁷ 

he will not be willing, even if you multiply the compensation. ⁵⁸ 

Proverbs 7:22-27

7:22 Suddenly he went ⁵⁹  after her

like an ox that goes to the slaughter,

like a stag prancing into a trapper’s snare ⁶⁰ 

7:23 till an arrow pierces his liver ⁶¹  –

like a bird hurrying into a trap,

and he does not know that it will cost him his life. ⁶² 

7:24 So now, sons, ⁶³  listen to me,

and pay attention to the words I speak. ⁶⁴ 

7:25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways –

do not wander into her pathways;

7:26 for she has brought down ⁶⁵  many fatally wounded,

and all those she has slain are many. ⁶⁶ 

7:27 Her house is the way to the grave, ⁶⁷ 

going down ⁶⁸  to the chambers ⁶⁹  of death.

Proverbs 9:18

9:18 But they do not realize ⁷⁰  that the dead ⁷¹  are there,

that her guests are in the depths of the grave. ⁷² 

Proverbs 9:1

The Consequences of Accepting Wisdom or Folly ⁷³ 

9:1 Wisdom has built her house;

she has carved out its seven pillars. ⁷⁴ 

Colossians 1:9-11

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ⁷⁵  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ⁷⁶  to fill ⁷⁷  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 1:10 so that you may live ⁷⁸  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ⁷⁹  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, 1:11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of ⁸⁰  all patience and steadfastness, joyfully

Galatians 5:19-21

5:19 Now the works of the flesh ⁸¹  are obvious: ⁸²  sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, ⁸³  hostilities, ⁸⁴  strife, ⁸⁵  jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, ⁸⁶  factions, 5:21 envying, ⁸⁷  murder, ⁸⁸  drunkenness, carousing, ⁸⁹  and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

Ephesians 5:5

5:5 For you can be confident of this one thing: ⁹⁰  that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Revelation 21:8

21:8 But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, ⁹¹  idol worshipers, ⁹²  and all those who lie, their place ⁹³  will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. ⁹⁴  That ⁹⁵  is the second death.”

Revelation 22:15

22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers ⁹⁶  and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood! ⁹⁷ 

[5:4]  ¹ sn Heb “her end” (so KJV). D. Kidner notes that Proverbs does not allow us to forget that there is an afterward (Proverbs [TOTC], 65).

[5:4]  ² sn The verb “to be bitter” (מָרַר, marar) describes things that are harmful and destructive for life, such as the death of the members of the family of Naomi (Ruth 1:20) or finding water that was undrinkable (Exod 15:22-27). The word indicates that the sweet talking will turn out badly.

[5:4]  ³ tn The Hebrew term translated “wormwood” refers to the aromatic plant that contrasts with the sweetness of honey. Some follow the LXX and translate it as “gall” (cf. NIV). The point is that there was sweetness when the tryst had alluring glamour, but afterward it had an ugly ring (W. G. Plaut, Proverbs, 74).

[5:4]  ⁴ sn The Hebrew has “like a sword of [two] mouths,” meaning a double-edged sword that devours/cuts either way. There is no movement without damage. There may be a wordplay here with this description of the “sword with two mouths,” and the subject of the passage being the words of her mouth which also have two sides to them. The irony is cut by the idiom.

[5:5]  ⁵ tn The term שְׁאוֹל (she’ol, “grave”) is paralleled to “death,” so it does not refer here to the realm of the unblessed.

[5:6]  ⁶ tn The particle פֶּן (pen) means “lest” (probably from “for the aversion of”). It occurs this once, unusually, preceding the principal clause (BDB 814 s.v.). It means that some action has been taken to avert or avoid what follows. She avoids the path of life, albeit ignorantly.

[5:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the path of life.” The noun חַיִּים (khayyim, “of life”) functions as a genitive of direction (“leading to”).

[5:6]  ⁸ sn The verb נוּעַ (nua’) means “to quiver; to wave; to waver; to tremble”; cf. KJV “her ways are moveable”; NAB “her paths will ramble”; NLT “She staggers down a crooked trail.” The ways of the adulterous woman are unstable (BDB 631 s.v.).

[5:6]  ⁹ sn The sadder part of the description is that this woman does not know how unstable her life is, or how uneven. However, Thomas suggests that it means, “she is not tranquil.” See D. W. Thomas, “A Note on לא תדע in Proverbs v 6,” JTS 37 (1936): 59.

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sons.”

[5:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the words of my mouth” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).

[5:8]  ¹² tn Heb “your way.”

[5:8]  ¹³ sn There is a contrast made between “keep far away” (הַרְחֵק, harkheq) and “do not draw near” (וְאַל־תִּקְרַב, vÿ’al-tiqrav).

