Kejadian 41:27

41:27 The seven lean, bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years, as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind. They represent ¹  seven years of famine.

Kejadian 45:6

45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in ²  the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

Mazmur 41:1

Psalm 41 ³ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

41:1 How blessed ⁴  is the one who treats the poor properly! ⁵ 

When trouble comes, ⁶  the Lord delivers him. ⁷ 

Mazmur 107:36-37

107:36 He allowed the hungry to settle there,

and they established a city in which to live.

107:37 They cultivated ⁸  fields,

and planted vineyards,

which yielded a harvest of fruit. ⁹ 

Mazmur 112:5

112:5 It goes well for the one ¹⁰  who generously lends money,

and conducts his business honestly. ¹¹ 

Amsal 11:26

11:26 People will curse ¹²  the one who withholds grain, ¹³ 

but they will praise ¹⁴  the one who sells it. ¹⁵ 

Amsal 12:11

12:11 The one who works ¹⁶  his field will have plenty ¹⁷  of food,

but whoever chases daydreams ¹⁸  lacks wisdom. ¹⁹ 

Amsal 13:23

13:23 There is abundant food in the field ²⁰  of the poor,

but it is swept away by injustice. ²¹ 

Pengkhotbah 11:6

11:6 Sow your seed in the morning,

and do not stop working ²²  until the evening; ²³ 

for you do not know which activity ²⁴  will succeed ²⁵  –

whether this one or that one, or whether both will prosper equally. ²⁶ 

Yesaya 28:24-25

28:24 Does a farmer just keep on plowing at planting time? ²⁷ 

Does he keep breaking up and harrowing his ground?

28:25 Once he has leveled its surface,

does he not scatter the seed of the caraway plant,

sow the seed of the cumin plant,

and plant the wheat, barley, and grain in their designated places? ²⁸ 

Yesaya 55:10

55:10 ²⁹ The rain and snow fall from the sky

and do not return,

but instead water the earth

and make it produce and yield crops,

and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

Matius 24:45

The Faithful and Wise Slave

24:45 “Who then is the faithful and wise slave, ³⁰  whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves ³¹  their food at the proper time?

Matius 24:2

24:2 And he said to them, ³²  “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, ³³  not one stone will be left on another. ³⁴  All will be torn down!” ³⁵ 

Kolose 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ³⁶  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ³⁷  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

[41:27]  ¹ tn Heb “are.” Another option is to translate, “There will be seven years of famine.”

[45:6]  ² tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

[41:1]  ³ sn Psalm 41. The psalmist is confident (vv. 11-12) that the Lord has heard his request to be healed (vv. 4-10), and he anticipates the joy he will experience when the Lord intervenes (vv. 1-3). One must assume that the psalmist is responding to a divine oracle of assurance (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 319-20). The final verse is a fitting conclusion to this psalm, but it is also serves as a fitting conclusion to the first “book” (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the second, third, and fourth “books” of the Psalter (see Pss 72:19, 89:52, and 106:48 respectively).

[41:1]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[41:1]  ⁵ sn One who treats the poor properly. The psalmist is characterizing himself as such an individual and supplying a reason why God has responded favorably to his prayer. The Lord’s attitude toward the merciful mirrors their treatment of the poor.

[41:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the day of trouble” (see Ps 27:5).

[41:1]  ⁷ tn That is, the one who has been kind to the poor. The prefixed verbal form could be taken as jussive of prayer (“may the Lord deliver,” see v. 2), but the preceding parallel line is a declaration of fact, not a prayer per se. The imperfect can be taken here as future (“will deliver,” cf. NEB, NASB) or as generalizing (“delivers,” cf. NIV, NRSV). The parallel line, which has a generalizing tone, favors the latter. At the same time, though the psalmist uses a generalizing style here, he clearly has himself primarily in view.

[107:37]  ⁸ tn Heb “sowed seed in.”

[107:37]  ⁹ tn Heb “fruit [as] produce.”

[112:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “man.”

[112:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he sustains his matters with justice.”

[11:26]  ¹² tn The direct object suffix on the verb picks up on the emphatic absolute phrase: “they will curse him – the one who withholds grain.”

[11:26]  ¹³ sn The proverb refers to a merchant who holds back his grain from the free market to raise prices when there is a great need for the produce. It is assumed that merchants are supposed to have a social conscience.

