Psalms 119:9-11

ב (Bet)

119:9 How can a young person ¹  maintain a pure life? ² 

By guarding it according to your instructions! ³ 

119:10 With all my heart I seek you.

Do not allow me to stray from your commands!

119:11 In my heart I store up ⁴  your words, ⁵ 

so I might not sin against you.

Proverbs 2:10-15

2:10 For wisdom will enter your heart, ⁶ 

and moral knowledge ⁷  will be attractive ⁸  to you. ⁹ 

2:11 Discretion ¹⁰  will protect you, ¹¹ 

understanding will guard you,

2:12 to deliver ¹²  you from the way of the wicked, ¹³ 

from those ¹⁴  speaking perversity, ¹⁵ 

2:13 who leave ¹⁶  the upright ¹⁷  paths

to walk on the dark ¹⁸  ways,

2:14 who delight ¹⁹  in doing ²⁰  evil, ²¹ 

they rejoice in perverse evil; ²² 

2:15 whose paths ²³  are morally crooked, ²⁴ 

and who are devious ²⁵  in their ways;

Matthew 4:4

4:4 But he answered, ²⁶  “It is written, ‘Man ²⁷  does not live ²⁸  by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ²⁹ 

Matthew 4:7

4:7 Jesus said to him, “Once again it is written: ‘You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.’” ³⁰ 

Matthew 4:10

4:10 Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, ³¹  Satan! For it is written: ‘You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” ³² 

John 17:17

17:17 Set them apart ³³  in the truth; your word is truth.

Ephesians 6:17

6:17 And take the helmet of salvation ³⁴  and the sword ³⁵  of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

James 1:18

1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth ³⁶  through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Revelation 12:11

12:11 But ³⁷  they overcame him

by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony,

and they did not love their lives ³⁸  so much that they were afraid to die.

[119:9]  ¹ tn Heb “young man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, the gender specific “young man” has been translated with the more neutral “young person.”

[119:9]  ² tn Heb “purify his path.”

[119:9]  ³ tn Heb “by keeping according to your word.” Many medieval Hebrew mss as well as the LXX read the plural, “your words.”

[119:11]  ⁴ tn Or “hide.”

[119:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “your word.” Some medieval Hebrew mss as well as the LXX read the plural, “your words.”

[2:10]  ⁶ tn The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as a metonymy of association for “mind” and “thoughts” (BDB 524 s.v. 3). It represents the center of the inner life where the volition and emotions join to bring about actions. It is used here in parallelism with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”), for which see note.

[2:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “knowledge.” For the noun דַּעַת (da’at), see the note on 1:7.

[2:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “pleasant.” The verb יִנְעָם (yin’am, “to be pleasant”) describes what is attractive. It is used of being physically attracted to one’s lover (Song 7:7) or to a close friendship (2 Sam 1:26). Here wisdom becomes attractive to the righteous, that is, the righteous desires to acquire it.

[2:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “your soul.” The term נַפְשְׁךָ (nafshÿkha, “your soul”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= soul) for the whole person (= you); see BDB 660 s.v. 4.a.2. It also might function as a metonymy of association for emotions and passions (BDB 660 s.v. 6) or mental cognition (BDB 660 s.v. 7).

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn The word מְזִמָּה (mÿzimmah, “discretion”) is the ability to know the best course of action for achieving one’s goal. It is knowledge and understanding with a purpose. This kind of knowledge enables one to make the right choices that will protect him from blunders and their consequences (cf. NLT “wise planning”; CEV “sound judgment”).

[2:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will watch over you.”

[2:12]  ¹² tn The Hiphil infinitive construct of נָצַל (natsal, “to deliver”) expresses the purpose of understanding right conduct: to protect a person from the wicked. The verb נָצַל (natsal) means “to save; to deliver; to rescue,” as in snatching away prey from an animal, rescuing from enemies, plucking a brand from the fire, retrieving property, or the like. Here it portrays rescue from the course of action of the wicked.

[2:12]  ¹³ tn The term “wicked” (רַע, ra’) means “bad, harmful, painful.” Rather than referring to the abstract concept of “wickedness” in general, the term probably refers to wicked people because of the parallelism with “those speaking perversity.”

[2:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “man.” The singular noun אִישׁ (’ish, “man”) here will be further defined in vv. 13-15 with plural forms (verbs, nouns and suffixes). So the singular functions in a collective sense which is rendered in a plural sense in the translation for the sake of clarification and smoothness.

