Keluaran 19:5-6

19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me ¹  and keep ²  my covenant, then you will be my ³  special possession ⁴  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine, 19:6 and you will be to me ⁵  a kingdom of priests ⁶  and a holy nation.’ ⁷  These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”

Ulangan 22:21

22:21 the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing ⁸  in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge ⁹  evil from among you.

Yosua 7:15

7:15 The one caught with the riches ¹⁰  must be burned up ¹¹  along with all who belong to him, because he violated the Lord’s covenant and did such a disgraceful thing in Israel.’”

Yudas 1:22-25

1:22 And have mercy on those who waver; 1:23 save ¹²  others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy ¹³  on others, coupled with a fear of God, ¹⁴  hating even the clothes stained ¹⁵  by the flesh. ¹⁶ 

Final Blessing

1:24 Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, ¹⁷  and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, ¹⁸  without blemish ¹⁹  before his glorious presence, ²⁰  1:25 to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

Yudas 1:6

1:6 You also know that ²¹  the angels who did not keep within their proper domain ²²  but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept ²³  in eternal chains ²⁴  in utter ²⁵  darkness, locked up ²⁶  for the judgment of the great Day.

Yudas 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ²⁷ 

1 Samuel 13:12-13

13:12 I thought, ²⁸  ‘Now the Philistines will come down on me at Gilgal and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt obligated ²⁹  to offer the burnt offering.”

13:13 Then Samuel said to Saul, “You have made a foolish choice! You have not obeyed ³⁰  the commandment that the Lord your God gave ³¹  you. Had you done that, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever!

Mazmur 93:5

93:5 The rules you set down ³²  are completely reliable. ³³ 

Holiness ³⁴  aptly adorns your house, O Lord, forever. ³⁵ 

Amsal 7:7

7:7 and I saw among the naive –

I discerned among the youths ³⁶  –

a young man ³⁷  who lacked wisdom. ³⁸ 

Amsal 7:1

Admonition to Avoid the Wiles of the Adulteress ³⁹ 

7:1 My child, ⁴⁰  keep my words

and treasure up my commands in your own keeping. ⁴¹ 

Pengkhotbah 2:9

2:9 So ⁴²  I was far wealthier ⁴³  than all my predecessors in Jerusalem,

yet I maintained my objectivity: ⁴⁴ 

[19:5]  ¹ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.

[19:5]  ² tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”

[19:5]  ³ tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”

[19:5]  ⁴ tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew sÿgulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.

[19:6]  ⁵ tn Or “for me” (NIV, NRSV), or, if the lamed (ל) preposition has a possessive use, “my kingdom” (so NCV).

[19:6]  ⁶ tn The construction “a kingdom of priests” means that the kingdom is made up of priests. W. C. Kaiser (“Exodus,” EBC 2:417) offers four possible renderings of the expression: 1) apposition, viz., “kings, that is, priests; 2) as a construct with a genitive of specification, “royal priesthood”; 3) as a construct with the genitive being the attribute, “priestly kingdom”; and 4) reading with an unexpressed “and” – “kings and priests.” He takes the latter view that they were to be kings and priests. (Other references are R. B. Y. Scott, “A Kingdom of Priests (Exodus xix. 6),” OTS 8 [1950]: 213-19; William L. Moran, “A Kingdom of Priests,” The Bible in Current Catholic Thought, 7-20). However, due to the parallelism of the next description which uses an adjective, this is probably a construct relationship. This kingdom of God will be composed of a priestly people. All the Israelites would be living wholly in God’s service and enjoying the right of access to him. And, as priests, they would have the duty of representing God to the nations, following what they perceived to be the duties of priests – proclaiming God’s word, interceding for people, and making provision for people to find God through atonement (see Deut 33:9,10).

[19:6]  ⁷ tn They are also to be “a holy nation.” They are to be a nation separate and distinct from the rest of the nations. Here is another aspect of their duty. It was one thing to be God’s special possession, but to be that they had to be priestly and holy. The duties of the covenant will specify what it would mean to be a holy nation. In short, they had to keep themselves free from everything that characterized pagan people (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 171). So it is a bilateral covenant: they received special privileges but they must provide special services by the special discipline. See also H. Kruse, “Exodus 19:5 and the Mission of Israel,” North East Asian Journal of Theology 24/25 (1980): 239-42.

[22:21]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term נְבָלָה (nÿvalah) means more than just something stupid. It refers to a moral lapse so serious as to jeopardize the whole covenant community (cf. Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23; 20:6, 10; Jer 29:23). See C. Pan, NIDOTTE 3:11-13. Cf. NAB “she committed a crime against Israel.”

[22:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “burn.” See note on Deut 21:21.

[7:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “with what was set apart [to the Lord].”

[7:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “burned with fire.”

[1:23]  ¹² tn Grk “and save.”

[1:23]  ¹³ tn Grk “and have mercy.”

