Psalms 34:11-14

34:11 Come children! Listen to me!

I will teach you what it means to fear the Lord. ¹ 

34:12 Do you want to really live? ² 

Would you love to live a long, happy life? ³ 

34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words ⁴ 

or use deceptive speech! ⁵ 

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! ⁶ 

Strive for peace and promote it! ⁷ 

Psalms 36:1

Psalm 36 ⁸ 

For the music director; written by the Lord’s servant, David; an oracle. ⁹ 

36:1 An evil man is rebellious to the core. ¹⁰ 

He does not fear God, ¹¹ 

Psalms 115:13

115:13 He will bless his loyal followers, ¹² 

both young and old. ¹³ 

Genesis 22:12

22:12 “Do not harm the boy!” ¹⁴  the angel said. ¹⁵  “Do not do anything to him, for now I know ¹⁶  that you fear ¹⁷  God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.”

Genesis 42:18

42:18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do as I say ¹⁸  and you will live, ¹⁹  for I fear God. ²⁰ 

Genesis 42:1

Joseph’s Brothers in Egypt

42:1 When Jacob heard ²¹  there was grain in Egypt, he ²²  said to his sons, “Why are you looking at each other?” ²³ 

Genesis 12:1

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ²⁴  to Abram, ²⁵ 

“Go out ²⁶  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ²⁷ 

Genesis 12:1

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ²⁸  to Abram, ²⁹ 

“Go out ³⁰  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ³¹ 

Genesis 18:3-4

18:3 He said, “My lord, ³²  if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by and leave your servant. ³³  18:4 Let a little water be brought so that ³⁴  you may all ³⁵  wash your feet and rest under the tree.

Genesis 18:12

18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ³⁶  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ³⁷  especially when my husband is old too?” ³⁸ 

Nehemiah 5:15

5:15 But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken food and wine from them, in addition to ³⁹  forty shekels of silver. Their associates were also domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God.

Proverbs 8:13

8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate ⁴⁰  evil;

I hate arrogant pride ⁴¹  and the evil way

and perverse utterances. ⁴² 

Acts 10:22

10:22 They said, “Cornelius the centurion, ⁴³  a righteous ⁴⁴  and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, ⁴⁵  was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear a message ⁴⁶  from you.”

Romans 3:10-18

3:10 just as it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one,

3:11 there is no one who understands,

there is no one who seeks God.

3:12 All have turned away,

together they have become worthless;

there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” ⁴⁷ 

3:13 “Their throats are open graves, ⁴⁸ 

they deceive with their tongues,

the poison of asps is under their lips.” ⁴⁹ 

3:14 “Their mouths are ⁵⁰  full of cursing and bitterness.” ⁵¹ 

3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,

3:16 ruin and misery are in their paths,

3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.” ⁵² 

3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ⁵³ 

[34:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord I will teach you.” In vv. 13-14 the psalmist explains to his audience what it means to “fear” the Lord.

[34:12]  ² tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.

[34:12]  ³ tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”

[34:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”

[34:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”

[34:14]  ⁶ tn Or “do good.”

[34:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

[36:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 36. Though evil men plan to harm others, the psalmist is confident that the Lord is the just ruler of the earth who gives and sustains all life. He prays for divine blessing and protection and anticipates God’s judgment of the wicked.

[36:1]  ⁹ tn In the Hebrew text the word נאם (“oracle”) appears at the beginning of the next verse (v. 2 in the Hebrew text because the superscription is considered v. 1). The resulting reading, “an oracle of rebellion for the wicked [is] in the midst of my heart” (cf. NIV) apparently means that the psalm, which foresees the downfall of the wicked, is a prophetic oracle about the rebellion of the wicked which emerges from the soul of the psalmist. One could translate, “Here is a poem written as I reflected on the rebellious character of evil men.” Another option, followed in the translation above, is to attach נאם (nÿ’um, “oracle”) with the superscription. For another example of a Davidic poem being labeled an “oracle,” see 2 Sam 23:1.

[36:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[the] rebellion of an evil man [is] in the midst of my heart.” The translation assumes a reading “in the midst of his heart” (i.e., “to the core”) instead of “in the midst of my heart,” a change which finds support in a a few medieval Hebrew mss, the Hebrew text of Origen’s Hexapla, and the Syriac.

