Psalms 34:14

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! ¹ 

Strive for peace and promote it! ² 

Psalms 37:27

37:27 Turn away from evil! Do what is right! ³ 

Then you will enjoy lasting security. ⁴ 

Psalms 119:101

119:101 I stay away ⁵  from the evil path,

so that I might keep your instructions. ⁶ 

Proverbs 4:27

4:27 Do not turn ⁷  to the right or to the left;

turn yourself ⁸  away from evil. ⁹ 

Proverbs 14:16

14:16 A wise person is cautious ¹⁰  and turns from evil,

but a fool throws off restraint ¹¹  and is overconfident. ¹² 

Proverbs 16:6

16:6 Through loyal love and truth ¹³  iniquity is appeased; ¹⁴ 

through fearing the Lord ¹⁵  one avoids ¹⁶  evil. ¹⁷ 

Proverbs 16:17

16:17 The highway ¹⁸  of the upright is to turn ¹⁹  away from evil;

the one who guards ²⁰  his way safeguards his life. ²¹ 

Romans 12:9

Conduct in Love

12:9 Love must be ²²  without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.

[34:14]  ¹ tn Or “do good.”

[34:14]  ² tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

[37:27]  ³ tn Or “Do good!” The imperatives are singular (see v. 1).

[37:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “and dwell permanently.” The imperative with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause after the preceding imperatives.

[119:101]  ⁵ tn Heb “I hold back my feet.”

[119:101]  ⁶ tn Heb “your word.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural.

[4:27]  ⁷ sn The two verbs in this verse are from different roots, but nonetheless share the same semantic domain. The first verb is תֵּט (tet), a jussive from נָטָה (natah), which means “to turn aside” (Hiphil); the second verb is the Hiphil imperative of סוּר (sur), which means “to cause to turn to the side” (Hiphil). The disciple is not to leave the path of righteousness; but to stay on the path he must leave evil.

[4:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “your foot” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV). The term רַגְלְךָ (raglÿkha, “your foot”) is a synecdoche of part (= foot) for the whole person (= “yourself”).

[4:27]  ⁹ tc The LXX adds, “For the way of the right hand God knows, but those of the left hand are distorted; and he himself will make straight your paths and guide your goings in peace.” The ideas presented here are not out of harmony with Proverbs, but the section clearly shows an expansion by the translator. For a brief discussion of whether this addition is Jewish or early Christian, see C. H. Toy, Proverbs (ICC), 99.

[14:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fears.” Since the holy name (Yahweh, translated “the Lord”) is not used, it probably does not here mean fear of the Lord, but of the consequences of actions.

[14:16]  ¹¹ tn The Hitpael of עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”) means “to pass over the bounds of propriety; to act insolently” (BDB 720 s.v.; cf. ASV “beareth himself insolently”).

[14:16]  ¹² tn The verb בָּטַח here denotes self-assurance or overconfidence. Fools are not cautious and do not fear the consequences of their actions.

[16:6]  ¹³ sn These two words are often found together to form a nominal hendiadys: “faithful loyal love.” The couplet often characterize the Lord, but here in parallel to the fear of the Lord it refers to the faithfulness of the believer. Such faith and faithfulness bring atonement for sin.

[16:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “is atoned”; KJV “is purged”; NAB “is expiated.” The verb is from I כָּפַר (kafar, “to atone; to expiate; to pacify; to appease”; HALOT 493-94 s.v. I כפר). This root should not be confused with the identically spelled Homonym II כָּפַר (kafar, “to cover over”; HALOT 494 s.v. II *כפר). Atonement in the OT expiated sins, it did not merely cover them over (cf. NLT). C. H. Toy explains the meaning by saying it affirms that the divine anger against sin is turned away and man’s relation to God is as though he had not sinned (Proverbs [ICC], 322). Genuine repentance, demonstrated by loyalty and truthfulness, appeases the anger of God against one’s sin.

[16:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fear of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as an objective genitive: “fearing the Lord.”

[16:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “turns away from”; NASB “keeps away from.”

[16:6]  ¹⁷ sn The Hebrew word translated “evil” (רַע, ra’) can in some contexts mean “calamity” or “disaster,” but here it seems more likely to mean “evil” in the sense of sin. Faithfulness to the Lord brings freedom from sin. The verse uses synonymous parallelism with a variant: One half speaks of atonement for sin because of the life of faith, and the other of avoidance of sin because of the fear of the Lord.

[16:17]  ¹⁸ sn The point of righteous living is made with the image of a highway, a raised and well-graded road (a hypocatastasis, implying a comparison between a highway and the right way of living).

[16:17]  ¹⁹ tn The form סוּר (sur) is a Qal infinitive; it indicates that a purpose of the righteous life is to turn away from evil. “Evil” here has the sense of sinful living. So the first line asserts that the well-cared-for life avoids sin.

[16:17]  ²⁰ sn The second half of the verse uses two different words for “guard”; this one is נֹצֵר (notser) “the one who guards his way,” and the first is שֹׁמֵר (shomer) “the one who guards his life” (the order of the words is reversed in the translation). The second colon then explains further the first (synthetic parallelism), because to guard one’s way preserves life.

[16:17]  ²¹ tc The LXX adds three lines after 17a and one after 17b: “The paths of life turn aside from evils, and the ways of righteousness are length of life; he who receives instruction will be prosperous, and he who regards reproofs will be made wise; he who guards his ways preserves his soul, and he who loves his life will spare his mouth.”

[12:9]  ²² tn The verb “must be” is understood in the Greek text.