Nehemia 6:16

6:16 When all our enemies heard and all the nations who were around us saw ¹  this, they were greatly disheartened. ²  They knew that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

Ayub 15:21-22

15:21 Terrifying sounds fill ³  his ears;

in a time of peace marauders ⁴  attack him.

15:22 He does not expect ⁵  to escape from darkness; ⁶ 

he is marked for the sword; ⁷ 

Ayub 18:5-12

18:5 “Yes, ⁸  the lamp ⁹  of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire ¹⁰  does not shine.

18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;

his lamp above him is extinguished. ¹¹ 

18:7 His vigorous steps ¹²  are restricted, ¹³ 

and his own counsel throws him down. ¹⁴ 

18:8 For he has been thrown into a net by his feet ¹⁵ 

and he wanders into a mesh. ¹⁶ 

18:9 A trap ¹⁷  seizes him by the heel;

a snare ¹⁸  grips him.

18:10 A rope is hidden for him ¹⁹  on the ground

and a trap for him ²⁰  lies on the path.

18:11 Terrors ²¹  frighten him on all sides

and dog ²²  his every step.

18:12 Calamity is ²³  hungry for him, ²⁴ 

and misfortune is ready at his side. ²⁵ 

Mazmur 73:5-9

73:5 They are immune to the trouble common to men;

they do not suffer as other men do. ²⁶ 

73:6 Arrogance is their necklace, ²⁷ 

and violence their clothing. ²⁸ 

73:7 Their prosperity causes them to do wrong; ²⁹ 

their thoughts are sinful. ³⁰ 

73:8 They mock ³¹  and say evil things; ³² 

they proudly threaten violence. ³³ 

73:9 They speak as if they rule in heaven,

and lay claim to the earth. ³⁴ 

Mazmur 73:17-20

73:17 Then I entered the precincts of God’s temple, ³⁵ 

and understood the destiny of the wicked. ³⁶ 

73:18 Surely ³⁷  you put them in slippery places;

you bring them down ³⁸  to ruin.

73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!

Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! ³⁹ 

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ⁴⁰ 

O Lord, when you awake ⁴¹  you will despise them. ⁴² 

Amsal 16:14

16:14 A king’s wrath ⁴³  is like ⁴⁴  a messenger of death, ⁴⁵ 

but a wise person appeases it. ⁴⁶ 

Yesaya 21:4

21:4 My heart palpitates, ⁴⁷ 

I shake in fear; ⁴⁸ 

the twilight I desired

has brought me terror.

Daniel 5:5-6

5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ⁴⁹  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ⁵⁰  The king was watching the back ⁵¹  of the hand that was writing. 5:6 Then all the color drained from the king’s face ⁵²  and he became alarmed. ⁵³  The joints of his hips gave way, ⁵⁴  and his knees began knocking together.

[6:16]  ¹ tc The MT understands the root here to be יָרֵא (yare’, “to fear”) rather than רָאָה (ra’ah, “to see”).

[6:16]  ² tn Heb “they greatly fell [i.e., were cast down] in their own eyes.” Some scholars suggest emending the reading of the MT, וַיִּפְּלוּ (vayyipÿlu) to וַיִּפָּלֵא (vayyippale’, “it was very extraordinary in their eyes”).

[15:21]  ³ tn The word “fill” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[15:21]  ⁴ tn The word שׁוֹדֵד (shoded) means “a robber; a plunderer” (see Job 12:6). With the verb bo’ the sentence means that the robber pounces on or comes against him (see GKC 373 §118.f). H. H. Rowley observes that the text does not say that he is under attack, but that the sound of fears is in his ears, i.e., that he is terrified by thoughts of this.

[15:22]  ⁵ tn This is the meaning of the Hiphil imperfect negated: “he does not believe” or “he has no confidence.” It is followed by the infinitive construct functioning as the direct object – he does not expect to return (to escape) from darkness.

[15:22]  sn The meaning of this line is somewhat in question. H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 111) thinks it could mean that he is afraid he will not wake up from the night, or he dreads misfortune, thinking it will be final for him.

