Keluaran 23:6-9

23:6 “You must not turn away justice for your poor people in their lawsuits. 23:7 Keep your distance ¹  from a false charge ²  – do not kill the innocent and the righteous, ³  for I will not justify the wicked. ⁴ 

23:8 “You must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see ⁵  and subverts the words of the righteous.

23:9 “You must not oppress ⁶  a foreigner, since you know the life ⁷  of a foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Bilangan 16:15

16:15 Moses was very angry, and he said to the Lord, “Have no respect ⁸  for their offering! I have not taken so much as one donkey from them, nor have I harmed any one of them!”

Ulangan 16:19

16:19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort ⁹  the words of the righteous. ¹⁰ 

Ulangan 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ¹¹  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ¹²  he ¹³  brought you out of Egypt by night.

1 Samuel 12:3

12:3 Here I am. Bring a charge against me before the Lord and before his chosen king. ¹⁴  Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I wronged? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe so that I would overlook something? Tell me, ¹⁵  and I will return it to you!”

Yeremia 5:26-28

5:26 “Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people.

They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. ¹⁶ 

They set deadly traps ¹⁷  to catch people.

5:27 Like a cage filled with the birds that have been caught, ¹⁸ 

their houses are filled with the gains of their fraud and deceit. ¹⁹ 

That is how they have gotten so rich and powerful. ²⁰ 

5:28 That is how ²¹  they have grown fat and sleek. ²² 

There is no limit to the evil things they do. ²³ 

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.

Mikha 7:3-4

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ²⁴ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ²⁵ 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ²⁶ 

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ²⁷ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²⁸ 

and then you will experience confusion. ²⁹ 

Matius 26:15

26:15 and said, “What will you give me to betray him into your hands?” ³⁰  So they set out thirty silver coins for him.

Kisah Para Rasul 8:18-23

8:18 Now Simon, when he saw that the Spirit ³¹  was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, offered them money, 8:19 saying, “Give me this power ³²  too, so that everyone I place my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.” 8:20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, ³³  because you thought you could acquire ³⁴  God’s gift with money! 8:21 You have no share or part ³⁵  in this matter ³⁶  because your heart is not right before God! 8:22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord ³⁷  that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart. ³⁸  8:23 For I see that you are bitterly envious ³⁹  and in bondage to sin.”

Kisah Para Rasul 8:2

8:2 Some ⁴⁰  devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation ⁴¹  over him. ⁴² 

Pengkhotbah 2:14-16

2:14 The wise man can see where he is going, ⁴³  but the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I also realized that the same fate ⁴⁴  happens to them both. ⁴⁵ 

2:15 So I thought to myself, “The fate of the fool will happen even to me! ⁴⁶ 

Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively ⁴⁷  wise?” ⁴⁸ 

So I lamented to myself, ⁴⁹ 

“The benefits of wisdom ⁵⁰  are ultimately ⁵¹  meaningless!”

2:16 For the wise man, like ⁵²  the fool, will not be remembered for very long, ⁵³ 

because ⁵⁴  in the days to come, both will already have been forgotten. ⁵⁵ 

Alas, ⁵⁶  the wise man dies – just like ⁵⁷  the fool!

[23:7]  ¹ tn Or “stay away from,” or “have nothing to do with.”

[23:7]  ² tn Heb “a false matter,” this expression in this context would have to be a case in law that was false or that could only be won by falsehood.

[23:7]  ³ tn The two clauses probably should be related: the getting involved in the false charge could lead to the death of an innocent person (so, e.g., Naboth in 1 Kgs 21:10-13).

[23:7]  ⁴ sn God will not declare right the one who is in the wrong. Society should also be consistent, but it cannot see the intents and motives, as God can.

[23:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “blinds the open-eyed.”

[23:9]  ⁶ tn The verb means “to crush.” S. R. Driver notes that in this context this would probably mean with an unfair judgment in the courts (Exodus, 239).

[23:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “soul, life” – “you know what it feels like.”

[16:15]  ⁸ tn The verb means “to turn toward”; it is a figurative expression that means “to pay attention to” or “to have regard for.” So this is a prayer against Dathan and Abiram.

[16:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”

[16:19]  ¹⁰ tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”

[16:1]  ¹¹ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ¹² tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[12:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “anointed [one].”

