Discovery BoxPsalms 18:40-41
Context18:40 You make my enemies retreat; 1
I destroy those who hate me. 2
18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; 3
they cry out to the Lord, 4 but he does not answer them.
Psalms 50:15-21
Context50:15 Pray to me when you are in trouble! 5
I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” 6
50:16 God says this to the evildoer: 7
“How can you declare my commands,
and talk about my covenant? 8
50:17 For you hate instruction
and reject my words. 9
50:18 When you see a thief, you join him; 10
you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives. 11
50:19 You do damage with words, 12
and use your tongue to deceive. 13
50:20 You plot against your brother; 14
you slander your own brother. 15
50:21 When you did these things, I was silent, 16
so you thought I was exactly like you. 17
But now I will condemn 18 you
and state my case against you! 19
Proverbs 1:28-29
Context1:28 Then they will call to me, but I will not answer;
they will diligently seek 20 me, but they will not find me.
1:29 Because 21 they hated moral knowledge, 22
and did not choose to fear the Lord, 23
Proverbs 21:13
Context21:13 The one who shuts his ears 24 to the cry 25 of the poor,
he too will cry out and will not be answered. 26
Proverbs 28:9
Context28:9 The one who turns away his ear 27 from hearing the law,
even his prayer 28 is an abomination. 29
Isaiah 1:15
Context1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I look the other way; 30
when you offer your many prayers,
I do not listen,
because your hands are covered with blood. 31
Isaiah 58:6-10
Context58:6 No, this is the kind of fast I want. 32
I want you 33 to remove the sinful chains,
to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke,
to set free the oppressed, 34
and to break every burdensome yoke.
58:7 I want you 35 to share your food with the hungry
and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. 36
When you see someone naked, clothe him!
Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! 37
58:8 Then your light will shine like the sunrise; 38
your restoration will quickly arrive; 39
your godly behavior 40 will go before you,
and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard. 41
58:9 Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond;
you will cry out, and he will reply, ‘Here I am.’
You must 42 remove the burdensome yoke from among you
and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.
58:10 You must 43 actively help the hungry
and feed the oppressed. 44
Then your light will dispel the darkness, 45
and your darkness will be transformed into noonday. 46
Matthew 18:26-34
Context18:26 Then the slave threw himself to the ground 47 before him, saying, 48 ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you everything.’ 18:27 The lord had compassion on that slave and released him, and forgave him the debt. 18:28 After 49 he went out, that same slave found one of his fellow slaves who owed him one hundred silver coins. 50 So 51 he grabbed him by the throat and started to choke him, 52 saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ 53 18:29 Then his fellow slave threw himself down and begged him, 54 ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you.’ 18:30 But he refused. Instead, he went out and threw him in prison until he repaid the debt. 18:31 When 55 his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were very upset and went and told their lord everything that had taken place. 18:32 Then his lord called the first slave 56 and said to him, ‘Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me! 18:33 Should you not have shown mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed it to you?’ 18:34 And in anger his lord turned him over to the prison guards to torture him 57 until he repaid all he owed.
James 2:13
Context2:13 For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over 58 judgment.
[18:40] 1 tn Heb “and [as for] my enemies, you give to me [the] back [or “neck”].” The idiom “give [the] back” means “to cause [one] to turn the back and run away.” Cf. Exod 23:27.
[18:40] 2 sn Those who hate me. See v. 17, where it is the
[18:41] 3 tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”
[18:41] 4 tn Heb “to the
[50:15] 5 tn Heb “call [to] me in a day of trouble.”
[50:15] 6 sn In vv. 7-15 the Lord makes it clear that he was not rebuking Israel because they had failed to offer sacrifices (v. 8a). On the contrary, they had been faithful in doing so (v. 8b). However, their understanding of the essence of their relationship with God was confused. Apparently they believed that he needed/desired such sacrifices and that offering them would ensure their prosperity. But the Lord owns all the animals of the world and did not need Israel’s meager sacrifices (vv. 9-13). Other aspects of the relationship were more important to the Lord. He desired Israel to be thankful for his blessings (v. 14a), to demonstrate gratitude for his intervention by repaying the vows they made to him (v. 14b), and to acknowledge their absolute dependence on him (v. 15a). Rather than viewing their sacrifices as somehow essential to God’s well-being, they needed to understand their dependence on him.
[50:16] 7 tn Heb “evil [one].” The singular adjective is used here in a representative sense; it refers to those within the larger covenant community who have blatantly violated the
[50:16] 8 tn Heb “What to you to declare my commands and lift up my covenant upon your mouth?” The rhetorical question expresses sarcastic amazement. The
[50:17] 9 tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”
[50:18] 10 tn Heb “you run with him.”
[50:18] 11 tn Heb “and with adulterers [is] your portion.”
[50:19] 12 tn Heb “your mouth you send with evil.”
[50:19] 13 tn Heb “and your tongue binds together [i.e., “frames”] deceit.”
[50:20] 14 tn Heb “you sit, against your brother you speak.” To “sit” and “speak” against someone implies plotting against that person (see Ps 119:23).
[50:20] 15 tn Heb “against the son of your mother you give a fault.”