[2:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “perversities.” The plural form of תַּהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot) may denote a plurality of number (“perverse things”) or intensification: “awful perversity.” As here, it often refers to perverse speech (Prov 8:13; 10:31, 32; 23:33). It is related to the noun הֶפֶךְ (hefekh, “that which is contrary, perverse”) which refers to what is contrary to morality (Isa 29:16; Ezek 16:34; BDB 246 s.v. הֶפֶךְ). The related verb הָפַךְ (hafakh, “to turn; to overturn”) is used (1) literally of turning things over, e.g., tipping over a bowl (2 Kgs 21:13) and turning over bread-cakes (Judg 7:13; Hos 7:8) and (2) figuratively of perverting things so that they are morally upside down, so to speak (Jer 23:36). These people speak what is contrary to morality, wisdom, sense, logic or the truth.

[2:13]  ¹⁶ tn The articular plural active participle functions as attributive adjective for אִישׁ (’ish, “man”) in v. 12b, indicating that אִישׁ (“man”) is collective.

[2:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “paths of uprightness.” The noun יָשָׁר (yashar, “uprightness; straightness”) is an attributive genitive. The moral life is described in Proverbs as the smooth, straight way (2:13; 4:11). The wicked abandon the clear straight path for an evil, crooked, uncertain path.

[2:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “ways of darkness.” Darkness is often metaphorical for sinfulness, ignorance, or oppression. Their way of life lacks spiritual illumination.

[2:14]  ¹⁹ tn The articular plural active participle functions as the second attributive adjective for אִישׁ (’ish, “man”) in v. 12b.

[2:14]  ²⁰ tn The Qal infinitive construct is the complementary use of the form, expressing the direct object of the participle.

[2:14]  ²¹ tn Or “harm.”

[2:14]  ²² tn Heb “the perversity of evil” (so NASB). The noun רָע (ra’, “evil”) functions as an attributed genitive which is modified by the construct noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perversity”) which functions as an attributive adjective.

[2:15]  ²³ tn The noun in this relative clause is an accusative of specification: The evil people are twisted with respect to their paths/conduct.

[2:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “crooked.” The adjective עִקֵּשׁ (’iqqesh, “crooked; twisted”) uses the morphological pattern of adjectives that depict permanent bodily defects, e.g., blindness, lameness. Their actions are morally defective and, apart from repentance, are permanently crooked and twisted.

[2:15]  ²⁵ tn The Niphal participle of לוּז (luz, “devious; crooked”) describes conduct that is morally deceptive, crafty, and cunning (Isa 30:12).

[4:4]  ²⁶ tn Grk “answering, he said.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the syntax of the phrase has been changed for clarity.

[4:4]  ²⁷ tn Or “a person.” Greek ὁ ἄνθρωπος (Jo anqrwpo") is used generically for humanity. The translation “man” is used because the emphasis in Jesus’ response seems to be on his dependence on God as a man.

[4:4]  ²⁸ tn Grk “will not live.” The verb in Greek is a future tense, but it is unclear whether it is meant to be taken as a command (also known as an imperatival future) or as a statement of reality (predictive future).

[4:4]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Deut 8:3.

[4:7]  ³⁰ sn A quotation from Deut 6:16.

[4:10]  ³¹ tc The majority of later witnesses (C² D L Z 33 Ï) have “behind me” (ὀπίσω μου; opisw mou) after “Go away.” But since this is the wording in Matt 16:23, where the text is certain, scribes most likely added the words here to conform to the later passage. Further, the shorter reading has superior support (א B C*^vid K P W Δ 0233 Ë^1,13 565 579* 700 al). Thus, both externally and internally, the shorter reading is strongly preferred.

[4:10]  ³² sn A quotation from Deut 6:13. The word “only” is an interpretive expansion not found in either the Hebrew or Greek (LXX) text of the OT.

[17:17]  ³³ tn Or “Consecrate them” or “Sanctify them.”

[6:17]  ³⁴ sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.

[6:17]  ³⁵ sn The Greek term translated sword (μάχαιρα, macaira) refers to the Roman gladius, a short sword about 2 ft (60 cm) long, used for close hand-to-hand combat. This is the only clearly offensive weapon in the list of armor mentioned by the author (he does not, for example, mention the lance [Latin pilum]).

[1:18]  ³⁶ tn Grk “Having willed, he gave us birth.”

[12:11]  ³⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast.

[12:11]  ³⁸ sn They did not love their lives. See Matt 16:25; Luke 17:33; John 12:25.