Discovery BoxPsalms 11:4
Context11:4 The Lord is in his holy temple; 1
the Lord’s throne is in heaven. 2
his eyes 5 examine 6 all people. 7
Job 4:18
Context4:18 If 8 God 9 puts no trust in 10 his servants 11
and attributes 12 folly 13 to his angels,
Job 15:15
Context15:15 If God places no trust in his holy ones, 14
if even the heavens 15 are not pure in his eyes,
Isaiah 6:2
Context6:2 Seraphs 16 stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, 17 and they used the remaining two to fly.
[11:4] 1 tn Because of the royal imagery involved here, one could translate “lofty palace.” The
[11:4] 2 sn The
[11:4] 3 sn His eyes. The anthropomorphic language draws attention to God’s awareness of and interest in the situation on earth. Though the enemies are hidden by the darkness (v. 2), the Lord sees all.
[11:4] 4 tn The two Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in this verse describe the
[11:4] 6 tn For other uses of the verb in this sense, see Job 7:18; Pss 7:9; 26:2; 139:23.
[11:4] 7 tn Heb “test the sons of men.”
[4:18] 8 tn The particle הֵן (hen) introduces a conditional clause here, although the older translations used “behold.” The clause forms the foundation for the point made in the next verse, an argument by analogy – if this be true, then how much more/less the other.
[4:18] 9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[4:18] 10 tn The verb יַאֲמִין (ya’amin), a Hiphil imperfect from אָמַן (’aman) followed by the preposition בּ (bet), means “trust in.”
[4:18] 11 sn The servants here must be angels in view of the parallelism. The Targum to Job interpreted them to be the prophets. In the book we have already read about the “sons of God” who take their stand as servants before the
[4:18] 12 tn The verb שִׂים (sim, “set”) with the preposition בּ (bet) has the sense of “impute” or “attribute something to someone.”
[4:18] 13 tn The word תָּהֳלָה (toholah) is a hapax legomenon, and so has created some confusion in the various translations. It seems to mean “error; folly.” The word is translated “perverseness” in the LXX; but Symmachus connects it with the word for “madness.” “Some commentators have repointed the word to תְּהִלָּה (tÿhillah, “praise”) making the line read: “he finds no [cause for] praise in his angels.” Others suggest תִּפְלָה (tiflah, “offensiveness, silliness”) a bigger change; this matches the idiom in Job 24:12. But if the etymology of the word is הָלַל (halal, “to be mad”) then that change is not necessary. The feminine noun “madness” still leaves the meaning of the line a little uncertain: “[if] he does not impute madness to his angels.” The point of the verse is that God finds flaws in his angels and does not put his trust in them.
[15:15] 14 tn Eliphaz here reiterates the point made in Job 4:18.
[15:15] 15 sn The question here is whether the reference is to material “heavens” (as in Exod 24:10 and Job 25:5), or to heavenly beings. The latter seems preferable in this context.
[6:2] 16 tn Hebrew שָׂרָף (saraf, “seraph”) literally means “burning one,” perhaps suggesting that these creatures had a fiery appearance (cf. TEV, CEV “flaming creatures”; NCV “heavenly creatures of fire”). Elsewhere in the OT the word “seraph” refers to poisonous snakes (Num 21:6; Deut 8:15; Isa 14:29; 30:6). Perhaps they were called “burning ones” because of their appearance or the effect of their venomous bites, which would cause a victim to burn up with fever. It is possible that the seraphs seen by Isaiah were at least partially serpentine in appearance. Though it might seem strange for a snake-like creature to have wings, two of the texts where “seraphs” are snakes describe them as “flying” (Isa 14:29; 30:6), perhaps referring to their darting movements. See the note at 14:29.
[6:2] 17 sn Some understand “feet” here as a euphemistic reference to the genitals.
