Ayub 34:17-19

34:17 Do you really think ¹ 

that one who hates justice can govern? ² 

And will you declare guilty

the supremely righteous ³  One,

34:18 who says to a king, ⁴  ‘Worthless man’ ⁵ 

and to nobles, ‘Wicked men,’

34:19 who shows no partiality to princes,

and does not take note of ⁶  the rich more than the poor,

because all of them are the work of his hands?

Mazmur 113:5-6

113:5 Who can compare to the Lord our God,

who sits on a high throne? ⁷ 

113:6 He bends down to look ⁸ 

at the sky and the earth.

Pengkhotbah 5:8

Government Corruption

5:8 If you see the extortion ⁹  of the poor,

or the perversion ¹⁰  of justice and fairness in the government, ¹¹ 

do not be astonished by the matter.

For the high official is watched by a higher official, ¹² 

and there are higher ones over them! ¹³ 

Yesaya 40:22-23

40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; ¹⁴ 

its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. ¹⁵ 

He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, ¹⁶ 

and spreads it out ¹⁷  like a pitched tent. ¹⁸ 

40:23 He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing;

he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant.

Yesaya 40:1

The Lord Returns to Jerusalem

40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”

says your ¹⁹  God.

Kolose 1:3

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ²⁰  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Kolose 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ²¹  brothers and sisters ²²  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ²³  from God our Father! ²⁴ 

Pengkhotbah 2:4

Futility of Materialism

2:4 I increased my possessions: ²⁵ 

I built houses for myself; ²⁶ 

I planted vineyards for myself.

Yudas 1:6

1:6 You also know that ²⁷  the angels who did not keep within their proper domain ²⁸  but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept ²⁹  in eternal chains ³⁰  in utter ³¹  darkness, locked up ³²  for the judgment of the great Day.

Wahyu 20:1-3

The Thousand Year Reign

20:1 Then ³³  I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding ³⁴  in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain. 20:2 He ³⁵  seized the dragon – the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan – and tied him up for a thousand years. 20:3 The angel ³⁶  then ³⁷  threw him into the abyss and locked ³⁸  and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)

Wahyu 20:12-15

20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then ³⁹  books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. ⁴⁰  So ⁴¹  the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. ⁴²  20:13 The ⁴³  sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death ⁴⁴  and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 20:14 Then ⁴⁵  Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. 20:15 If ⁴⁶  anyone’s name ⁴⁷  was not found written in the book of life, that person ⁴⁸  was thrown into the lake of fire.

[34:17]  ¹ tn The force of הַאַף (ha’af) is “Is it truly the case?” The point is being made that if Job were right God could not be judging the world.

[34:17]  ² tn The verb חָבַשׁ (khavash) has the basic idea of “to bind,” as in binding on the yoke, and then in the sense of subduing people under authority (cf. Assyrian absanu). The imperfect verb here is best expressed with the potential nuance.

[34:17]  ³ tn The two words could be taken separately, but they seem to form a fine nominal hendiadys, because the issue is God’s justice. So the word for power becomes the modifier.

[34:18]  ⁴ tc Heb “Does one say,” although some smooth it out to say “Is it fit to say?” For the reading “who says,” the form has to be repointed to הַאֹמֵר (ha’omer) meaning, “who is the one saying.” This reading is supported by the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac. Also it seems to flow better with the following verse. It would be saying that God is over the rulers and can rebuke them. The former view is saying that no one rebukes kings, much less Job rebuking God.

[34:18]  ⁵ tn The word בְּלִיָּעַל (bÿliyya’al) means both “worthless” and “wicked.” It is common in proverbial literature, and in later writings it became a description of Satan. It is usually found with “son of.”

[34:19]  ⁶ tn The verb means “to give recognition; to take note of” and in this passage with לִפְנֵי (lifne, “before”) it means to show preferential treatment to the rich before the poor. The word for “rich” here is an unusual word, found parallel to “noble” (Isa 32:2). P. Joüon thinks it is a term of social distinction (Bib 18 [1937]: 207-8).

