Psalms 119:37

119:37 Turn my eyes away from what is worthless! ¹ 

Revive me with your word! ² 

Psalms 119:104

119:104 Your precepts give me discernment.

Therefore I hate all deceitful actions. ³ 

Psalms 119:128

119:128 For this reason I carefully follow all your precepts. ⁴ 

I hate all deceitful actions. ⁵ 

Psalms 119:163

119:163 I hate and despise deceit;

I love your law.

Psalms 141:3-4

141:3 O Lord, place a guard on my mouth!

Protect the opening ⁶  of my lips! ⁷ 

141:4 Do not let me have evil desires, ⁸ 

or participate in sinful activities

with men who behave wickedly. ⁹ 

I will not eat their delicacies. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 30:8

30:8 Remove falsehood and lies ¹¹  far from me;

do not give me poverty or riches,

feed me with my allotted portion ¹²  of bread, ¹³ 

Isaiah 44:20

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ¹⁴ 

his deceived mind misleads him.

He cannot rescue himself,

nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 16:19

16:19 Then I said, ¹⁶ 

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. ¹⁷ 

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods –

worthless idols that could not help them at all. ¹⁸ 

Jonah 2:8

2:8 Those who worship ¹⁹  worthless idols ²⁰  forfeit the mercy that could be theirs. ²¹ 

Ephesians 4:22-25

4:22 You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside ²²  the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, 4:23 to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 4:24 and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image ²³  – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth. ²⁴ 

4:25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, ²⁵  for we are members of one another.

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²⁶  urge you to live ²⁷  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ²⁸ 

Ephesians 1:8

1:8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.

Ephesians 2:4

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,

Revelation 22:15

22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers ²⁹  and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood! ³⁰ 

[119:37]  ¹ tn Heb “Make my eyes pass by from looking at what is worthless.”

[119:37]  ² tn Heb “by your word.”

[119:104]  ³ tn Heb “every false path.”

[119:128]  ⁴ tn Heb “for this reason all the precepts of everything I regard as right.” The phrase “precepts of everything” is odd. It is preferable to take the kaf (כ) on כֹּל (kol, “everything) with the preceding form as a pronominal suffix, “your precepts,” and the lamed (ל) with the following verb as an emphatic particle. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 138.

[119:128]  ⁵ tn Heb “every false path.”

[141:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “door.” The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[141:3]  ⁷ sn My mouth…my lips. The psalmist asks God to protect him from speaking inappropriately or sinfully.

[141:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “do not turn my heart toward an evil thing.”

[141:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “to act sinfully in practices in wickedness with men, doers of evil.”

[141:4]  ¹⁰ sn Their delicacies. This probably refers to the enjoyment that a sinful lifestyle appears to offer.

[30:8]  ¹¹ tn The two words might form a hendiadys: “falsehood and lies” being equivalent to “complete deception.” The word שָׁוְא means “false; empty; vain; to a false purpose.” The second word means “word of lying,” thus “a lying word.” Taken separately they might refer to false intentions and false words.

[30:8]  ¹² tn The word חֹק (khoq) means “statute”; it is also used of a definite assignment in labor (Exod 5:14; Prov 31:15), or of a set portion of food (Gen 47:22). Here it refers to food that is the proper proportion for the speaker.

[30:8]  ¹³ sn Agur requested an honest life (not deceitful) and a balanced life (not self-sufficient). The second request about his provision is clarified in v. 9.

[44:20]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[16:19]  ¹⁶ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.

[16:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble. The literal which piles up attributes is of course more forceful than the predications. However, piling up poetic metaphors like this adds to the length of the English sentence and risks lack of understanding on the part of some readers. Some rhetorical force has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity.

[16:19]  ¹⁸ tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”

[2:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “those who pay regard to.” The verbal root שָׁמַר (shamar, “to keep, to watch”) appears in the Piel stem only here in biblical Hebrew, meaning “to pay regard to” (BDB 1037 s.v. שָׁמַר). This is metonymical for the act of worship (e.g., Qal “to observe” = to worship, Ps 31:7).

[2:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “worthlessnesses of nothingness” or “vanities of emptiness.” The genitive construct הַבְלֵי־שָׁוְא (havle-shavÿ’) forms an attributive adjective expression: “empty worthlessness” or “worthless vanities.” This ironic reference to false gods is doubly insulting (e.g., Ps 31:7). The noun הֶבֶל (hevel, “vapor, breath”) is often used figuratively to describe what is insubstantial, empty, and futile (31 times in Eccl; see also, e.g., Pss 39:4-6, 11; 144:4; Prov 13:11; 21:6; Isa 30:7; 49:4). It often refers to idols – the epitome of emptiness, nothingness, and worthlessness (Deut 32:21; 1 Kgs 16:13, 26; Ps 31:7; Jer 8:19; 10:8, 15; 14:22; 16:19; 51:18). The noun שָׁוְא (“worthlessness, emptiness, nothingness”) describes what is ineffective and lacking reality (BDB 996 s.v. שָׁוְא; e.g., Exod 20:7; Pss 60:11; 127:1; Ezek 22:28). It is also often used to refer to idols (e.g., Ps 31:7; Jer 18:15; Hos 5:11).