[15:22]  ⁶ sn In the context of these arguments, “darkness” probably refers to calamity, and so the wicked can expect a calamity that is final.

[15:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “he is watched [or waited for] by the sword.” G. R. Driver reads it, “he is marked down for the sword” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 78). Ewald suggested “laid up for the sword.” Ball has “looks for the sword.” The MT has a passive participle from צָפָה (tsafah, “to observe, watch”) which can be retained in the text; the meaning of the form can then be understood as the result of the inspection (E. Dhorme, Job, 217).

[18:5]  ⁸ tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.

[18:5]  ⁹ sn The lamp or the light can have a number of uses in the Bible. Here it is probably an implied metaphor for prosperity and happiness, for the good life itself.

[18:5]  ¹⁰ tn The expression is literally “the flame of his fire,” but the pronominal suffix qualifies the entire bound construction. The two words together intensify the idea of the flame.

[18:6]  ¹¹ tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”

[18:6]  sn This thesis of Bildad will be questioned by Job in 21:17 – how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?

[18:7]  ¹² tn Heb “the steps of his vigor,” the genitive being the attribute.

[18:7]  ¹³ tn The verb צָרַר (tsarar) means “to be cramped; to be straitened; to be hemmed in.” The trouble has hemmed him in, so that he cannot walk with the full, vigorous steps he had before. The LXX has “Let the meanest of men spoil his goods.”

[18:7]  ¹⁴ tn The LXX has “causes him to stumble,” which many commentators accept; but this involves the transposition of the three letters. The verb is שָׁלַךְ (shalakh, “throw”) not כָּשַׁל (kashal, “stumble”).

[18:8]  ¹⁵ tn See Ps 25:15.

[18:8]  ¹⁶ tn The word שְׂבָכָה (sÿvakhah) is used in scripture for the lattice window (2 Kgs 1:2). The Arabic cognate means “to be intertwined.” So the term could describe a net, matting, grating, or lattice. Here it would be the netting stretched over a pit.

[18:9]  ¹⁷ tn This word פָּח (pakh) specifically refers to the snare of the fowler – thus a bird trap. But its plural seems to refer to nets in general (see Job 22:10).

[18:9]  ¹⁸ tn This word does not occur elsewhere. But another word from the same root means “plait of hair,” and so this term has something to do with a net like a trellis or lattice.

[18:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his rope.” The suffix must be a genitive expressing that the trap was for him, to trap him, and so an objective genitive.

[18:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his trap.” The pronominal suffix is objective genitive here as well.

[18:11]  ²¹ sn Bildad is referring here to all the things that afflict a person and cause terror. It would then be a metonymy of effect, the cause being the afflictions.

[18:11]  ²² tn The verb פּוּץ (puts) in the Hiphil has the meaning “to pursue” and “to scatter.” It is followed by the expression “at his feet.” So the idea is easily derived: they chase him at his feet. But some commentators have other proposals. The most far-fetched is that of Ehrlich and Driver (ZAW 24 [1953]: 259-60) which has “and compel him to urinate on his feet,” one of many similar readings the NEB accepted from Driver.

[18:12]  ²³ tn The jussive is occasionally used without its normal sense and only as an imperfect (see GKC 323 §109.k).

[18:12]  ²⁴ tn There are a number of suggestions for אֹנוֹ (’ono). Some take it as “vigor”: thus “his strength is hungry.” Others take it as “iniquity”: thus “his iniquity/trouble is hungry.”

[18:12]  ²⁵ tn The expression means that misfortune is right there to destroy him whenever there is the opportunity.

[73:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in the trouble of man they are not, and with mankind they are not afflicted.”

[73:6]  ²⁷ sn Arrogance is their necklace. The metaphor suggests that their arrogance is something the wicked “wear” proudly. It draws attention to them, just as a beautiful necklace does to its owner.

[73:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “a garment of violence covers them.” The metaphor suggests that violence is habitual for the wicked. They “wear” it like clothing; when one looks at them, violence is what one sees.