[11:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “but a blessing is for the head of the one who sells.” The parallelism with “curse” suggests that בְּרָכָה (berakhah) “blessing” means “praise.”

[11:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for the head of the one who sells.” The term “head” functions as a synecdoche of part (= head) for the whole (= person). The head is here emphasized because it is the “crowning” point of praise. The direct object (“it”) is not in the Hebrew text but is implied.

[12:11]  ¹⁶ sn In the biblical period agriculture was the most common occupation for the people; so “working a field” describes a substantial occupation, but also represents working in general. Diligent work, not get-rich-quick schemes, is the key to ensuring income.

[12:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “will have his fill of” or “will be satisfied with.”

[12:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “empty things” or “vain things.” The term רֵיקִים (reqim) refers to worthless pursuits in an effort to make money. The fact that the participle used is “chase after” shows how elusive these are. Cf. NIV “fantasies”; NCV “empty dreams”; TEV “useless projects.”

[12:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “heart.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as a metonymy of association for wisdom (BDB 524 s.v. 3).

[13:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fallow ground” (so NASB). The word נִיר (nir) means “the tillable [or untilled; or fallow] ground.” BDB 644 s.v. says this line could be rendered: “abundant food [yields] the fallow ground of poor men” (i.e., with the Lord’s blessing).

[13:23]  ²¹ tc The MT reads “there is what is swept away because [there is] no justice” (וְיֵשׁ נִסְפֶּה בְּלֹא מִשְׁפָּט, vÿyesh nispeh bÿlo’ mishpat). The LXX reads “the great enjoy wealth many years, but some men perish little by little.” The Syriac reads “those who have no habitation waste wealth many years, and some waste it completely.” Tg. Prov 13:23 reads “the great man devours the land of the poor, and some men are taken away unjustly.” The Vulgate has “there is much food in the fresh land of the fathers, and for others it is collected without judgment.” C. H. Toy says that the text is corrupt (Proverbs [ICC], 277). Nevertheless, the MT makes sense: The ground could produce enough food for people if there were no injustice in the land. Poverty is unnecessary as long as there is justice and not injustice.

[11:6]  ²² tn Heb “do not let your hand rest.” The Hebrew phrase “do not let your hand rest” is an idiom that means “do not stop working” or “do not be idle” (e.g., Eccl 7:18); cf. BDB 628 s.v. נוּחַ B.1. Several English versions capture the sense of the idiom well: “do not stop working” (NEB); “do not be idle” (MLB); “let not your hand be idle” (NAB); “let not your hands be idle” (NIV); “stay not your hand” (Moffatt). The term “hand” is a synecdoche of part (i.e., do not let your hand rest) for the whole person (i.e., do not allow yourself to stop working).

[11:6]  ²³ tn The terms “morning” (בֹּקֶר, boqer) and “evening” (עֶרֶב, ’erev) form a merism (a figure of speech using two polar extremes to include everything in between) that connotes “from morning until evening.” The point is not that the farmer should plant at two times in the day (morning and evening), but that he should plant all day long (from morning until evening). This merism is reflected in several translations: “in the morning…until evening” (NEB, Moffatt).

[11:6]  ²⁴ tn The term “activity” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.

[11:6]  ²⁵ tn The verb כָּשֵׁר (kasher, “to prosper”) is used metonymically to denote “will succeed.” In 11:10, it means “skill in work.”

[11:6]  ²⁶ tn Or “together.”

[28:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “All the day does the plowman plow in order to plant?” The phrase “all the day” here has the sense of “continually, always.” See BDB 400 s.v. יוֹם.

[28:25]  ²⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “place wheat [?], and barley [?], and grain in its territory.” The term שׂוֹרָה (shorah) is sometimes translated “[in] its place,” but the word is unattested elsewhere. It is probably due to dittography of the immediately following שְׂעֹרָה (sÿo’rah, “barley”). The meaning of נִסְמָן (nisman) is also uncertain. It may be due to dittography of the immediately following כֻסֶּמֶת (kussemet, “grain”).

[55:10]  ²⁹ tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.

[24:45]  ³⁰ tn See the note on the word “slave” in 8:9.

[24:45]  ³¹ tn Grk “give them.”

[24:2]  ³² tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[24:2]  ³³ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[24:2]  ³⁴ sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.

[24:2]  ³⁵ tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”

[1:10]  ³⁶ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ³⁷ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”