Discovery BoxRomans 13:6
Context13:6 For this reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities 1 are God’s servants devoted to governing. 2
Romans 13:1
Context13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, 3 and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.
Romans 10:9
Context10:9 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord 4 and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:2
Context10:2 For I can testify that they are zealous for God, 5 but their zeal is not in line with the truth. 6
Romans 1:6
Context1:6 You also are among them, 7 called to belong to Jesus Christ. 8
Psalms 82:2-4
Context82:2 He says, 9 “How long will you make unjust legal decisions
and show favoritism to the wicked? 10 (Selah)
82:3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless! 11
Vindicate the oppressed and suffering!
82:4 Rescue the poor and needy!
Deliver them from the power 12 of the wicked!
Proverbs 24:23-24
Context24:23 These sayings also are from the wise:
To show partiality 13 in judgment is terrible: 14
24:24 The one who says to the guilty, 15 “You are innocent,” 16
peoples will curse him, and nations will denounce 17 him.
Proverbs 31:8-9
Context31:8 Open your mouth 18 on behalf of those unable to speak, 19
for the legal rights of all the dying. 20
31:9 Open your mouth, judge in righteousness, 21
and plead the cause 22 of the poor and needy.
Ecclesiastes 8:2-5
Context8:2 Obey the king’s command, 23
because you took 24 an oath before God 25 to be loyal to him. 26
8:3 Do not rush out of the king’s presence in haste – do not delay when the matter is unpleasant, 27
for he can do whatever he pleases.
8:4 Surely the king’s authority 28 is absolute; 29
no one can say 30 to him, “What are you doing?”
8:5 Whoever obeys his 31 command will not experience harm,
and a wise person 32 knows the proper time 33 and procedure.
Isaiah 1:17
Context1:17 Learn to do what is right!
Promote justice!
Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! 34
Take up the cause of the orphan!
Defend the rights of the widow! 35
Jeremiah 5:28
Context5:28 That is how 36 they have grown fat and sleek. 37
There is no limit to the evil things they do. 38
They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it.
They do not defend the rights of the poor.
Ezekiel 22:27
Context22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit.
Micah 3:1-4
Context3:1 I said,
“Listen, you leaders 39 of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation 40 of Israel!
You ought to know what is just, 41
3:2 yet you 42 hate what is good, 43
and love what is evil. 44
You flay my people’s skin 45
and rip the flesh from their bones. 46
3:3 You 47 devour my people’s flesh,
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot 48 –
like meat in a kettle.
3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, 49
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have done such wicked deeds.”
Micah 3:9
Context3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family 50 of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation 51 of Israel!
You 52 hate justice
and pervert all that is right.
[13:6] 1 tn Grk “they”; the referent (the governing authorities) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[13:6] 2 tn Grk “devoted to this very thing.”
[10:9] 4 tn Or “the Lord.” The Greek construction, along with the quotation from Joel 2:32 in v. 13 (in which the same “Lord” seems to be in view) suggests that κύριον (kurion) is to be taken as “the Lord,” that is, Yahweh. Cf. D. B. Wallace, “The Semantics and Exegetical Significance of the Object-Complement Construction in the New Testament,” GTJ 6 (1985): 91-112.
[10:2] 5 tn Grk “they have a zeal for God.”
[10:2] 6 tn Grk “in accord with knowledge.”
[1:6] 7 tn Grk “among whom you also are called.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. The NIV, with its translation “And you also are among those who are called,” takes the phrase ἐν οἳς ἐστε to refer to the following clause rather than the preceding, so that the addressees of the letter (“you also”) are not connected with “all the Gentiles” mentioned at the end of v. 5. It is more likely, however, that the relative pronoun οἳς has τοῖς ἔθνεσιν as its antecedent, which would indicate that the church at Rome was predominantly Gentile.
[1:6] 8 tn Grk “called of Jesus Christ.”
[82:2] 9 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation to indicate that the following speech is God’s judicial decision (see v. 1).
[82:2] 10 tn Heb “and the face of the wicked lift up.”
[82:3] 11 tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14; 68:5; 94:6; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).
[24:23] 13 tn Heb “to recognize faces”; KJV, ASV “to have respect of persons”; NLT “to show favoritism.”
[24:23] 14 tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure known as tapeinosis – a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is terrible!”
[24:24] 15 tn The word means “wicked; guilty” or “criminal”; the contrast could be “wicked – righteous” (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB) or “innocent – guilty” (cf. NIV, TEV, CEV). Since this line follows the statement about showing partiality in judgment, it involves a forensic setting. Thus the statement describes one who calls a guilty person innocent or acquitted.
[24:24] 16 tn Or “righteous”; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “innocent” or “righteous” depending on the context.
[24:24] 17 tn The verb means “to be indignant.” It can be used within the range of “have indignation,” meaning “loathe” or “abhor,” or express indignation, meaning “denounce” or “curse.” In this passage, in collocation with the previous term “curse,” the latter is intended (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT).
[31:8] 18 sn The instruction to “open your mouth” is a metonymy of cause; it means “speak up for” (so NIV, TEV, NLT) or in this context “serve as an advocate in judgment” (cf. CEV “you must defend”).