[12:3]  ¹⁵ tn The words “tell me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:26]  ¹⁶ tn The meaning of the last three words is uncertain. The pointing and meaning of the Hebrew word rendered “hiding in ambush” is debated. BDB relates the form (כְּשַׁךְ, kÿshakh) to a root שָׁכַךְ (shakhakh), which elsewhere means “decrease, abate” (cf. BDB 1013 s.v. שָׁכַךְ), and notes that this is usually understood as “like the crouching of fowlers,” but they say this meaning is dubious. HALOT 1345 s.v. I שׁוֹר questions the validity of the text and offers three proposals; the second appears to create the least textual modification, i.e., reading כְּשַׂךְ (kesakh, “as in the hiding place of (bird catchers)”; for the word שַׂךְ (sakh) see HALOT 1236 s.v. שׂךְ 4 and compare Lam 2:6 for usage. The versions do not help. The Greek does not translate the first two words of the line. The proposal given in HALOT is accepted with some hesitancy.

[5:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a destroying thing.”

[5:27]  ¹⁸ tn The words, “that have been caught” are not in the text but are implicit in the comparison.

[5:27]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “are filled with deceit.” The translation assumes a figure of speech of cause for effect (metonymy). Compare the same word in the same figure in Zeph 1:9.

[5:27]  ²⁰ tn Heb “therefore they have gotten great and rich.”

[5:28]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Heb “they cross over/transgress with respect to matters of evil.”

[5:28]  sn There is a wordplay in the use of this word which has twice been applied in v. 22 to the sea not crossing the boundary set for it by God.

[7:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ²⁶ tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.

[7:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[26:15]  ³⁰ tn Grk “What will you give to me, and I will betray him to you?”

[8:18]  ³¹ tc Most witnesses (Ì^45,74 A* C D E Ψ 33 1739 Ï latt sy bo) here read “the Holy Spirit” (τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, to pneuma to {agion), while a few key mss have simply τὸ πνεῦμα (א A^c B sa mae). Although it is possible that some scribes omitted τὸ ἅγιον because of its perceived superfluity (note vv. 15, 17, 19), it is far more likely that others added the adjective out of pious motives.

[8:19]  ³² tn Or “ability”; Grk “authority.”

[8:20]  ³³ tn Grk “May your silver together with you be sent into destruction.” This is a strong curse. The gifts of God are sovereignly bestowed and cannot be purchased.

[8:20]  ³⁴ tn Or “obtain.”

[8:21]  ³⁵ tn The translation “share or part” is given by L&N 63.13.

[8:21]  ³⁶ tn Since the semantic range for λόγος (logos) is so broad, a number of different translations could be given for the prepositional phrase here. Something along the lines of “in this thing” would work well, but is too colloquial for the present translation.

[8:22]  ³⁷ tn Or “and implore the Lord.”

[8:22]  ³⁸ tn Grk “that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.” The passive construction is somewhat awkward in contemporary English and has thus been converted to an active construction in the translation.

[8:23]  ³⁹ tn Grk “in the gall of bitterness,” an idiom meaning to be particularly envious or resentful of someone. In this case Simon was jealous of the apostles’ power to bestow the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and wanted that power for himself. The literal phrase does not convey this to the modern reader, and in fact some modern translations have simply rendered the phrase as involving bitterness, which misses the point of the envy on Simon’s part. See L&N 88.166. The OT images come from Deut 29:17-18 and Isa 58:6.

[8:2]  ⁴⁰ tn “Some” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[8:2]  ⁴¹ sn Made loud lamentation. For someone who was stoned to death, lamentation was normally not allowed (m. Sanhedrin 6:6). The remark points to an unjust death.

[8:2]  ⁴² tn Or “mourned greatly for him.”

[2:14]  ⁴³ tn Heb “has his eyes in his head.” The term עַיִן (’ayin, “eye”) is used figuratively in reference to mental and spiritual faculties (BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.a). The term “eye” is a metonymy of cause (eye) for effect (sight and perception).

[2:14]  ⁴⁴ sn The common fate to which Qoheleth refers is death.

[2:14]  ⁴⁵ tn The term כֻּלָּם (kullam, “all of them”) denotes “both of them.” This is an example of synecdoche of general (“all of them”) for the specific (“both of them,” that is, both the wise man and the fool).

[2:15]  ⁴⁶ tn The emphatic use of the 1st person common singular personal pronoun אֲנִי (’ani, “me”) with the emphatic particle of association גַּם (gam, “even, as well as”; HALOT 195–96 s.v. גַּם) appears to emphasize the 1st person common singular suffix on יִקְרֵנִי (yiqreni) “it will befall [or “happen to”] me” (Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine singular + 1st person common singular suffix from קָרָה, qarah, “to befall; to happen to”); see GKC 438 §135.e. Qoheleth laments not that the fate of the wise man is the same as that of the fool, but that even he himself – the wisest man of all – would fare no better in the end than the most foolish.

