Romans 2:5

2:5 But because of your stubbornness ¹  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ² 

Romans 3:5-6

3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ³  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ⁴  (I am speaking in human terms.) ⁵  3:6 Absolutely not! For otherwise how could God judge the world?

Genesis 18:25

18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge ⁶  of the whole earth do what is right?” ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 32:4

32:4 As for the Rock, ⁸  his work is perfect,

for all his ways are just.

He is a reliable God who is never unjust,

he is fair ⁹  and upright.

Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ¹⁰ 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Deuteronomy 19:7

19:7 Therefore, I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

Job 8:3

8:3 Does God pervert ¹¹  justice? ¹² 

Or does the Almighty pervert ¹³  what is right?

Job 34:10-12

God is Not Unjust

34:10 “Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. ¹⁴ 

Far be it from ¹⁵  God to do wickedness,

from the Almighty to do evil.

34:11 For he repays a person for his work, ¹⁶ 

and according to the conduct of a person,

he causes the consequences to find him. ¹⁷ 

34:12 Indeed, in truth, God does not act wickedly,

and the Almighty does not pervert justice.

Job 34:18-19

34:18 who says to a king, ¹⁸  ‘Worthless man’ ¹⁹ 

and to nobles, ‘Wicked men,’

34:19 who shows no partiality to princes,

and does not take note of ²⁰  the rich more than the poor,

because all of them are the work of his hands?

Job 35:2

35:2 “Do you think this to be ²¹  just:

when ²²  you say, ‘My right before God.’ ²³ 

Psalms 92:15

92:15 So they proclaim that the Lord, my protector,

is just and never unfair. ²⁴ 

Psalms 145:17

145:17 The Lord is just in all his actions, ²⁵ 

and exhibits love in all he does. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 12:1

12:1 Lord, you have always been fair

whenever I have complained to you. ²⁷ 

However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. ²⁸ 

Why are wicked people successful? ²⁹ 

Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?

Revelation 15:3-4

15:3 They ³⁰  sang the song of Moses the servant ³¹  of God and the song of the Lamb: ³² 

“Great and astounding are your deeds,

Lord God, the All-Powerful! ³³ 

Just ³⁴  and true are your ways,

King over the nations! ³⁵ 

15:4 Who will not fear you, O Lord,

and glorify ³⁶  your name, because you alone are holy? ³⁷ 

All nations ³⁸  will come and worship before you

for your righteous acts ³⁹  have been revealed.”

Revelation 16:7

16:7 Then ⁴⁰  I heard the altar reply, ⁴¹  “Yes, Lord God, the All-Powerful, ⁴²  your judgments are true and just!”

[2:5]  ¹ tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

[2:5]  ² tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

[3:5]  ³ tn Or “shows clearly.”

[3:5]  ⁴ tn Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is he?”

[3:5]  ⁵ sn The same expression occurs in Gal 3:15, and similar phrases in Rom 6:19 and 1 Cor 9:8.

[18:25]  ⁶ tn Or “ruler.”

[18:25]  ⁷ sn Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? For discussion of this text see J. L. Crenshaw, “Popular Questioning of the Justice of God in Ancient Israel,” ZAW 82 (1970): 380-95, and C. S. Rodd, “Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What Is Just?” ExpTim 83 (1972): 137-39.

[32:4]  ⁸ tc The LXX reads Θεός (qeos, “God”) for the MT’s “Rock.”

[32:4]  ⁹ tn Or “just” (KJV, NAB, NRSV, NLT) or “righteous” (NASB).

[32:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

[8:3]  ¹¹ tn The Piel verb יְעַוֵּת (yÿ’avvet) means “to bend; to cause to swerve from the norm; to deviate; to pervert.” The LXX renders the first colon as “will the Lord be unjust when he judges?”

[8:3]  ¹² tn The first word is מִשְׁפָּת (mishpat, “justice”). It can mean an act of judgment, place of judgment, or what is just, that is, the outcome of the decision. It basically describes an umpire’s decision. The parallel word is צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “righteousness,” or “what is right”). The basic idea here is that which conforms to the standard, what is right. See S. H. Scholnick, “The Meaning of Mishpat in the Book of Job,” JBL 101 (1982): 521-29.

[8:3]  ¹³ tn Some commentators think that the second verb should be changed in order to avoid the repetition of the same word and to reflect the different words in the versions. The suggestion is to read יְעַוֵּה (yÿ’avveh) instead; this would mean “to cause someone to deviate,” for the root means “to bend.” The change is completely unwarranted; the LXX probably chose different words for stylistic reasons (see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 198). The repetition in the Hebrew text is a common type; it strengthens the enormity of the charge Job seems to be making.

[34:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “men of heart.” The “heart” is used for the capacity to understand and make the proper choice. It is often translated “mind.”

[34:10]  ¹⁵ tn For this construction, see Job 27:5.

[34:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for the work of man, he [= God] repays him.”

[34:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he causes it to find him.” The text means that God will cause a man to find (or receive) the consequences of his actions.

[34:18]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “Does one say,” although some smooth it out to say “Is it fit to say?” For the reading “who says,” the form has to be repointed to הַאֹמֵר (ha’omer) meaning, “who is the one saying.” This reading is supported by the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac. Also it seems to flow better with the following verse. It would be saying that God is over the rulers and can rebuke them. The former view is saying that no one rebukes kings, much less Job rebuking God.

