Mazmur 34:12-16

34:12 Do you want to really live? ¹ 

Would you love to live a long, happy life? ² 

34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words ³ 

or use deceptive speech! ⁴ 

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! ⁵ 

Strive for peace and promote it! ⁶ 

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ⁷ 

34:16 But the Lord opposes evildoers

and wipes out all memory of them from the earth. ⁸ 

Amsal 11:27

11:27 The one who diligently seeks ⁹  good seeks favor,

but the one who searches ¹⁰  for evil – it will come to him. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 1:16-17

1:16 ¹² Wash! Cleanse yourselves!

Remove your sinful deeds ¹³ 

from my sight.

Stop sinning!

1:17 Learn to do what is right!

Promote justice!

Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! ¹⁴ 

Take up the cause of the orphan!

Defend the rights of the widow! ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 55:2

55:2 Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? ¹⁶ 

Why spend ¹⁷  your hard-earned money ¹⁸  on something that will not satisfy?

Listen carefully ¹⁹  to me and eat what is nourishing! ²⁰ 

Enjoy fine food! ²¹ 

Mikha 6:8

6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,

and what the Lord really wants from you: ²² 

He wants you to ²³  promote ²⁴  justice, to be faithful, ²⁵ 

and to live obediently before ²⁶  your God.

Matius 6:33

6:33 But above all pursue his kingdom ²⁷  and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Roma 2:7-9

2:7 eternal life to those who by perseverance in good works seek glory and honor and immortality, 2:8 but ²⁸  wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition ²⁹  and do not obey the truth but follow ³⁰  unrighteousness. 2:9 There will be ³¹  affliction and distress on everyone ³²  who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, ³³ 

[34:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.

[34:12]  ² tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”

[34:13]  ³ tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”

[34:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”

[34:14]  ⁵ tn Or “do good.”

[34:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

[34:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[34:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”

[11:27]  ⁹ tn Two separate words are used here for “seek.” The first is שָׁחַר (shakhar, “to seek diligently”) and the second is בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek after; to look for”). Whoever is seeking good is in effect seeking favor – from either God or man (e.g., Ps 5:12; Isa 49:8).

[11:27]  ¹⁰ tn The participle דֹּרֵשׁ (doresh) means “to seek; to inquire; to investigate.” A person generally receives the consequences of the kind of life he seeks.

[11:27]  ¹¹ tn The verb is the imperfect tense, third feminine singular, referring to “evil,” the object of the participle.

[1:16]  ¹² sn Having demonstrated the people’s guilt, the Lord calls them to repentance, which will involve concrete action in the socio-economic realm, not mere emotion.

[1:16]  ¹³ sn This phrase refers to Israel’s covenant treachery (cf. Deut 28:10; Jer 4:4; 21:12; 23:2, 22; 25:5; 26:3; 44:22; Hos 9:15; Ps 28:4). In general, the noun ַמעַלְלֵיכֶם (ma’alleykhem) can simply be a reference to deeds, whether good or bad. However, Isaiah always uses it with a negative connotation (cf. 3:8, 10).

[1:17]  ¹⁴ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The translation assumes an emendation of חָמוֹץ (khamots, “oppressor [?]”) to חָמוּץ (khamuts, “oppressed”), a passive participle from II חָמַץ (khamats, “oppress”; HALOT 329 s.v. II חמץ) and takes the verb II אָשַׁר (’ashar) in the sense of “make happy” (the delocutive Piel, meaning “call/pronounce happy,” is metonymic here, referring to actually effecting happiness). The parallelism favors this interpretation, for the next two lines speak of positive actions on behalf of the destitute. The other option is to retain the MT pointing and translate, “set right the oppressor,” but the nuance “set right” is not clearly attested elsewhere for the verb I אשׁר. This verb does appear as a participle in Isa 3:12 and 9:16 with the meaning “to lead or guide.” If it can mean to “lead” or “rebuke/redirect” in this verse, the prophet could be contrasting this appeal for societal reformation (v. 17c) with a command to reorder their personal lives (v. 17a-b). J. A. Motyer (The Prophecy of Isaiah, 47) suggests that these three statements (v. 17a-c) provide “the contrast between the two ends of imperfect society, the oppressor and the needy, the one inflicting and the other suffering the hurt. Isaiah looks for a transformed society wherever it needs transforming.”

[1:17]  ¹⁵ tn This word refers to a woman who has lost her husband, by death or divorce. The orphan and widow are often mentioned in the OT as epitomizing the helpless and impoverished who have been left without the necessities of life due to the loss of a family provider.

[55:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for what is not food.”

[55:2]  ¹⁷ tn The interrogative particle and the verb “spend” are understood here by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[55:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your labor,” which stands by metonymy for that which one earns.

[55:2]  ¹⁹ tn The infinitive absolute follows the imperative and lends emphasis to the exhortation.

[55:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “good” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[55:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “Let your appetite delight in fine food.”

[55:2]  sn Nourishing, fine food here represents the blessings God freely offers. These include forgiveness, a new covenantal relationship with God, and national prominence (see vv. 3-6).

[6:8]  ²² sn What the Lord really wants from you. Now the prophet switches roles and answers the hypothetical worshiper’s question. He makes it clear that the Lord desires proper attitudes more than ritual and sacrifice.

[6:8]  ²³ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”

[6:33]  ²⁷ tc ‡ Most mss (L W Θ 0233 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat sy mae) read τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ (thn basileian tou qeou kai thn dikaiosunhn aujtou, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”) here, but the words “of God” are lacking in א B pc sa bo Eus. On the one hand, there is the possibility of accidental omission on the part of these Alexandrian witnesses, but it seems unlikely that the scribe’s eye would skip over both words (especially since τοῦ θεοῦ is bracketed by first declension nouns). Intrinsically, the author generally has a genitive modifier with βασιλεία – especially θεοῦ or οὐρανῶν (ouranwn) – but this argument cuts both ways: Although he might be expected to use such an adjunct here, scribes might also be familiar with his practice and would thus naturally insert it if it were missing in their copy of Matthew. Although a decision is difficult, the omission of τοῦ θεοῦ is considered most likely to be original. NA²⁷ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.

[6:33]  sn God’s kingdom is a major theme of Jesus. It is a realm in which Jesus rules and to which those who trust him belong.

[2:8]  ²⁸ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:8]  ²⁹ tn Grk “those who [are] from selfish ambition.”

[2:8]  ³⁰ tn Grk “are persuaded by, obey.”

[2:9]  ³¹ tn No verb is expressed in this verse, but the verb “to be” is implied by the Greek construction. Literally “suffering and distress on everyone…”

[2:9]  ³² tn Grk “every soul of man.”

[2:9]  ³³ sn Paul uses the term Greek here and in v. 10 to refer to non-Jews, i.e., Gentiles.