[73:7]  ²⁹ tc The MT reads “it goes out from fatness their eye,” which might be paraphrased, “their eye protrudes [or “bulges”] because of fatness.” This in turn might refer to their greed; their eyes “bug out” when they see rich food or produce (the noun חֵלֶב [khelev, “fatness”] sometimes refers to such food or produce). However, when used with the verb יָצָא (yatsa’, “go out”) the preposition מִן (“from”) more naturally indicates source. For this reason it is preferable to emend עֵינֵמוֹ (’enemo, “their eye”) to עֲוֹנָמוֹ, (’avonamo, “their sin”) and read, “and their sin proceeds forth from fatness,” that is, their prosperity gives rise to their sinful attitudes. If one follows this textual reading, another interpretive option is to take חֵלֶב (“fatness”) in the sense of “unreceptive, insensitive” (see its use in Ps 17:10). In this case, the sin of the wicked proceeds forth from their spiritual insensitivity.

[73:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the thoughts of [their] heart [i.e., mind] cross over” (i.e., violate God’s moral boundary, see Ps 17:3).

[73:8]  ³¹ tn The verb מוּק (muq, “mock”) occurs only here in the OT.

[73:8]  ³² tn Heb “and speak with evil.”

[73:8]  ³³ tn Heb “oppression from an elevated place they speak.” The traditional accentuation of the MT places “oppression” with the preceding line. In this case, one might translate, “they mock and speak with evil [of] oppression, from an elevated place [i.e., “proudly”] they speak.” By placing “oppression” with what follows, one achieves better poetic balance in the parallelism.

[73:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “they set in heaven their mouth, and their tongue walks through the earth.” The meaning of the text is uncertain. Perhaps the idea is that they lay claim to heaven (i.e., speak as if they were ruling in heaven) and move through the earth declaring their superiority and exerting their influence. Some take the preposition -בְּ (bet) the first line as adversative and translate, “they set their mouth against heaven,” that is, they defy God.

[73:17]  ³⁵ tn The plural of the term מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash) probably refers to the temple precincts (see Ps 68:35; Jer 51:51).

[73:17]  ³⁶ tn Heb “I discerned their end.” At the temple the psalmist perhaps received an oracle of deliverance announcing his vindication and the demise of the wicked (see Ps 12) or heard songs of confidence (for example, Ps 11), wisdom psalms (for example, Pss 1, 37), and hymns (for example, Ps 112) that describe the eventual downfall of the proud and wealthy.

[73:18]  ³⁷ tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

[73:18]  ³⁸ tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

[73:19]  ³⁹ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

[73:20]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ⁴¹ sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ⁴² tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

[16:14]  ⁴³ sn This proverb introduces the danger of becoming a victim of the king’s wrath (cf. CEV “if the king becomes angry, someone may die”). A wise person knows how to pacify the unexpected and irrational behavior of a king. The proverb makes the statement, and then gives the response to the subject.

[16:14]  ⁴⁴ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[16:14]  ⁴⁵ tn The expression uses an implied comparison, comparing “wrath” to a messenger because it will send a message. The qualification is “death,” an objective genitive, meaning the messenger will bring death, or the message will be about death. E.g., 1 Kgs 2:25, 29-34 and 46. Some have suggested a comparison with the two messengers of Baal to the god Mot (“Death”) in the Ugaritic tablets (H. L. Ginsberg, “Baal’s Two Messengers,” BASOR 95 [1944]: 25-30). If there is an allusion, it is a very slight one. The verse simply says that the king’s wrath threatens death.

[16:14]  ⁴⁶ tn The verb is כָּפַּר (kapar), which means “to pacify; to appease” and “to atone; to expiate” in Levitical passages. It would take a wise person to know how to calm or pacify the wrath of a king – especially in the ancient Near East.

[21:4]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “wanders,” perhaps here, “is confused.”

[21:4]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “shuddering terrifies me.”

[5:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ⁵⁰ sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

[5:5]  ⁵¹ tn While Aramaic פַּס (pas) can mean the palm of the hand, here it seems to be the back of the hand that is intended.

[5:6]  ⁵² tn Aram “[the king’s] brightness changed for him.”

[5:6]  ⁵³ tn Aram “his thoughts were alarming him.”

[5:6]  ⁵⁴ tn Aram “his loins went slack.”