[31:8] 19 sn The instruction compares people who cannot defend themselves in court with those who are physically unable to speak (this is a figure of speech known as hypocatastasis, an implied comparison). The former can physically speak; but because they are the poor, the uneducated, the oppressed, they are unable to conduct a legal defense. They may as well be speechless.
[31:8] 20 tn Or “of all the defenseless.” The noun חֲלוֹף (khalof) means “passing away; vanishing” (properly an infinitive); in this construction “the sons of the passing away” means people who by nature are transitory, people who are dying – mortals. But in this context it would indicate people who are “defenseless” as opposed to those who are healthy and powerful.
[31:9] 21 tn The noun צֶדֶק (tsedeq) serves here as an adverbial accusative of manner. The decisions reached (שְׁפָט, shÿfat) in this advocacy must conform to the standard of the law. So it is a little stronger than “judging fairly” (cf. NIV, NCV), although it will be fair if it is done righteously for all.
[31:9] 22 sn Previously the noun דִּין (din, judgment”) was used, signifying the legal rights or the pleas of the people. Now the imperative דִּין is used. It could be translated “judge,” but in this context “judge the poor” could be misunderstood to mean “condemn.” Here advocacy is in view, and so “plead the cause” is a better translation (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV “defend the rights”). It was – and is – the responsibility of the king (ruler) to champion the rights of the poor and needy, who otherwise would be ignored and oppressed. They are the ones left destitute by the cruelties and inequalities of life (e.g., 2 Sam 14:4-11; 1 Kgs 3:16-28; Pss 45:3-5, 72:4; Isa 9:6-7).
[8:2] 23 tc The Leningrad Codex (the basis of BHS) reads אֲנִי (’ani, 1st person common singular independent personal pronoun): “I obey the king’s command.” Other medieval Hebrew
[8:2] 24 tn The phrase “you took” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.
[8:2] 25 tn The genitive-construct שְׁבוּעַת אֱלֹהִים (shÿvu’at ’elohim, “an oath of God”) functions as a genitive of location (“an oath before God”) or an adjectival genitive of attribute (“a supreme oath”).
[8:2] 26 tn The words “to be loyal to him” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[8:3] 27 tn Or “do not stand up for a bad cause.”
[8:4] 30 tn Heb “Who can say…?”
[8:5] 31 tn The word “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.
[8:5] 32 tn Heb “the heart of a wise man.”
[8:5] 33 tn The term עֵת (’et, “time”) connotes “a proper, suitable time for an event; the right moment” (HALOT 900 s.v. עֵת 6; BDB 773 s.v. עֵת 2.b); e.g., “it was the time for rain” (Ezra 10:13); “a time of judgment for the nations” (Ezek 30:3); “there is an appropriate time for every occasion” (Eccl 3:1); “the time when mountain goats are born” (Job 39:1); “the rain in its season” (Deut 11:14; Jer 5:24); “the time for the harvest” (Hos 2:11; Ps 1:3); “food in its season” (Ps 104:27).
[1:17] 34 tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The translation assumes an emendation of חָמוֹץ (khamots, “oppressor [?]”) to חָמוּץ (khamuts, “oppressed”), a passive participle from II חָמַץ (khamats, “oppress”; HALOT 329 s.v. II חמץ) and takes the verb II אָשַׁר (’ashar) in the sense of “make happy” (the delocutive Piel, meaning “call/pronounce happy,” is metonymic here, referring to actually effecting happiness). The parallelism favors this interpretation, for the next two lines speak of positive actions on behalf of the destitute. The other option is to retain the MT pointing and translate, “set right the oppressor,” but the nuance “set right” is not clearly attested elsewhere for the verb I אשׁר. This verb does appear as a participle in Isa 3:12 and 9:16 with the meaning “to lead or guide.” If it can mean to “lead” or “rebuke/redirect” in this verse, the prophet could be contrasting this appeal for societal reformation (v. 17c) with a command to reorder their personal lives (v. 17a-b). J. A. Motyer (The Prophecy of Isaiah, 47) suggests that these three statements (v. 17a-c) provide “the contrast between the two ends of imperfect society, the oppressor and the needy, the one inflicting and the other suffering the hurt. Isaiah looks for a transformed society wherever it needs transforming.”
[1:17] 35 tn This word refers to a woman who has lost her husband, by death or divorce. The orphan and widow are often mentioned in the OT as epitomizing the helpless and impoverished who have been left without the necessities of life due to the loss of a family provider.
[5:28] 36 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show that this line is parallel with the preceding.
[5:28] 37 tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. This verb occurs only here. The lexicons generally relate it to the word translated “plate” in Song 5:14 and understand it to mean “smooth, shiny” (so BDB 799 s.v. I עֶשֶׁת) or “fat” (so HALOT 850 s.v. II עֶשֶׁת). The word in Song 5:14 more likely means “smooth” than “plate” (so TEV). So “sleek” is most likely here.
[5:28] 38 tn Heb “they cross over/transgress with respect to matters of evil.”
[3:1] 41 tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”
[3:2] 42 tn Heb “the ones who.”
[3:2] 45 tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the
[3:2] 46 tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”
[3:3] 48 tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).
[3:4] 49 tn Heb “then they will cry out to the
[3:9] 52 tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).