[36:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “there is no dread of God before his eyes.” The phrase “dread of God” refers here to a healthy respect for God which recognizes that he will punish evil behavior.

[115:13]  ¹² tn Heb “the fearers of the Lord.”

[115:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “the small along with the great.” The translation assumes that “small” and “great” here refer to age (see 2 Chr 15:13). Another option is to translate “both the insignificant and the prominent” (see Job 3:19; cf. NEB “high and low alike”).

[22:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Do not extend your hand toward the boy.”

[22:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Do not extend…’”; the referent (the angel) has been specified in the context for clarity. The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[22:12]  ¹⁶ sn For now I know. The test was designed to see if Abraham would be obedient (see v. 1).

[22:12]  ¹⁷ sn In this context fear refers by metonymy to obedience that grows from faith.

[42:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Do this.”

[42:18]  ¹⁹ tn After the preceding imperative, the imperative with vav (ו) can, as here, indicate logical sequence.

[42:18]  ²⁰ sn For I fear God. Joseph brings God into the picture to awaken his brothers’ consciences. The godly person cares about the welfare of people, whether they live or die. So he will send grain back, but keep one of them in Egypt. This action contrasts with their crime of selling their brother into slavery.

[42:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “saw.”

[42:1]  ²² tn Heb “Jacob.” Here the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[42:1]  ²³ sn Why are you looking at each other? The point of Jacob’s question is that his sons should be going to get grain rather than sitting around doing nothing. Jacob, as the patriarch, still makes the decisions for the whole clan.

[12:1]  ²⁴ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

[12:1]  ²⁵ tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

[12:1]  ²⁶ tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

[12:1]  ²⁷ sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.

[12:1]  ²⁸ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

[12:1]  ²⁹ tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

[12:1]  ³⁰ tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

[12:1]  ³¹ sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.

[18:3]  ³² tc The MT has the form אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Master”) which is reserved for God. This may reflect later scribal activity. The scribes, knowing it was the Lord, may have put the proper pointing with the word instead of the more common אֲדֹנִי (’adoni, “my master”).

[18:3]  ³³ tn Heb “do not pass by from upon your servant.”

[18:4]  ³⁴ tn The imperative after the jussive indicates purpose here.

[18:4]  ³⁵ tn The word “all” has been supplied in the translation because the Hebrew verb translated “wash” and the pronominal suffix on the word “feet” are plural, referring to all three of the visitors.

[18:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “saying.”

[18:12]  ³⁷ tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.

[18:12]  ³⁸ tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:15]  ³⁹ tc The Hebrew term אַחַר (’akhar) is difficult here. It normally means “after,” but that makes no sense here. Some scholars emend it to אַחַד (’akhad) and supply the word “day,” which yields the sense “daily.” Cf. TEV “40 silver coins a day for food and wine.”

[8:13]  ⁴⁰ tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

[8:13]  ⁴¹ tn Since both גֵּאָה (ge’ah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (ga’on, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (ga’ah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”

[8:13]  ⁴² tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).

[10:22]  ⁴³ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[10:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “just.”

[10:22]  ⁴⁵ tn The phrase τοῦ ἔθνους τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων (tou eqnou" twn Ioudaiwn) is virtually a technical term for the Jewish nation (1 Macc 10:25; 11:30, 33; Josephus, Ant. 14.10.22 [14.248]). “All the Jewish people,” while another possible translation of the Greek phrase, does not convey the technical sense of a reference to the nation in English.

[10:22]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “hear words.”

[3:12]  ⁴⁷ sn Verses 10-12 are a quotation from Ps 14:1-3.

[3:13]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “their throat is an opened grave.”

[3:13]  ⁴⁹ sn A quotation from Pss 5:9; 140:3.

[3:14]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “whose mouth is.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:14]  ⁵¹ sn A quotation from Ps 10:7.

[3:17]  ⁵² sn Rom 3:15-17 is a quotation from Isa 59:7-8.

[3:18]  ⁵³ sn A quotation from Ps 36:1.