1 Timotius 5:14

5:14 So I want younger women to marry, raise children, and manage a household, in order to give the adversary no opportunity to vilify us. ¹ 

Kejadian 13:7-8

13:7 So there were quarrels ²  between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. ³  (Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.) ⁴ 

13:8 Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are close relatives. ⁵ 

Kejadian 13:2

13:2 (Now Abram was very wealthy ⁶  in livestock, silver, and gold.) ⁷ 

1 Samuel 12:14

12:14 If you fear the Lord, serving him and obeying him ⁸  and not rebelling against what he says, ⁹  and if both you and the king who rules over you follow the Lord your God, all will be well. ¹⁰ 

Nehemia 9:5

9:5 The Levites – Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah – said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God!”

“May you be blessed, O LORD our God, from age to age. ¹¹  May your glorious name ¹²  be blessed; may it be lifted up above all blessing and praise.

Yesaya 52:5

52:5 And now, what do we have here?” ¹³  says the Lord.

“Indeed my people have been carried away for nothing,

those who rule over them taunt,” ¹⁴  says the Lord,

“and my name is constantly slandered ¹⁵  all day long.

Yehezkiel 36:20

36:20 But when they arrived in the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name. It was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, yet they have departed from his land.’

Yehezkiel 36:23

36:23 I will magnify ¹⁶  my great name that has been profaned among the nations, that you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I magnify myself among you in their sight.

Lukas 17:1

Sin, Forgiveness, Faith, and Service

17:1 Jesus ¹⁷  said to his disciples, “Stumbling blocks are sure to come, but woe ¹⁸  to the one through whom they come!

Roma 2:24

2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” ¹⁹ 

Roma 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ²⁰ Therefore ²¹  you are without excuse, ²²  whoever you are, ²³  when you judge someone else. ²⁴  For on whatever grounds ²⁵  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Kolose 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁶  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Titus 2:5

2:5 to be self-controlled, ²⁷  pure, fulfilling their duties at home, ²⁸  kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the message ²⁹  of God may not be discredited. ³⁰ 

Titus 2:8

2:8 and a sound message that cannot be criticized, so that any opponent will be at a loss, ³¹  because he has nothing evil to say about us.

Titus 2:10

2:10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, ³²  in order to bring credit to ³³  the teaching of God our Savior in everything.

Titus 2:1

Conduct Consistent with Sound Teaching

2:1 But as for you, communicate the behavior that goes with ³⁴  sound teaching.

Pengkhotbah 2:12

Wisdom is Better than Folly

2:12 Next, I decided to consider ³⁵  wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas. ³⁶ 

For what more can the king’s successor do than what the king ³⁷  has already done?

Pengkhotbah 3:16

The Problem of Injustice and Oppression

3:16 I saw something else on earth: ³⁸ 

In the place of justice, there was wickedness,

and in the place of fairness, ³⁹  there was wickedness.

[5:14]  ¹ tn Grk “for the sake of reviling.”

[13:7]  ² tn The Hebrew term רִיב (riv) means “strife, conflict, quarreling.” In later texts it has the meaning of “legal controversy, dispute.” See B. Gemser, “The rîb – or Controversy – Pattern in Hebrew Mentality,” Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East [VTSup], 120-37.

[13:7]  ³ sn Since the quarreling was between the herdsmen, the dispute was no doubt over water and vegetation for the animals.

[13:7]  ⁴ tn This parenthetical clause, introduced with the vav (ו) disjunctive (translated “now”), again provides critical information. It tells in part why the land cannot sustain these two bedouins, and it also hints of the danger of weakening the family by inner strife.

[13:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “men, brothers [are] we.” Here “brothers” describes the closeness of the relationship, but could be misunderstood if taken literally, since Abram was Lot’s uncle.

[13:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “heavy.”

[13:2]  ⁷ tn This parenthetical clause, introduced by the vav (ו) disjunctive (translated “now”), provides information necessary to the point of the story.

[12:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “and you listen to his voice.”

[12:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord.” So also in v. 15.

