Mazmur 59:3

59:3 For look, they wait to ambush me; ¹ 

powerful men stalk ²  me,

but not because I have rebelled or sinned, O Lord. ³ 

Yosua 22:22

22:22 “El, God, the Lord! ⁴  El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth! ⁵  Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord, ⁶  don’t spare us ⁷  today!

Yosua 22:1

Joshua Sends Home the Eastern Tribes

22:1 Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh

1 Samuel 20:8

20:8 You must be loyal ⁸  to your servant, for you have made a covenant with your servant in the Lord’s name. ⁹  If I am guilty, ¹⁰  you yourself kill me! Why bother taking me to your father?”

1 Samuel 22:8

22:8 For all of you have conspired against me! No one informs me ¹¹  when my own son makes an agreement with this son of Jesse! Not one of you feels sorry for me or informs me that my own son has commissioned my own servant to hide in ambush against me, as is the case today!”

1 Samuel 22:13

22:13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and this son of Jesse? You gave ¹²  him bread and a sword and inquired of God on his behalf, so that he opposes ¹³  me and waits in ambush, as is the case today!”

1 Samuel 24:9

24:9 David said to Saul, “Why do you pay attention when men say, ‘David is seeking to do you harm’?

1 Samuel 26:18-19

26:18 He went on to say, “Why is my lord chasing his servant? What have I done? What wrong have I done? ¹⁴  26:19 So let my lord the king now listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has incited you against me, may he take delight in ¹⁵  an offering. But if men have instigated this, ¹⁶  may they be cursed before the Lord! For they have driven me away this day from being united with the Lord’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go on, serve other gods!’

1 Samuel 26:2

26:2 So Saul arose and

went down to the desert of Ziph, accompanied by three thousand select men of Israel, to look for David in the desert of Ziph.

1 Samuel 16:7-8

16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t be impressed by ¹⁷  his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do. ¹⁸  People look on the outward appearance, ¹⁹  but the Lord looks at the heart.”

16:8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel. ²⁰  But Samuel ²¹  said, “The Lord has not chosen this one, either.”

Ayub 16:17-19

16:17 although ²²  there is no violence in my hands

and my prayer is pure.

An Appeal to God as Witness

16:18 “O earth, do not cover my blood, ²³ 

nor let there be a secret ²⁴  place for my cry.

16:19 Even now my witness ²⁵  is in heaven;

my advocate ²⁶  is on high.

[59:3]  ¹ tn Heb “my life.”

[59:3]  ² tn The Hebrew verb is from the root גּוּר (gur), which means “to challenge, attack” in Isa 54:15 and “to stalk” (with hostile intent) in Ps 56:8.

[59:3]  ³ sn The point is that the psalmist’s enemies have no justifiable reason for attacking him. He has neither rebelled or sinned against the Lord.

[22:22]  ⁴ sn Israel’s God is here identified with three names: (1) אֵל (’el), “El” (or “God”); (2) אֱלֹהִים (’elohim), “Elohim” (or “God”), and (3) יְהוָה (yÿhvah), “Yahweh” (or “the Lord”). The name אֵל (’el, “El”) is often compounded with titles, for example, El Elyon, “God Most High.”

[22:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “he knows.”

[22:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “if in rebellion or if in unfaithfulness against the Lord.”

[22:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “do not save us.” The verb form is singular, being addressed to either collective Israel or the Lord himself. The LXX translates in the third person.

[20:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “and you must do loyalty.”

[20:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “for into a covenant of the Lord you have brought your servant with you.”

[20:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and if there is in me guilt.”

[22:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “uncovers my ear.”

[22:13]  ¹² tn Heb “by giving.”

[22:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “rises up against.”

[26:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “What in my hand [is] evil?”

[26:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “may he smell.” The implication is that Saul should seek to appease God, for such divine instigation to evil would a sign of God’s disfavor. For a fuller discussion of this passage see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 19-21.

[26:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “but if the sons of men.”

[16:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “don’t look toward.”

[16:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for not that which the man sees.” The translation follows the LXX, which reads, “for not as man sees does God see.” The MT has suffered from homoioteleuton or homoioarcton. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 274.

[16:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to the eyes.”

[16:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and caused him to pass before.”

[16:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “he” (also in v. 9); the referent (Samuel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:17]  ²² tn For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.

[16:18]  ²³ sn Job knows that he will die, and that his death, signified here by blood on the ground, will cry out for vindication.

[16:18]  ²⁴ tn The word is simply “a place,” but in the context it surely means a hidden place, a secret place that would never be discovered (see 18:21).

[16:19]  ²⁵ sn The witness in heaven must be God, to whom the cries and prayers come. Job’s dilemma is serious, but common to the human experience: the hostility of God toward him is baffling, but he is conscious of his innocence and can call on God to be his witness.

[16:19]  ²⁶ tn The parallelism now uses the Aramaic word “my advocate” – the one who testifies on my behalf. The word again appears in Gen 31:47 for Laban’s naming of the “heap of witness” in Aramaic – “Sahadutha.”