Keluaran 20:20

20:20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, ¹  that the fear of him ²  may be before you so that you do not ³  sin.”

Ayub 23:15

23:15 That is why I am terrified in his presence;

when I consider, I am afraid because of him.

Mazmur 34:5

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed. ⁴ 

Mazmur 112:1

Psalm 112 ⁵ 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ⁶  who obeys ⁷  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ⁸ 

Amsal 9:10

9:10 The beginning ⁹  of wisdom is to fear the Lord, ¹⁰ 

and acknowledging ¹¹  the Holy One ¹²  is understanding.

[20:20]  ¹ tn נַסּוֹת (nassot) is the Piel infinitive construct; it forms the purpose of God’s coming with all the accompanying phenomena. The verb can mean “to try, test, prove.” The sense of “prove” fits this context best because the terrifying phenomena were intended to put the fear of God in their hearts so that they would obey. In other words, God was inspiring them to obey, not simply testing to see if they would.

[20:20]  ² tn The suffix on the noun is an objective genitive, referring to the fear that the people would have of God (GKC 439 §135.m).

[20:20]  ³ tn The negative form לְבִלְתִּי (lÿvilti) is used here with the imperfect tense (see for other examples GKC 483 §152.x). This gives the imperfect the nuance of a final imperfect: that you might not sin. Others: to keep you from sin.

[34:5]  ⁴ tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.

[112:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[9:10]  ⁹ sn The difference between תְּחִלַּת (tÿkhillat) here and רֵאשִׁית (re’shit) of 1:7, if there is any substantial difference, is that this term refers to the starting point of wisdom, and the earlier one indicates the primary place of wisdom (K&D 16:202).

[9:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fear of the Lord.”

[9:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “knowledge of the Holy One” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[9:10]  ¹² tn The word is in the plural in the Hebrew (literally “holy ones”; KJV “the holy”). It was translated “holy men” in Tg. Prov 9:10. But it probably was meant to signify the majestic nature of the Lord. As J. H. Greenstone says, he is “all-holy” (Proverbs, 94). This is an example of the plural of majesty, one of the honorific uses of the plural (see IBHS 122-23 §7.4.3b).