Psalms 26:2

26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and test me!

Evaluate my inner thoughts and motives! ¹ 

Psalms 125:4

125:4 Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,

to the morally upright! ² 

Genesis 20:5-6

20:5 Did Abraham ³  not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ⁴  ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience ⁵  and with innocent hands!”

20:6 Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. ⁶  That is why I have kept you ⁷  from sinning against me and why ⁸  I did not allow you to touch her.

Genesis 20:2-3

20:2 Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.

20:3 But God appeared ⁹  to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead ¹⁰  because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 20:1

Abraham and Abimelech

20:1 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev ¹²  region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident ¹³  in Gerar,

Genesis 29:17

29:17 Leah’s eyes were tender, ¹⁴  but Rachel had a lovely figure and beautiful appearance.) ¹⁵ 

Genesis 29:2

29:2 He saw ¹⁶  in the field a well with ¹⁷  three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now ¹⁸  a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

Genesis 31:20-21

31:20 Jacob also deceived ¹⁹  Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was leaving. ²⁰  31:21 He left ²¹  with all he owned. He quickly crossed ²²  the Euphrates River ²³  and headed for ²⁴  the hill country of Gilead.

Proverbs 2:21

2:21 For the upright will reside in the land,

and those with integrity ²⁵  will remain in it,

Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ²⁶ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ²⁷ 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ²⁸ 

They refuse to change their ways. ²⁹ 

John 4:23-24

4:23 But a time ³⁰  is coming – and now is here ³¹  – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks ³²  such people to be ³³  his worshipers. ³⁴  4:24 God is spirit, ³⁵  and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:2

4:2 (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), ³⁶ 

Colossians 1:12

1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share ³⁷  in the saints’ ³⁸  inheritance in the light.

James 4:8

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. ³⁹ 

[26:2]  ¹ tn Heb “evaluate my kidneys and my heart.” The kidneys and heart were viewed as the seat of one’s volition, conscience, and moral character.

[125:4]  ² tn Heb “pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 32:11; 36:10; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11).

[20:5]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and she, even she.”

[20:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “with the integrity of my heart.”

[20:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “with the integrity of your heart.”

[20:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I, even I, kept you.”

[20:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “therefore.”

[20:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “came.”

[20:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look, you [are] dead.” The Hebrew construction uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with a second person pronominal particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with by the participle. It is a highly rhetorical expression.

[20:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.

[20:1]  ¹² tn Or “the South [country]”; Heb “the land of the Negev.”

[20:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he sojourned.”

[29:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the eyes of Leah were tender.” The disjunctive clause (introduced here by a conjunction and a noun) continues the parenthesis begun in v. 16. It is not clear what is meant by “tender” (or “delicate”) eyes. The expression may mean she had appealing eyes (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT), though some suggest that they were plain, not having the brightness normally expected. Either way, she did not measure up to her gorgeous sister.

[29:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and Rachel was beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance.”

[29:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he saw, and look.” As in Gen 28:12-15, the narrator uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) here and in the next clause to draw the reader into the story.

[29:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and look, there.”

[29:2]  ¹⁸ tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the noun with the prefixed conjunction) provides supplemental information that is important to the story.

[31:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “stole the heart of,” an expression which apparently means “to deceive.” The repetition of the verb “to steal” shows that Jacob and Rachel are kindred spirits. Any thought that Laban would have resigned himself to their departure was now out of the question.

[31:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fleeing,” which reflects Jacob’s viewpoint.

[31:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “and he fled.”

[31:21]  ²² tn Heb “he arose and crossed.” The first verb emphasizes that he wasted no time in getting across.

[31:21]  ²³ tn Heb “the river”; the referent (the Euphrates) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[31:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he set his face.”

[2:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the blameless” (so NASB, NIV); NAB “the honest”; NRSV “the innocent.” The term תְּמִימִים (tÿmimim, “the blameless”) describes those who live with integrity. They are blameless in that they live above reproach according to the requirements of the law.

[5:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ²⁷ tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

[5:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ²⁹ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[4:23]  ³⁰ tn Grk “an hour.”

[4:23]  ³¹ tn “Here” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to conform to contemporary English idiom.

[4:23]  ³² sn See also John 4:27.

[4:23]  ³³ tn Or “as.” The object-complement construction implies either “as” or “to be.”

[4:23]  ³⁴ tn This is a double accusative construction of object and complement with τοιούτους (toioutous) as the object and the participle προσκυνοῦντας (proskunounta") as the complement.

[4:24]  ³⁵ tn Here πνεῦμα (pneuma) is understood as a qualitative predicate nominative while the articular θεός (qeos) is the subject.

[4:2]  ³⁶ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[1:12]  ³⁷ tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.

[1:12]  ³⁸ tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”

[4:8]  ³⁹ tn Or “two-minded” (the same description used in 1:8).