[34:18]  ¹⁹ tn The word בְּלִיָּעַל (bÿliyya’al) means both “worthless” and “wicked.” It is common in proverbial literature, and in later writings it became a description of Satan. It is usually found with “son of.”

[34:19]  ²⁰ tn The verb means “to give recognition; to take note of” and in this passage with לִפְנֵי (lifne, “before”) it means to show preferential treatment to the rich before the poor. The word for “rich” here is an unusual word, found parallel to “noble” (Isa 32:2). P. Joüon thinks it is a term of social distinction (Bib 18 [1937]: 207-8).

[35:2]  ²¹ tn The line could be read as “do you reckon this for justice? Here “to be” is understood.

[35:2]  ²² tn The word “when” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[35:2]  ²³ tn The brief line could be interpreted in a number of ways. The MT simply has “my right from God.” It could be “I am right before God,” “I am more just/right than God” (identifying the preposition as a comparative min (מִן); cf. J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 463), “I will be right before God,” or “My just cause against God.”

[92:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “so that [they] proclaim that upright [is] the Lord, my rocky summit, and there is no injustice in him.”

[145:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in all his ways.”

[145:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and [is] loving in all his deeds.”

[12:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “Lord, you are fair when I present my case before you.”

[12:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “judgments” or “matters of justice.” For the nuance of “complain to,” “fair,” “disposition of justice” assumed here, see BDB 936 s.v. רִיב Qal.4 (cf. Judg 21:22); BDB 843 s.v. צַדִּיק 1.d (cf. Ps 7:12; 11:7); BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f (cf. Isa 26:8; Ps 10:5; Ezek 7:27).

[12:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Why does the way [= course of life] of the wicked prosper?”

[15:3]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[15:3]  ³¹ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[15:3]  ³² tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[15:3]  ³³ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”

[15:3]  ³⁴ tn Or “righteous,” although the context favors justice as the theme.

[15:3]  ³⁵ tc Certain mss (Ì⁴⁷ א*^,2 C 1006 1611 1841 pc) read “ages” (αἰώνων, aiwnwn) instead of “nations” (ἐθνῶν, eqnwn), which itself is supported by several mss (א¹ A 051 Ï). The ms evidence seems to be fairly balanced, though αἰώνων has somewhat better support. The replacement of “ages” with “nations” is possibly a scribal attempt to harmonize this verse with the use of “nations” in the following verse. On the other hand, the idea of “nations” fits well with v. 4 and it may be that “ages” is a scribal attempt to assimilate this text to 1 Tim 1:17: “the king of the ages” (βασιλεὺς τῶν αἰώνων, basileu" twn aiwnwn). The decision is a difficult one since both scenarios deal well with the evidence, though the verbal parallel with 1 Tim 1:17 is exact while the parallel with v. 4 is not. The term “king” occurs 17 other times (most occurrences refer to earthly kings) in Revelation and it is not used with either “ages” or “nations” apart from this verse. Probably the reading “nations” should be considered original due to the influence of 1 Tim 1:17.

[15:4]  ³⁶ tn Or “and praise.”

[15:4]  ³⁷ sn Because you alone are holy. In the Greek text the sentence literally reads “because alone holy.” Three points can be made in connection with John’s language here: (1) Omitting the second person, singular verb “you are” lays stress on the attribute of God’s holiness. (2) The juxtaposition of alone with holy stresses the unique nature of God’s holiness and complete “otherness” in relationship to his creation. It is not just moral purity which is involved in the use of the term holy, though it certainly includes that. It is also the pervasive OT idea that although God is deeply involved in the governing of his creation, he is to be regarded as separate and distinct from it. (3) John’s use of the term holy is also intriguing since it is the term ὅσιος (Josios) and not the more common NT term ἅγιος (Jagios). The former term evokes images of Christ’s messianic status in early Christian preaching. Both Peter in Acts 2:27 and Paul in Acts 13:35 apply Psalm 16:10 (LXX) to Jesus, referring to him as the “holy one” (ὅσιος). It is also the key term in Acts 13:34 (Isa 55:3 [LXX]) where it refers to the “holy blessings” (i.e., forgiveness and justification) brought about through Jesus in fulfillment of Davidic promise. Thus, in Rev 15:3-4, when John refers to God as “holy,” using the term ὅσιος in a context where the emphasis is on both God and Christ, there might be an implicit connection between divinity and the Messiah. This is bolstered by the fact that the Lamb is referred to in other contexts as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (cf. 1:5; 17:14; 19:16 and perhaps 11:15; G. K. Beale, Revelation [NIGTC], 796-97).

[15:4]  ³⁸ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[15:4]  ³⁹ tn Or perhaps, “your sentences of condemnation.” On δικαίωμα (dikaiwma) in this context BDAG 249 s.v. 2. states, “righteous deed…δι᾿ ἑνὸς δικαιώματος (opp. παράπτωμα) Ro 5:18. – B 1:2 (cp. Wengst, Barnabas-brief 196, n.4); Rv 15:4 (here perh.= ‘sentence of condemnation’ [cp. Pla., Leg. 9, 864e; ins fr. Asia Minor: LBW 41, 2 [κατὰ] τὸ δι[καί]ωμα τὸ κυρω[θέν]= ‘acc. to the sentence which has become valid’]; difft. Wengst, s. above); 19:8.”

[16:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[16:7]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “the altar saying.”

[16:7]  ⁴² tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”