Proverbs 9:9

9:9 Give instruction ¹  to a wise person, ²  and he will become wiser still;

teach ³  a righteous person and he will add to his ⁴  learning.

Proverbs 12:1

12:1 The one who loves discipline loves knowledge, ⁵ 

but the one who hates reproof is stupid. ⁶ 

Job 34:10

God is Not Unjust

34:10 “Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. ⁷ 

Far be it from ⁸  God to do wickedness,

from the Almighty to do evil.

Job 34:16

God Is Impartial and Omniscient

34:16 “If you have ⁹  understanding, listen to this,

hear what I have to say. ¹⁰ 

Job 34:34

34:34 Men of understanding say to me –

any wise man listening to me says –

Psalms 119:98-100

119:98 Your commandments ¹¹  make me wiser than my enemies,

for I am always aware of them.

119:99 I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your rules.

119:100 I am more discerning than those older than I,

for I observe your precepts.

Psalms 119:1

Psalm 119 ¹² 

א (Alef)

119:1 How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, ¹³ 

who obey ¹⁴  the law of the Lord.

Colossians 1:15

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ¹⁶  over all creation, ¹⁷ 

[9:9]  ¹ tn The noun “instruction” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation.

[9:9]  ² sn The parallelism shows what Proverbs will repeatedly stress, that the wise person is the righteous person.

[9:9]  ³ tn The Hiphil verb normally means “to cause to know, make known”; but here the context suggests “to teach” (so many English versions).

[9:9]  ⁴ tn The term “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of smoothness and clarity.

[12:1]  ⁵ sn Those who wish to improve themselves must learn to accept correction; the fool hates/rejects any correction.

[12:1]  ⁶ sn The word בָּעַר (ba’ar, “brutish; stupid”) normally describes dumb animals that lack intellectual sense. Here, it describes the moral fool who is not willing to learn from correction. He is like a dumb animal (so the term here functions as a hypocatastasis: implied comparison).

[34:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “men of heart.” The “heart” is used for the capacity to understand and make the proper choice. It is often translated “mind.”

[34:10]  ⁸ tn For this construction, see Job 27:5.

[34:16]  ⁹ tn The phrase “you have” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[34:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the sound of my words.”

[119:98]  ¹¹ tn The plural form needs to be revocalized as a singular in order to agree with the preceding singular verb and the singular pronoun in the next line. The Lord’s “command” refers here to the law (see Ps 19:8).

[119:1]  ¹² sn Psalm 119. The psalmist celebrates God’s law and the guidance it provides his people. He expresses his desire to know God’s law thoroughly so that he might experience the blessings that come to those who obey it. This lengthy psalm exhibits an elaborate acrostic pattern. The psalm is divided into twenty-two sections (corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet), each of which is comprised of eight verses. Each of the verses in the first section (vv. 1-8) begins with the letter alef (א), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This pattern continues throughout the psalm as each new section highlights a successive letter of the alphabet. Each verse in section two (vv. 9-16) begins with the second letter of the alphabet, each verse in section three (vv. 17-24) with the third letter, etc. This rigid pattern creates a sense of order and completeness and may have facilitated memorization.

[119:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness of those who are blameless of way.”

[119:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “walk in.”

[1:15]  ¹⁵ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:15]  ¹⁶ tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).

[1:15]  ¹⁷ tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.