Psalms 25:12

25:12 The Lord shows his faithful followers

the way they should live. ¹ 

Psalms 25:14

25:14 The Lord’s loyal followers receive his guidance, ² 

and he reveals his covenantal demands to them. ³ 

Psalms 111:10--112:1

111:10 To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living; ⁴ 

all who carry out his precepts acquire good moral insight. ⁵ 

He will receive praise forever. ⁶ 

Psalm 112 ⁷ 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ⁸  who obeys ⁹  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 128:1

Psalm 128 ¹¹ 

A song of ascents. ¹² 

128:1 How blessed is every one of the Lord’s loyal followers, ¹³ 

each one who keeps his commands! ¹⁴ 

Ecclesiastes 12:13

12:13 Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: ¹⁵ 

Fear God and keep his commandments,

because this is the whole duty ¹⁶  of man.

Malachi 3:16

3:16 Then those who respected ¹⁷  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ¹⁸  A scroll ¹⁹  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

[25:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Who is this man, the one who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.” The singular (note “man”) is representative here (see v. 14, where the plural is used), and has thus been translated as a plural (“followers…they”).

[25:14]  ² tn Heb “the advice of the Lord belongs to those who fear him.”

[25:14]  ³ tn Heb “and his covenant, to make them know.”

[111:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “the beginning of wisdom [is] the fear of the Lord.”

[111:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “good sense [is] to all who do them.” The third masculine plural pronominal suffix must refer back to the “precepts” mentioned in v. 7. In the translation the referent has been specified for clarity. The phrase שֵׂכֶל טוֹב (shekhel tov) also occurs in Prov 3:4; 13:15 and 2 Chr 30:22.

[111:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “his praise stands forever.”

[112:1]  ⁷ sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[128:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 128. The psalmist observes that the godly individual has genuine happiness because the Lord rewards such a person with prosperity and numerous children.

[128:1]  ¹² sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[128:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “every fearer of the Lord.”

[128:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the one who walks in his ways.”

[12:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The end of the matter, everything having been heard.”

[12:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “This is all men”; or “This is the whole of man.” The phrase זֶה כָּל־הָאָדָם (zeh kol-ha’adam, “this is all men”) features rhetorical elision of a key word. The ambiguity over the elided word has led to no less than five basic approaches: (1) “this is the whole duty of man” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NAB, NIV); (2) “this is the duty of all men” (MLB, ASV margin, RSV margin); (3) “this applies to all men” (NASB, NJPS); (4) “this is the whole duty of all men” (NRSV, Moffatt); and (5) “there is no more to man than this” (NEB). The four-fold repetition of כֹּל (kol, “all”) in 12:13-14 suggests that Qoheleth is emphasizing the “bottom line,” that is, the basic duty of man is simply to fear and obey God: After “all” (כֹּל) has been heard in the book, his conclusion is that the “whole” (כֹּל) duty of man is to obey God because God will bring “all” (כֹּל) acts into judgment, including “all” (כֹּל) that is hidden, whether good or bad. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:596.

[3:16]  ¹⁷ tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

[3:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

[3:16]  ¹⁹ sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12-15).