Mazmur 75:3

75:3 When the earth and all its inhabitants dissolve in fear, ¹ 

I make its pillars secure.” ²  (Selah)

Mazmur 82:5

82:5 They ³  neither know nor understand.

They stumble ⁴  around in the dark,

while all the foundations of the earth crumble. ⁵ 

Yesaya 58:12

58:12 Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; ⁶ 

you will reestablish the ancient foundations.

You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls,

the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ ⁷ 

Yesaya 58:2

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ⁸ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

Titus 2:1

Conduct Consistent with Sound Teaching

2:1 But as for you, communicate the behavior that goes with ⁹  sound teaching.

[75:3]  ¹ tn Heb “melt.”

[75:3]  ² tn The statement is understood in a generalizing sense; God typically prevents the world from being overrun by chaos. One could take this as referring to an anticipated event, “I will make its pillars secure.”

[82:5]  ³ sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.

[82:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.

[82:5]  ⁵ sn These gods, though responsible for justice, neglect their duty. Their self-imposed ignorance (which the psalmist compares to stumbling around in the dark) results in widespread injustice, which threatens the social order of the world (the meaning of the phrase all the foundations of the earth crumble).

[58:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they will build from you ancient ruins.”

[58:12]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew text has “the one who restores paths for dwelling.” The idea of “paths to dwell in” is not a common notion. Some have proposed emending נְתִיבוֹת (nÿtivot, “paths”) to נְתִיצוֹת (nÿtitsot, “ruins”), a passive participle from נָתַץ (natats, “tear down”; see HALOT 732 s.v. *נְתִיצָה), because tighter parallelism with the preceding line is achieved. However, none of the textual sources support this emendation. The line may mean that paths must be repaired in order to dwell in the land.

[58:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[2:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “say what is fitting for sound teaching” (introducing the behavior called for in this chapter.).