[5:9]  ¹⁴ sn The term הוֹד (hod, “vigor; splendor; majesty”) in this context means the best time of one’s life (cf. NIV “your best strength”), the full manly vigor that will be wasted with licentiousness. Here it is paralleled by “years,” which refers to the best years of that vigor, the prime of life. Life would be ruined by living this way, or the revenge of the woman’s husband would cut it short.

[5:10]  ¹⁵ tn Or “are sated, satisfied.”

[5:10]  ¹⁶ tn The word כֹּחַ (coakh, “strength”) refers to what laborious toil would produce (so a metonymy of cause). Everything that this person worked for could become the property for others to enjoy.

[5:10]  ¹⁷ tn “labor, painful toil.”

[5:10]  ¹⁸ tn The term “benefit” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[5:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “at your end.”

[5:11]  ²⁰ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav consecutive; it is equal to a specific future within this context.

[5:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “in the finishing of your flesh and your body.” The construction uses the Qal infinitive construct of כָּלָה (calah) in a temporal clause; the verb means “be complete, at an end, finished, spent.”

[5:13]  ²² tn The vav that introduces this clause functions in an explanatory sense.

[5:13]  ²³ tn The Hebrew term מוֹרַי (moray) is the nominal form based on the Hiphil plural participle with a suffix, from the root יָרָה (yarah). The verb is “to teach,” the common noun is “instruction, law [torah],” and this participle form is teacher (“my teachers”).

[5:13]  ²⁴ sn The idioms are vivid: This expression is “incline the ear”; earlier in the first line is “listen to the voice,” meaning “obey.” Such detailed description emphasizes the importance of the material.

[5:13]  ²⁵ tn The form is the Piel plural participle of לָמַד (lamad) used substantivally.

[5:14]  ²⁶ tn The expression כִּמְעַט (kim’at) is “like a little.” It means “almost,” and is used of unrealized action (BDB 590 s.v. 2). Cf. NCV “I came close to”; NLT “I have come to the brink of.”

[5:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I was in all evil” (cf. KJV, ASV).

[5:14]  ²⁸ tn The text uses the two words “congregation and assembly” to form a hendiadys, meaning the entire assembly.

[6:26]  ²⁹ tn The word בְעַד (bÿ’ad) may be taken either as “on account of” (= by means of a) prostitute (cf. ASV, NASB), or “for the price of” a prostitute (cf. NAB). Most expositors take the first reading, though that use of the preposition is unattested, and then must supply “one is brought to.” The verse would then say that going to a prostitute can bring a man to poverty, but going to another man’s wife can lead to death. If the second view were taken, it would mean that one had a smaller price than the other. It is not indicating that one is preferable to the other; both are to be avoided.

[6:26]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the wife of a man.”

[6:26]  ³¹ tn These two lines might be an example of synthetic parallelism, that is, “A, what’s more B.” The A-line describes the detrimental moral effect of a man going to a professional prostitute; the B-line heightens this and describes the far worse effect – moral and mortal! – of a man committing adultery with another man’s wife. When a man goes to a prostitute, he lowers himself to become nothing more than a “meal ticket” to sustain the life of that woman; however, when a man commits adultery, he places his very life in jeopardy – the rage of the husband could very well kill him.

[6:27]  ³² tn The Qal imperfect (with the interrogative) here has a potential nuance – “Is it possible to do this?” The sentence is obviously a rhetorical question making an affirmation that it is not possible.

[6:27]  ³³ sn “Fire” provides the analogy for the sage’s warning: Fire represents the sinful woman (hypocatastasis) drawn close, and the burning of the clothes the inevitable consequences of the liaison. See J. L. Crenshaw, “Impossible Questions, Sayings, and Tasks,” Semeia 17 (1980): 19-34. The word “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) plays on the words “man” (אִישׁ,’ish) and “woman” (אִשָּׁה, ’ishah); a passage like this probably inspired R. Gamaliel’s little explanation that what binds a man and a woman together in a holy marriage is י (yod) and ה (he), the two main letters of the holy name Yah. But if the Lord is removed from the relationship, that is, if these two letters are removed, all that is left is the אֵשׁ – the fire of passion. Since Gamaliel was the teacher of Paul, this may have influenced Paul’s advice that it was better to marry than to burn (1 Cor 7:9).

[6:27]  ³⁴ tn Heb “snatch up fire into his bosom.”

[6:27]  ³⁵ tn The second colon begins with the vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun, indicating a disjunctive clause; here it is a circumstantial clause.

[6:28]  ³⁶ tn The particle indicates that this is another rhetorical question like that in v. 27.