[113:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”

[113:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”

[5:8]  ⁹ tn Alternately, “oppression.” The term עֹשֶׁק (’osheq) has a basic two-fold range of meaning: (1) “oppression; brutality” (e.g., Isa 54:14); and (2) “extortion” (e.g., Ps 62:11); see HALOT 897 s.v. עֹשֶׁק; BDB 799 s.v. עֹשֶׁק. The LXX understands the term as “oppression,” as the translation συκοφαντίαν (sukofantian, “oppression”) indicates. Likewise, HALOT 897 s.v. עֹשֶׁק 1 classifies this usage as “oppression” against the poor. However, the context of 5:8-9 [7-8 HT] focuses on corrupt government officials robbing people of the fruit of their labor through extortion and the perversion of justice.

[5:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “robbery.” The noun גֵזֶל (gezel, “robbery”) refers to the wrestling away of righteousness or the perversion of justice (HALOT 186 s.v. גֵּזֶל). The related forms of the root גזל mean “to rob; to loot” (HALOT 186 s.v. גֵּזֶל). The term “robbery” is used as a figure for the perversion of justice (hypocatastasis): just as a thief robs his victims through physical violence, so corrupt government officials “rob” the poor through the perversion of justice.

[5:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in the province.”

[5:8]  ¹² tn The word “official” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:8]  ¹³ sn And there are higher ones over them! This may describe a corrupt system of government in which each level of hierarchy exploits its subordinates, all the way down to the peasants: “Set in authority over the people is an official who enriches himself at their expense; he is watched by a more authoritative governor who also has his share of the spoils; and above them are other officers of the State who likewise have to be satisfied”; see A. Cohen, The Five Megilloth (SoBB), 141.

[40:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[40:22]  ¹⁵ tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[40:22]  ¹⁶ tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).

[40:22]  ¹⁷ tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.

[40:22]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”

[40:1]  ¹⁹ tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural. The identity of the addressee is uncertain: (1) God’s people may be addressed, or (2) the unidentified heralds commanded to comfort Jerusalem.

[1:3]  ²⁰ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

[1:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ²² tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ²³ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ²⁴ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[2:4]  ²⁵ tn Or “my works”; or “my accomplishments.” The term מַעֲשָׂי (ma’asay, “my works”) has been handled in two basic ways: (1) great works or projects, and (2) possessions. The latter assumes a metonymy, one’s effort standing for the possessions it produces. Both interpretations are reflected in the major English translations: “works” (KJV, NEB, NAB, ASV, NASB, MLB, RSV, Douay, Moffatt), “projects” (NIV), and “possessions” (NJPS).

[2:4]  sn This section (2:4-11) is unified and bracketed by the repetition of the verb גָּדַל (gadal, “to increase”) which occurs at the beginning (2:4) and end (2:9), and by the repetition of the root עשה (noun: “works” and verb: “to do, make, acquire”) which occurs throughout the section (2:4, 5, 6, 8, 11).

[2:4]  ²⁶ sn The expression for myself is repeated eight times in 2:4-8 to emphasize that Qoheleth did not deny himself any acquisition. He indulged himself in acquiring everything he desired. His vast resources as king allowed him the unlimited opportunity to indulge himself. He could have anything his heart desired, and he did.

[1:6]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ sn In 2 Pet 2:4 a less common word for chains is used.

[1:6]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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”).

[20:1]  ³³ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[20:1]  ³⁴ tn The word “holding” is implied. The two clauses “having the key of the abyss” and “a huge chain in his hand” can be construed in two ways: (1) both are controlled by the participle ἔχοντα (econta) and both are modified by the phrase “in his hand” – “having in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain.” (2) The participle ἔχοντα refers only to the key, and the phrase “in his hand” refers only to the chain – “having the key of the abyss and holding a huge chain in his hand.” Because of the stylistic tendency in Rev to use the verb ἔχω (ecw) to mean “hold (something)” and the phrase “in his hand” forming a “bracket” along with the verb ἔχω around both the phrases in question, the first option is preferred.

[20:2]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:3]  ³⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel introduced in v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:3]  ³⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[20:3]  ³⁸ tn Or “and shut.” While the lexical force of the term is closer to “shut,” it is acceptable to render the verb ἔκλεισεν (ekleisen) as “locked” here in view of the mention of the key in the previous verse.

[20:12]  ³⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[20:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “another book was opened, which is of life.”

[20:12]  ⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the books being opened.

[20:12]  ⁴² tn Grk “from the things written in the books according to their works.”

[20:13]  ⁴³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:13]  ⁴⁴ sn Here Death is personified (cf. 1 Cor 15:55).

[20:14]  ⁴⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[20:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:15]  ⁴⁷ tn The word “name” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[20:15]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “he”; the pronoun has been intensified by translating as “that person.”