[12:14]  ¹⁰ tn The words “all will be well” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:5]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads here only “from age to age,” without the preceding words “May you be blessed, O LORD our God” which are included in the present translation. But apparently something has dropped out of the text. This phrase occurs elsewhere in the OT as a description of the Lord (see Ps 41:13; 106:48), and it seems best to understand it here in that light. The LXX adds “And Ezra said” at the beginning of v. 6 as a transition: “And Ezra said, ‘You alone are the LORD.” Without this addition (which is not included by most modern English translations) the speakers of vv. 9:5b-10:1 continue to be the Levites of v. 5a.

[9:5]  ¹² tn Heb “the name of your glory.”

[52:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and now what [following the marginal reading (Qere)] to me here?”

[52:5]  ¹⁴ tn The verb appears to be a Hiphil form from the root יָלַל (yalal, “howl”), perhaps here in the sense of “mock.” Some emend the form to יְהוֹלָּלוֹ (yÿhollalo) and understand a Polel form of the root הָלַל meaning here “mock, taunt.”

[52:5]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is apparently a Hitpolal form (with assimilated tav, ת) from the root נָאַץ (na’ats), but GKC 151-52 §55.b explains it as a mixed form, combining Pual and Hitpolel readings.

[36:23]  ¹⁶ tn Or “sanctify,” Heb “make holy.”

[17:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[17:1]  ¹⁸ sn See Luke 6:24-26.

[2:24]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.

[2:1]  ²⁰ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ²¹ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ²² tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ²³ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

[1:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[2:5]  ²⁷ tn Or “sensible.”

[2:5]  ²⁸ tn Grk “domestic,” “keeping house.”

[2:5]  ²⁹ tn Or “word.”

[2:5]  ³⁰ tn Or “slandered.”

[2:8]  ³¹ tn Or “put to shame.”

[2:10]  ³² tn Or “showing that genuine faith is productive.” At issue between these two translations is the force of ἀγαθήν (agaqhn): Is it attributive (as the text has it) or predicate (as in this note)? A number of considerations point in the direction of a predicate ἀγαθήν (e.g., separation from the noun πίστιν (pistin) by the verb, the possibility that the construction is an object-complement, etc.), though is not usually seen as an option in either translations or commentaries. Cf. ExSyn 188-89, 312-13, for a discussion. Contextually, it makes an intriguing statement, for it suggests a synthetic or synonymous parallel: “‘Slaves should be wholly subject to their masters…demonstrating that all [genuine] faith is productive, with the result [ecbatic ἵνα] that they will completely adorn the doctrine of God.’ The point of the text, then, if this understanding is correct, is an exhortation to slaves to demonstrate that their faith is sincere and results in holy behavior. If taken this way, the text seems to support the idea that saving faith does not fail, but even results in good works” (ExSyn 312-13). The translation of ἀγαθήν as an attributive adjective, however, also makes good sense.

[2:10]  ³³ tn Or “adorn,” “show the beauty of.”

[2:1]  ³⁴ tn Grk “say what is fitting for sound teaching” (introducing the behavior called for in this chapter.).

[2:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and I turned to see.”

[2:12]  ³⁶ sn See 1:17 for the same expression. Throughout 2:1-11, Qoheleth evaluated the merits of merrymaking (2:1-3), accomplishing grand things (2:4-6), amassing great wealth (2:7-8), and secular acquisitions and accomplishments (2:9-10). Now, he reflects on the benefit in life in living wisely and not giving oneself over to frivolous self-indulgence.

[2:12]  ³⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads עָשׂוּהוּ (’asuhu, “they have done it”; Qal perfect 3rd person masculine plural from עָשַׂה [’asah] + 3rd person masculine singular suffix). However, many medieval Hebrew mss read עָשָׂהוּ (’asahu, “he has done”; Qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular from עָשַׂה), reflected in the LXX and Syriac. The error was caused by dittography (ו, vav, written twice) or by orthographic confusion between ו and ה (hey) in הוו (confused as והוו) at the end of 2:12 and beginning of 2:13. The 3rd person masculine singular referent of עָשׂוּהוּ “what he has done” is the king, that is, Qoheleth himself. The referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:16]  ³⁸ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[3:16]  ³⁹ tn Or “righteousness.”