[50:21] 16 tn Heb “these things you did and I was silent.” Some interpret the second clause (“and I was silent”) as a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer, “[When you do these things], should I keep silent?” (cf. NEB). See GKC 335 §112.cc.
[50:21] 17 tn The Hebrew infinitive construct (הֱיוֹת, heyot) appears to function like the infinitive absolute here, adding emphasis to the following finite verbal form (אֶהְיֶה, ’ehyeh). See GKC 339-40 §113.a. Some prefer to emend הֱיוֹת (heyot) to the infinitive absolute form הָיוֹ (hayo).
[50:21] 18 tn Or “rebuke” (see v. 8).
[50:21] 19 tn Heb “and I will set in order [my case against you] to your eyes.” The cohortative form expresses the
[1:28] 20 tn Heb “look to.” The verb שָׁחַר (shakhar, “to look”) is used figuratively of intensely looking (=seeking) for deliverance out of trouble (W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 366); cf. NLT “anxiously search for.” It is used elsewhere in parallelism with בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek rescue”; Hos 5:15). It does not mean “to seek early” (cf. KJV) as is popularly taught due to etymological connections with the noun שַׁחַר (shakhar, “dawn”; so BDB 1007 s.v. שָׁחַר).
[1:29] 21 tn The causal particle תַּחַת כִּי (takhat ki, “for the reason that”) introduces a second accusation of sin and reason for punishment.
[1:29] 22 tn Heb “knowledge.” The noun דָעַת (da’at, “knowledge”) refers to moral knowledge. See note on 1:7.
[1:29] 23 tn Heb “the fear of the
[21:13] 24 sn The imagery means “pay no attention to” the cry for help or “refuse to help,” so it is a metonymy of cause for the effect.
[21:13] 25 sn “Cry” here would be a metonymy of effect for the cause, the cause being the great needs of the poor.
[21:13] 26 sn The proverb is teaching that those who show mercy will receive mercy. It involves the principle of talionic justice – those who refuse the needs of others will themselves be refused when they need help (so Luke 16:19-31).
[28:9] 27 sn The expression “turn away the ear from hearing” uses a metonymy to mean that this individual will not listen – it indicates a deliberate refusal to follow the instruction of the law.
[28:9] 28 sn It is hard to imagine how someone who willfully refuses to obey the law of God would pray according to the will of God. Such a person is more apt to pray for some physical thing or make demands on God. (Of course a prayer of repentance would be an exception and would not be an abomination to the
[28:9] 29 sn C. H. Toy says, “If a man, on his part, is deaf to instruction, then God, on his part, is deaf to prayer” (Proverbs [ICC], 499). And W. McKane observes that one who fails to attend to God’s law is a wicked person, even if he is a man of prayer (Proverbs [OTL], 623).
[1:15] 30 tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”
[1:15] 31 sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.
[58:6] 32 tn Heb “Is this not a fast I choose?” “No” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[58:6] 33 tn The words “I want you” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[58:7] 35 tn Heb “Is it not?” The rhetorical question here expects a positive answer, “It is!”
[58:7] 36 tn Heb “and afflicted [ones], homeless [ones] you should bring [into] a house.” On the meaning of מְרוּדִים (mÿrudim, “homeless”) see HALOT 633 s.v. *מָרוּד.
[58:7] 37 tn Heb “and from your flesh do not hide yourself.”
[58:8] 38 tn Heb “will burst out like the dawn.”
[58:8] 39 tn Heb “prosper”; KJV “spring forth speedily.”
[58:8] 40 tn Or “righteousness.” Their godly behavior will be on display for all to see.
[58:8] 41 sn The nation will experience God’s protective presence.
[58:9] 42 tn Heb “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 9b-10 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in vv. 9b-10a), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 10b.
[58:10] 43 tn Heb “if you.” See the note on “you must” in v. 9b.
[58:10] 44 tn Heb “If you furnish for the hungry [with] your being, and the appetite of the oppressed you satisfy.”
[58:10] 45 tn Heb “will rise in the darkness.”
[58:10] 46 tn Heb “and your darkness [will be] like noonday.”
[18:26] 47 tn Grk “falling therefore the slave bowed down to the ground.” The redundancy of this expression signals the desperation of the slave in begging for mercy.
[18:26] 48 tc The majority of
[18:28] 49 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[18:28] 50 tn Grk “one hundred denarii.” The denarius was a silver coin worth about a day’s wage for a laborer; this would be about three month’s pay.
[18:28] 51 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so.” A new sentence was started at this point in the translation in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.
[18:28] 52 tn Grk “and he grabbed him and started choking him.”
[18:28] 53 tn The word “me” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
[18:29] 54 tn Grk “begged him, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.
[18:31] 55 tn Grk “Therefore when.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.
[18:32] 56 tn Grk “him”; the referent (the first slave mentioned in v. 24) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[18:34] 57 tn Grk “handed him over to the torturers,” referring specifically to guards whose job was to torture prisoners who were being questioned. According to L&N 37.126, it is difficult to know for certain in this instance whether the term actually envisions torture as a part of the punishment or is simply a hyperbole. However, in light of the following verse and Jesus’ other warning statements in Matthew about “fiery hell,” “the outer darkness,” etc., it is best not to dismiss this as mere imagery.
