Psalms 19:14

19:14 May my words and my thoughts

be acceptable in your sight, ¹ 

O Lord, my sheltering rock ²  and my redeemer. ³ 

Job 8:2

8:2 “How long will you speak these things, ⁴ 

seeing ⁵  that the words of your mouth

are like a great ⁶  wind? ⁷ 

Job 38:2

38:2 “Who is this ⁸  who darkens counsel ⁹ 

with words without knowledge?

Job 42:3

42:3 you asked, ¹⁰ 

‘Who is this who darkens counsel

without knowledge?’

But ¹¹  I have declared without understanding ¹² 

things too wonderful for me to know. ¹³ 

Job 42:6-8

42:6 Therefore I despise myself, ¹⁴ 

and I repent in dust and ashes!

VII. The Epilogue (42:7-17)

42:7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he ¹⁵  said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up ¹⁶  against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, ¹⁷  as my servant Job has. 42:8 So now take ¹⁸  seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede ¹⁹  for you, and I will respect him, ²⁰  so that I do not deal with you ²¹  according to your folly, ²²  because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ²³ 

Zephaniah 1:12

1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ²⁴ 

those who think to themselves, ²⁵ 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ²⁶ 

Malachi 3:13-16

Resistance to the Lord through Self-sufficiency

3:13 “You have criticized me sharply,” ²⁷  says the Lord, “but you ask, ‘How have we criticized you?’ 3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ²⁸  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ²⁹  3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ³⁰  In fact, those who challenge ³¹  God escape!’”

3:16 Then those who respected ³²  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ³³  A scroll ³⁴  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

Matthew 12:35-37

12:35 The good person ³⁵  brings good things out of his ³⁶  good treasury, ³⁷  and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury. 12:36 I ³⁸  tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 12:37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

James 1:26

1:26 If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile.

James 3:2-10

3:2 For we all stumble ³⁹  in many ways. If someone does not stumble ⁴⁰  in what he says, ⁴¹  he is a perfect individual, ⁴²  able to control the entire body as well. 3:3 And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to get them to obey us, then we guide their entire bodies. ⁴³  3:4 Look at ships too: Though they are so large and driven by harsh winds, they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination directs. 3:5 So too the tongue is a small part of the body, ⁴⁴  yet it has great pretensions. ⁴⁵  Think ⁴⁶  how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze. 3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ⁴⁷  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ⁴⁸  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ⁴⁹ 

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature ⁵⁰  is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. ⁵¹  3:8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless ⁵²  evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9 With it we bless the Lord ⁵³  and Father, and with it we curse people ⁵⁴  made in God’s image. 3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters. ⁵⁵ 

[19:14]  ¹ tn Heb “may the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart be acceptable before you.” The prefixed verbal form at the beginning of the verse is understood as a jussive of prayer. Another option is to translate the form as an imperfect continuing the thought of v. 14b: “[Then] the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart will be acceptable before you.”

[19:14]  ² tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection; thus the translation “sheltering rock.”

[19:14]  ³ tn Heb “and the one who redeems me.” The metaphor casts the Lord in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis.

[8:2]  ⁴ sn “These things” refers to all of Job’s speech, the general drift of which seems to Bildad to question the justice of God.

[8:2]  ⁵ tn The second colon of the verse simply says “and a strong wind the words of your mouth.” The simplest way to treat this is to make it an independent nominal sentence: “the words of your mouth are a strong wind.” Some have made it parallel to the first by apposition, understanding “how long” to do double duty. The line beginning with the ו (vav) can also be subordinated as a circumstantial clause, as here.

[8:2]  ⁶ tn The word כַּבִּיר (kabbir, “great”) implies both abundance and greatness. Here the word modifies “wind”; the point of the analogy is that Job’s words are full of sound but without solid content.

[8:2]  ⁷ tn See, however, G. R. Driver’s translation, “the breath of one who is mighty are the words of your mouth” (“Hebrew Studies,” JRAS 1948: 170).

[38:2]  ⁸ tn The demonstrative pronoun is used here to emphasize the interrogative pronoun (see GKC 442 §136.c).

[38:2]  ⁹ sn The referent of “counsel” here is not the debate between Job and the friends, but the purposes of God (see Ps 33:10; Prov 19:21; Isa 19:17). Dhorme translates it “Providence.”