[1:23]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “with fear.” But as this contrasts with ἀφόβως (afobw") in v. 12 (without reverence), the posture of the false teachers, it most likely refers to reverence for God.

[1:23]  sn Joining a fear of God to mercy is an important balance when involved in disciplinary action. On the one hand, being merciful without fear can turn to unwarranted sympathy for the individual, absolving him of personal responsibility; but fearing God without showing mercy can turn into personal judgment and condemnation.

[1:23]  ¹⁵ sn The imagery here suggests that the things close to the sinners are contaminated by them, presumably during the process of sinning.

[1:23]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “hating even the tunic spotted by the flesh.” The “flesh” in this instance could refer to the body or to the sin nature. It makes little difference in one sense: Jude is thinking primarily of sexual sins, which are borne of the sin nature and manifest themselves in inappropriate deeds done with the body. At the same time, he is not saying that the body is intrinsically bad, a view held by the opponents of Christianity. Hence, it is best to see “flesh” as referring to the sin nature here and the language as metaphorical.

[1:24]  ¹⁷ tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “free from falling” is the adjectival complement.

[1:24]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “with rejoicing.” The prepositional clause is placed after “his glorious presence” in Greek, but most likely goes with “cause you to stand.”

[1:24]  ¹⁹ tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “without blemish” is the adjectival complement.

[1:24]  ²⁰ tn Or “in the presence of his glory,” “before his glory.”

[1:6]  ²¹ tn Grk “and.” Verse 6 is a continuation of the same sentence begun in v. 5. Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:6]  ²² tn Grk “who did not keep their own domain.”

[1:6]  sn The idea is that certain angels acted improperly, going outside the bounds prescribed by God (their proper domain).

[1:6]  ²³ sn There is an interesting play on words used in this verse. Because the angels did not keep their proper place, Jesus has kept them chained up in another place. The same verb keep is used in v. 1 to describe believers’ status before God and Christ.

[1:6]  ²⁴ sn In 2 Pet 2:4 a less common word for chains is used.

[1:6]  ²⁵ tn The word ζόφος (zofos, “utter, deepest darkness”) is used only five times in the NT: two in 2 Peter, two in Jude, and one in Hebrews. Jude 6 parallels 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 13 parallels 2 Pet 2:17.

[1:6]  ²⁶ tn The words “locked up” are not in Greek, but is expressed in English as a resumptive point after the double prepositional phrase (“in eternal chains in utter darkness”).

[1:2]  ²⁷ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[13:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “said.”

[13:12]  ²⁹ tn Or “I forced myself” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV, CEV); NAB “So in my anxiety I offered”; NIV “I felt compelled.”

[13:13]  ³⁰ tn Or “kept.”

[13:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “commanded.”

[93:5]  ³² tn Traditionally “your testimonies.” The Hebrew noun עֵדוּת (’edut) refers here to the demands of God’s covenant law. See Ps 19:7.

[93:5]  ³³ sn The rules you set down. God’s covenant contains a clear, reliable witness to his moral character and demands.

[93:5]  ³⁴ sn Holiness refers here to God’s royal transcendence (see vv. 1-4), as well as his moral authority and perfection (see v. 5a).

[93:5]  ³⁵ tn Heb “for your house holiness is fitting, O Lord, for length of days.”

[7:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “sons.”

[7:7]  ³⁷ tn Heb “lad” or “youth.”

[7:7]  ³⁸ tn Heb “heart.”

[7:7]  sn This young man who lacked wisdom is one of the simpletons, lacking keen judgment, one void of common sense (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT) or understanding (cf. KJV, ASV). He is young, inexperienced, featherbrained (so D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 75).

[7:1]  ³⁹ sn The chapter begins with the important teaching of the father (1-5), then it focuses on the seduction: first of the victim (6-9), then the temptress (10-12), then the seduction (13-20), and the capitulation (21-23); the chapter concludes with the deadly results of consorting (24-27).

[7:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “my son.”

[7:1]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “within you” (so NASB, NIV); KJV, ASV, NRSV “with you.” BDB 860 s.v. צָפַן Qal.1 suggests that “within you” means “in your own keeping.”

[2:9]  ⁴² tn The vav prefixed to וְגָדַלְתִּי (vÿgadalti, vav + Qal perfect first common singular from גָּדַל, gadal, “to be great; to increase”) functions in a final summarizing sense, that is, it introduces the concluding summary of 2:4-9.

[2:9]  ⁴³ tn Heb “I became great and I surpassed” (וְהוֹסַפְתִּי וְגָדַלְתִּי, vÿgadalti vÿhosafti). This is a verbal hendiadys in which the second verb functions adverbially, modifying the first: “I became far greater.” Most translations miss the hendiadys and render the line in a woodenly literal sense (KJV, ASV, RSV, NEB, NRSV, NAB, NASB, MLB, Moffatt), while only a few recognize the presence of hendiadys here: “I became greater by far” (NIV) and “I gained more” (NJPS).

[2:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “yet my wisdom stood for me,” meaning he retained his wise perspective despite his great wealth.