[6:29]  ³⁷ tn Heb “thus is the one.”

[6:29]  ³⁸ tn Heb “who goes in to” (so NAB, NASB). The Hebrew verb בּוֹא (bo’, “to go in; to enter”) is used throughout scripture as a euphemism for the act of sexual intercourse. Cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “who sleeps with”; NCV “have sexual relations with.”

[6:29]  ³⁹ tn Heb “anyone who touches her will not.”

[6:29]  ⁴⁰ sn The verb “touches” is intended here to be a euphemism for illegal sexual contact (e.g., Gen 20:6).

[6:29]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “will be exempt from”; NASB, NLT “will not go unpunished.”

[6:29]  ⁴² tn The verb is יִנָּקֶה (yinnaqeh), the Niphal imperfect from נָקָה (naqah, “to be empty; to be clean”). From it we get the adjectives “clean,” “free from guilt,” “innocent.” The Niphal has the meanings (1) “to be cleaned out” (of a plundered city; e.g., Isa 3:26), (2) “to be clean; to be free from guilt; to be innocent” (Ps 19:14), (3) “to be free; to be exempt from punishment” [here], and (4) “to be free; to be exempt from obligation” (Gen 24:8).

[6:30]  ⁴³ tn Heb “they do not despise.”

[6:30]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “himself” or “his life.” Since the word נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) refers to the whole person, body and soul, and since it has a basic idea of the bundle of appetites that make up a person, the use here for satisfying his hunger is appropriate.

[6:31]  ⁴⁵ tn The term “yet” is supplied in the translation.

[6:31]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “is found out.” The perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive is equivalent to the imperfect nuances. Here it introduces either a conditional or a temporal clause before the imperfect.

[6:31]  ⁴⁷ tn The imperfect tense has an obligatory nuance. The verb in the Piel means “to repay; to make restitution; to recompense”; cf. NCV, TEV, CEV “must pay back.”

[6:31]  ⁴⁸ tn This final clause in the section is somewhat cryptic. The guilty thief must pay back sevenfold what he stole, even if it means he must use the substance of his whole house. The verb functions as an imperfect of possibility: “he might even give.”

[6:32]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “heart.” The term “heart” is used as a metonymy of association for discernment, wisdom, good sense. Cf. NAB “is a fool”; NIV “lacks judgment”; NCV, NRSV “has no sense.”

[6:32]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “soul.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) functions as a metonymy of association for “life” (BDB 659 s.v. 3.c).

[6:33]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “He will receive a wound and contempt.”

[6:33]  ⁵² sn Even though the text has said that the man caught in adultery ruins his life, it does not mean that he was put to death, although that could have happened. He seems to live on in ignominy, destroyed socially and spiritually. He might receive blows and wounds from the husband and shame and disgrace from the spiritual community. D. Kidner observes that in a morally healthy society the adulterer would be a social outcast (Proverbs [TOTC], 75).

[6:34]  ⁵³ tn The word “kindles” was supplied in the translation; both “rage” and “jealousy” have meanings connected to heat.

[6:34]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “a man’s.”

[6:34]  ⁵⁵ tn The verb חָמַל (khamal) means “to show mercy; to show compassion; to show pity,” usually with the outcome of sparing or delivering someone. The idea here is that the husband will not spare the guilty man any of the punishment (cf. NRSV “he shows no restraint”).

[6:35]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “lift up the face of,” meaning “regard.”

[6:35]  ⁵⁷ tn The word rendered “compensation” is כֹּפֶר (cofer); it is essentially a ransom price, a sum to be paid to deliver another from debt, bondage, or crime. The husband cannot accept payment as a ransom for a life, since what has happened cannot be undone so easily.

[6:35]  ⁵⁸ tn BDB 1005 s.v. שֹׁחַד suggests that this term means “hush money” or “bribe” (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT). C. H. Toy takes it as legal compensation (Proverbs [ICC], 142).

[7:22]  ⁵⁹ tn The participle with “suddenly” gives a more vivid picture, almost as if to say “there he goes.”

[7:22]  ⁶⁰ tn The present translation follows R. B. Y. Scott (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes [AB], 64). This third colon of the verse would usually be rendered, “fetters to the chastening of a fool” (KJV, ASV, and NASB are all similar). But there is no support that עֶכֶס (’ekhes) means “fetters.” It appears in Isaiah 3:16 as “anklets.” The parallelism here suggests that some animal imagery is required. Thus the ancient versions have “as a dog to the bonds.”

[7:23]  ⁶¹ sn The figure of an arrow piercing the liver (an implied comparison) may refer to the pangs of a guilty conscience that the guilty must reap along with the spiritual and physical ruin that follows (see on these expressions H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament).