[42:3]  ¹⁰ tn The expression “you asked” is added here to clarify the presence of the line to follow. Many commentators delete it as a gloss from Job 38:2. If it is retained, then Job has to be recalling God’s question before he answers it.

[42:3]  ¹¹ tn The word לָכֵן (lakhen) is simply “but,” as in Job 31:37.

[42:3]  ¹² tn Heb “and I do not understand.” The expression serves here in an adverbial capacity. It also could be subordinated as a complement: “I have declared [things that] I do not understand.”

[42:3]  ¹³ tn The last clause is “and I do not know.” This is also subordinated to become a dependent clause.

[42:6]  ¹⁴ tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).

[42:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” The title has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[42:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “is kindled.”

[42:7]  ¹⁷ tn The form נְכוֹנָה (nÿkhonah) is from כּוּן (kun, “to be firm; to be fixed; to be established”). Here it means “the right thing” or “truth.” The Akkadian word kenu (from כּוּן, kun) connotes justice and truth.

[42:8]  ¹⁸ tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.

[42:8]  ¹⁹ tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”

[42:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”

[42:8]  ²¹ tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.

[42:8]  ²² tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.

[42:8]  ²³ sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.

[1:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.

[1:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”

[3:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “your words are hard [or “strong”] against me”; cf. NIV “said harsh things against me”; TEV, NLT “said terrible things about me.”

[3:14]  ²⁸ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ²⁹ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.

[3:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “built up” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “prosper”; NLT “get rich.”

[3:15]  ³¹ tn Or “test”; NRSV, CEV “put God to the test.”

[3:16]  ³² tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

[3:16]  ³³ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

[3:16]  ³⁴ 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).

[12:35]  ³⁵ tn The Greek text reads here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos). The term is generic referring to any person.

[12:35]  ³⁶ tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here and in the following clause (“his evil treasury”) as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[12:35]  ³⁷ sn The treasury here is a metaphorical reference to a person’s heart (cf. BDAG 456 s.v. θησαυρός 1.b and the parallel passage in Luke 6:45).

[12:36]  ³⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[3:2]  ³⁹ tn Or “fail.”

[3:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “fail.”

[3:2]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “in speech.”

[3:2]  ⁴² tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person,” as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2).

[3:3]  ⁴³ tn Grk “their entire body.”

[3:5]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “a small member.”

[3:5]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “boasts of great things.”

[3:5]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “Behold.”

[3:6]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

[3:6]  ⁴⁸ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:6]  ⁴⁹ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

[3:7]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”

[3:7]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “the human species.”

[3:8]  ⁵² tc Most mss (C Ψ 1739^c Ï as well as a few versions and fathers) read “uncontrollable” (ἀκατασχετόν, akatasceton), while the most important witnesses (א A B K P 1739* latt) have “restless” (ἀκατάστατον, akatastaton). Externally, the latter reading should be preferred. Internally, however, things get a bit more complex. The notion of being uncontrollable is well suited to the context, especially as a counterbalance to v. 8a, though for this very reason scribes may have been tempted to replace ἀκατάστατον with ἀκατασχετόν. However, in a semantically parallel early Christian text, ἀκατάστατος (akatastato") was considered strong enough of a term to denounce slander as “a restless demon” (Herm. 27:3). On the other hand, ἀκατάστατον may have been substituted for ἀκατασχετόν by way of assimilation to 1:8 (especially since both words were relatively rare, scribes may have replaced the less familiar with one that was already used in this letter). On internal evidence, it is difficult to decide, though ἀκατασχετόν is slightly preferred. However, in light of the strong support for ἀκατάστατον, and the less-than-decisive internal evidence, ἀκατάστατον is preferred instead.

[3:9]  ⁵³ tc Most later mss (Ï), along with several versional witnesses, have θεόν (qeon, “God”) here instead of κύριον (kurion, “Lord”). Such is a predictable variant since nowhere else in the NT is God described as “Lord and Father,” but he is called “God and Father” on several occasions. Further, the reading κύριον is well supported by early and diversified witnesses (̲⁰ א A B C P Ψ 33 81 945 1241 1739), rendering it as the overwhelmingly preferred reading.

[3:9]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpous) has generic force, referring to both men and women.

[3:10]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.