[2:15]  ⁴⁷ tn The adjective יוֹתֵר (yoter) means “too much; excessive,” e.g., 7:16 “excessively righteous” (HALOT 404 s.v. יוֹתֵר 2; BDB 452 s.v. יוֹתֵר). It is derived from the root יֶתֶר (yeter, “what is left over”); see HALOT 452 s.v. I יֶתֶר. It is related to the verbal root יתר (Niphal “to be left over”; Hiphil “to have left over”); see HALOT 451–52 s.v. I יתר. The adjective is related to יִתְרוֹן (yitron, “advantage; profit”) which is a key-term in this section, creating a word-play: The wise man has a relative “advantage” (יִתְרוֹן) over the fool (2:13-14a); however, there is no ultimate advantage because both share the same fate, i.e., death (2:14b-15a). Thus, Qoheleth’s acquisition of tremendous wisdom (1:16; 2:9) was “excessive” because it exceeded its relative advantage over folly: it could not deliver him from the same fate as the fool. He had striven to obtain wisdom, yet it held no ultimate advantage.

[2:15]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “And why was I wise (to) excess?” The rhetorical question is an example of negative affirmation, expecting a negative answer: “I gained nothing!” (E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 949).

[2:15]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “So I said in my heart.”

[2:15]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and also this,” referring to the relative advantage of wisdom over folly.

[2:15]  ⁵¹ tn The word “ultimately” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:16]  ⁵² tn The preposition עִם (’im, “with”) may occasionally function in a comparative sense, meaning “together with; even as; like” (e.g., Eccl 1:11; 2:16; 7:11; Job 9:26; 1 Chr 14:10: 20:6; 25:8; see HALOT 839 s.v. עִם 2). When used to describe a common lot, it connotes “together with” (Gen 18:23, 25; 1 Chr 24:5; Job 3:14, 15; 30:1; Pss 26:9; 28:3; 69:29; Isa 38:11), hence “like” (Pss 73:5; 106:6; Eccl 2:16; see BDB 767–68 s.v. עִם 1.e).

[2:16]  ⁵³ tn As HALOT 798–99 s.v. עוֹלָם and BDB 762-64 s.v. עוֹלָם note, עוֹלָם (’olam) has a wide range of meanings: (1) indefinite time: “long time; duration,” (2) unlimited time: “eternal; eternity,” (3) future time: “things to come,” and (4) past time: “a long time back,” that is, the dark age of prehistory. The context here suggests the nuance “a long time.”

[2:16]  ⁵⁴ tn The preposition בְּ (bet) on בְּשֶׁכְּבָר (bÿshekkÿvar, the adverb כְּבָר [kÿvar,“already”] + relative pronoun שֶׁ [she] + preposition בְּ) is probably best classified as causal: “Because…already.”

[2:16]  ⁵⁵ tn The verb נִשְׁכָּח (nishkakh) is a future perfect – it describes an event that is portrayed as a past event from the perspective of the future: “they will have been forgotten.” The emphasis of the past perfect is not simply that the future generations will begin to forget him, but that he will already have been forgotten long ago in the past by the time of those future generations. This past perfect situation is brought out by the emphatic use of the temporal adverb כְּבָר (kÿvar) “already” (HALOT 459 s.v. I כְּבָר; BDB 460 s.v. I כְּבָר); see, e.g., Eccl 1:10; 2:12, 16; 3:15; 4:2; 6:10; 9:6-7.

[2:16]  ⁵⁶ tn The particle אֵיךְ (’ekh, “Alas!”) is an exclamation of lamentation and mourning (e.g., 2 Sam 1:19; Isa 14:4, 12; Jer 2:21; 9:18; Ezek 26:17; Mic 2:4); see HALOT 39 s.v. אֵיךְ 5; BDB 32 s.v. אֵיךְ 2; also E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 955.

[2:16]  ⁵⁷ tn The preposition עִם (’im, “with”) may occasionally function in a comparative sense, meaning “together with; even as; like” (e.g., Eccl 1:11; 2:16; 7:11; Job 9:26; 1 Chr 14:10: 20:6; 25:8); see HALOT 839 s.v. עִם 2. When used to describe a common lot, it connotes “together with” (Gen 18:23, 25; 1 Chr 24:5; Job 3:14, 15; 30:1; Ps 26:9; 28:3; 69:29; Isa 38:11), hence “like” (Pss 73:5; 106:6; Eccl 2:16); see BDB 767–68 s.v. עִם 1.e.