Ezra 7:27

7:27 ¹ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!

Amsal 16:7

16:7 When a person’s ²  ways are pleasing to the Lord, ³ 

he ⁴  even reconciles his enemies to himself. ⁵ 

Amsal 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart ⁶  is in the hand ⁷  of the Lord like channels of water; ⁸ 

he turns it wherever he wants.

Yohanes 19:11

19:11 Jesus replied, “You would have no authority ⁹  over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you ¹⁰  is guilty of greater sin.” ¹¹ 

[7:27]  ¹ sn At this point the language of the book reverts from Aramaic (7:12-26) back to Hebrew.

[16:7]  ² tn Heb “ways of a man.”

[16:7]  ³ tn The first line uses an infinitive in a temporal clause, followed by its subject in the genitive case: “in the taking pleasure of the Lord” = “when the Lord is pleased with.” So the condition set down for the second colon is a lifestyle that is pleasing to God.

[16:7]  ⁴ tn The referent of the verb in the second colon is unclear. The straightforward answer is that it refers to the person whose ways please the Lord – it is his lifestyle that disarms his enemies. W. McKane comments that the righteous have the power to mend relationships (Proverbs [OTL], 491); see, e.g., 10:13; 14:9; 15:1; 25:21-22). The life that is pleasing to God will be above reproach and find favor with others. Some would interpret this to mean that God makes his enemies to be at peace with him (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT). This is workable, but in this passage it would seem God would do this through the pleasing life of the believer (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV).

[16:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “even his enemies he makes to be at peace with him.”

[21:1]  ⁶ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

[21:1]  ⁷ sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

[21:1]  ⁸ tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”

[21:1]  sn The farmer channels irrigation ditches where he wants them, where they will do the most good; so does the Lord with the king. No king is supreme; the Lord rules.

[19:11]  ⁹ tn Or “power.”

[19:11]  ¹⁰ tn Or “who delivered me over to you.”

[19:11]  sn The one who handed me over to you appears to be a reference to Judas at first; yet Judas did not deliver Jesus up to Pilate, but to the Jewish authorities. The singular may be a reference to Caiaphas, who as high priest was representative of all the Jewish authorities, or it may be a generic singular referring to all the Jewish authorities directly. In either case the end result is more or less the same.

[19:11]  ¹¹ tn Grk “has the greater sin” (an idiom).

[19:11]  sn Because Pilate had no authority over Jesus except what had been given to him from God, the one who handed Jesus over to Pilate was guilty of greater sin. This does not absolve Pilate of guilt; it simply means his guilt was less than those who handed Jesus over to him, because he was not acting against Jesus out of deliberate hatred or calculated malice, like the Jewish religious authorities. These were thereby guilty of greater sin.