[7:23]  ⁶² tn The expression that it is “for/about/over his life” means that it could cost him his life (e.g., Num 16:38). Alternatively, the line could refer to moral corruption and social disgrace rather than physical death – but this would not rule out physical death too.

[7:24]  ⁶³ tn The literal translation “sons” works well here in view of the warning. Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “children.”

[7:24]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “the words of my mouth.”

[7:26]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “she has caused to fall.”

[7:26]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “numerous” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT) or “countless.”

[7:27]  ⁶⁷ tn The noun “Sheol” in parallelism to “the chambers of death” probably means the grave. The noun is a genitive of location, indicating the goal of the road(s). Her house is not the grave; it is, however, the sure way to it.

[7:27]  ⁶⁸ tn The Qal active participle modifies “ways” to Sheol. The “road,” as it were, descends to the place of death.

[7:27]  ⁶⁹ tn “Chambers” is a hypocatastasis, comparing the place of death or the grave with a bedroom in the house. It plays on the subtlety of the temptation. Cf. NLT “Her bedroom is the den of death.”

[9:18]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “he does not know.”

[9:18]  ⁷¹ sn The “dead” are the Rephaim, the “shades” or dead persons who lead a shadowy existence in Sheol (e.g., Prov 2:18-19; Job 3:13-19; Ps 88:5; Isa 14:9-11). This approximates an “as-if” motif of wisdom literature: The ones ensnared in folly are as good as in Hell. See also Ptah-hotep’s sayings (ANET 412-414).

[9:18]  ⁷² tc The LXX adds to the end of v. 18: “But turn away, linger not in the place, neither set your eye on her: for thus will you go through alien water; but abstain from alien water, drink not from an alien fountain, that you may live long, that years of life may be added to you.”

[9:1]  ⁷³ sn Chapter 9 forms the conclusion of the lengthy introduction to the book. Both wisdom and folly will make their final appeals; and both appeal to the simpletons. Wisdom offers life with no mention of pleasure; folly offers pleasure with no mention of death. The first twelve verses concern accepting wisdom: the invitation of wisdom (1-6), the description of the responses (7-11), and the consequence (12). Verses 13-18 concern accepting folly: the invitation (13-17) and the consequence (18).

[9:1]  ⁷⁴ sn Wisdom is personified as a wise woman. She has prepared a house and established it on seven pillars. This is a reference to the habitable world (e.g., 8:31). For the equation of the house and the world, e.g., 8:29; Job 38:6; and Psalm 104:5 (also G. Boström, Proverbiastudien [LUÅ], 1-14). The “seven pillars” have been variously interpreted, but since seven is a number for completeness and sacredness, the idea seems to be that wisdom produced a perfect world.

[1:9]  ⁷⁵ tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ⁷⁶ tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ⁷⁷ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[1:10]  ⁷⁸ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ⁷⁹ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[1:11]  ⁸⁰ 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.

[5:19]  ⁸¹ tn See the note on the word “flesh” in Gal 5:13.

[5:19]  ⁸² tn Or “clear,” “evident.”

[5:20]  ⁸³ tn Or “witchcraft.”

[5:20]  ⁸⁴ tn Or “enmities,” “[acts of] hatred.”

[5:20]  ⁸⁵ tn Or “discord” (L&N 39.22).

[5:20]  ⁸⁶ tn Or “discord(s)” (L&N 39.13).

[5:21]  ⁸⁷ tn This term is plural in Greek (as is “murder” and “carousing”), but for clarity these abstract nouns have been translated as singular.

[5:21]  ⁸⁸ tc ‡ φόνοι (fonoi, “murders”) is absent in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א B 33 81 323 945 pc sa, while the majority of mss (A C D F G Ψ 0122 0278 1739 1881 Ï lat) have the word. Although the pedigree of the mss which lack the term is of the highest degree, homoioteleuton may well explain the shorter reading. The preceding word has merely one letter difference, making it quite possible to overlook this term (φθόνοι φόνοι, fqonoi fonoi).

[5:21]  ⁸⁹ tn Or “revelings,” “orgies” (L&N 88.287).

[5:5]  ⁹⁰ tn Grk “be knowing this.” See also 2 Pet 1:20 for a similar phrase: τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες (touto prwton ginwskonte").

[21:8]  ⁹¹ tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”

[21:8]  ⁹² tn Grk “idolaters.”

[21:8]  ⁹³ tn Grk “their share.”

[21:8]  ⁹⁴ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[21:8]  ⁹⁵ tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”

[22:15]  ⁹⁶ tn On the term φάρμακοι (farmakoi) see L&N 53.101.

[22:15]  ⁹⁷ tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”