[2:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “abandon their mercy/loyalty.” The meaning of חַסְדָּם יַעֲזֹבוּ (khasdam ya’azovu, “forsake their mercy/loyalty”) is greatly debated. There are two exegetical issues that are mutually related. First, does the noun חֶסֶד (khesed) here mean (1) “mercy, kindness” that man receives from God, or (2) “loyalty, faithfulness” that man must give to God (see BDB 338-39 s.v חֶסֶד; HALOT 336-37 s.v. חֶסֶד)? Second, the third masculine plural suffix on חַסְדָּם (“their loyalty/mercy”) has been taken as (1) subjective genitive, referring to the loyal allegiance they ought to display to the true God: “they abandon the loyalty they should show.” Examples of subjective genitives are: “This is your kindness (חַסְדֵּךְ, khasdek) which you must do for me: every place to which we come, say of me, ‘He is my brother’” (Gen 20:13; also cf. Gen 40:14; 1 Sam 20:14-15). Several English versions take this approach: “forsake their faithfulness” (NASB), “abandon their faithful love” (NJB), “abandon their loyalty” (NEB, REB), “forsake their true loyalty” (RSV, NRSV), “turn their backs on all God’s mercies” (NLT), “have abandoned their loyalty to you” (TEV). (2) This has also been taken as objective genitive, referring to the mercy they might have received from God: “they forfeit the mercy that could be theirs.” The ancient versions interpret חַסְדָּם in this sense: “they do not know the source of their welfare” (Tg. Jonah 2:8), “forsake the source of their welfare” (Vulgate), and “abandon their own mercy” (LXX). Several English versions follow this approach: “forsake their source of mercy” (NAB); “forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (NIV), “forsake their own welfare” (JPS, NJPS), “forsake their own mercy” (KJV, ASV), “forsake their own Mercy” (NKJV), “turn from the God who offers them mercy” (CEV). This is a difficult lexical/syntactical problem. On the one hand, the next line contrasts their failure with Jonah’s boast of loyalty to the true God – demonstrating that he, unlike pagan idolaters, deserves to be delivered. On the other hand, the only other use of חֶסֶד in the book refers to “mercy” God bestows (4:2) – something that Jonah did not believe that the (repentant) pagan idolaters had a right to receive. BDB 339 s.v. I חֶסֶד II takes this approach – “He is חַסְדָּם their goodness, favour Jonah 2:9” – and cites other examples of חֶסֶד with suffixes referring to God: חַסְדִּי (khasdi) “my kindness” = he shows kindness to me (Ps 144:2); and אֱלֹהֵי חַסְדִּי (’elohe khasdi) “the God of my kindness” = the God who shows kindness to me (Ps 59:18).

[4:22]  ²² tn An alternative rendering for the infinitives in vv. 22-24 (“to lay aside… to be renewed… to put on”) is “that you have laid aside… that you are being renewed… that you have put on.” The three infinitives of vv. 22 (ἀποθέσθαι, apoqesqai), 23 (ἀνανεοῦσθαι, ananeousqai), and 24 (ἐνδύσασθαι, endusasqai), form part of an indirect discourse clause; they constitute the teaching given to the believers addressed in the letter. The problem in translation is that one cannot be absolutely certain whether they go back to indicatives in the original statement (i.e., “you have put off”) or imperatives (i.e., “put off!”). Every other occurrence of an aorist infinitive in indirect discourse in the NT goes back to an imperative, but in all of these examples the indirect discourse is introduced by a verb that implies a command. The verb διδάσκω (didaskw) in the corpus Paulinum may be used to relate the indicatives of the faith as well as the imperatives. This translation implies that the infinitives go back to imperatives, though the alternate view that they refer back to indicatives is also a plausible interpretation. For further discussion, see ExSyn 605.

[4:24]  ²³ tn Or “in God’s likeness.” Grk “according to God.” The preposition κατά used here denotes a measure of similarity or equality (BDAG 513 s.v. B.5.b.α).

[4:24]  ²⁴ tn Or “in righteousness and holiness which is based on truth” or “originated from truth.”

[4:25]  ²⁵ sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.

[4:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ²⁷ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ²⁸ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[22:15]  ²⁹ tn On the term φάρμακοι (farmakoi) see L&N 53.101.

[22:15]  ³⁰ tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”