Kejadian 31:8-9

31:8 If he said, ¹  ‘The speckled animals ²  will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring. But if he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring. 31:9 In this way God has snatched away your father’s livestock and given them to me.

Ayub 31:31

31:31 if ³  the members of my household ⁴  have never said, ⁵ 

‘If only there were ⁶  someone

who has not been satisfied from Job’s ⁷  meat!’ –

Mazmur 57:4

57:4 I am surrounded by lions;

I lie down ⁸  among those who want to devour me; ⁹ 

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

whose tongues are a sharp sword. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 64:3-4

64:3 They ¹¹  sharpen their tongues like a sword;

they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, ¹² 

64:4 in order to shoot down the innocent ¹³  in secluded places.

They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 120:3-5

120:3 How will he severely punish you,

you deceptive talker? ¹⁵ 

120:4 Here’s how! ¹⁶  With the sharp arrows of warriors,

with arrowheads forged over the hot coals. ¹⁷ 

120:5 How miserable I am! ¹⁸ 

For I have lived temporarily ¹⁹  in Meshech;

I have resided among the tents of Kedar. ²⁰ 

Amsal 14:30

14:30 A tranquil spirit ²¹  revives the body, ²² 

but envy ²³  is rottenness to the bones. ²⁴ 

Amsal 27:4

27:4 Wrath is cruel and anger is overwhelming, ²⁵ 

but who can stand before jealousy? ²⁶ 

Pengkhotbah 4:4

Labor Motivated by Envy

4:4 Then I considered ²⁷  all the skillful work ²⁸  that is done:

Surely it is nothing more than ²⁹  competition ³⁰  between one person and another. ³¹ 

This also is profitless – like ³²  chasing the wind.

Yehezkiel 16:44

16:44 “‘Observe – everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.”

Titus 3:3

3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

[31:8]  ¹ tn In the protasis (“if” section) of this conditional clause, the imperfect verbal form has a customary nuance – whatever he would say worked to Jacob’s benefit.

[31:8]  ² tn Heb “speckled” (twice this verse). The word “animals” (after the first occurrence of “speckled”) and “offspring” (after the second) have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The same two terms (“animals” and “offspring”) have been supplied after the two occurrences of “streaked” later in this verse.

[31:31]  ³ tn Now Job picks up the series of clauses serving as the protasis.

[31:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “the men of my tent.” In context this refers to members of Job’s household.

[31:31]  ⁵ sn The line is difficult to sort out. Job is saying it is sinful “if his men have never said, ‘O that there was one who has not been satisfied from his food.’” If they never said that, it would mean there were people out there who needed to be satisfied with his food.

[31:31]  ⁶ tn The optative is again expressed with “who will give?”

[31:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[57:4]  ⁸ tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (’eshkÿvah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).

[57:4]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).

[57:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”

[64:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[64:3]  ¹² tn Heb “a bitter word.”

[64:4]  ¹³ tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.

[64:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[120:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “What will he give to you, and what will he add to you, O tongue of deception?” The psalmist addresses his deceptive enemies. The Lord is the understood subject of the verbs “give” and “add.” The second part of the question echoes a standard curse formula, “thus the Lord/God will do … and thus he will add” (see Ruth 1:17; 1 Sam 3:17; 14:44; 20:13; 25:22; 2 Sam 3:9, 35; 19:13; 1 Kgs 2:23; 2 Kgs 6:31).

[120:4]  ¹⁶ tn The words “here’s how” are supplied in the translation as a clarification. In v. 4 the psalmist answers the question he raises in v. 3.

[120:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “with coals of the wood of the broom plant.” The wood of the broom plant was used to make charcoal, which in turn was used to fuel the fire used to forge the arrowheads.

[120:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “woe to me.” The Hebrew term אוֹיָה (’oyah, “woe”) which occurs only here, is an alternate form of אוֹי (’oy).

[120:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I live as a resident alien.”

[120:5]  ²⁰ sn Meshech was located in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). Kedar was located in the desert to east-southeast of Israel. Because of the reference to Kedar, it is possible that Ps 120:5 refers to a different Meshech, perhaps one associated with the individual mentioned as a descendant of Aram in 1 Chr 1:17. (However, the LXX in 1 Chr 1:17 follows the parallel text in Gen 10:23, which reads “Mash,” not Meshech.) It is, of course, impossible that the psalmist could have been living in both the far north and the east at the same time. For this reason one must assume that he is recalling his experience as a wanderer among the nations or that he is using the geographical terms metaphorically and sarcastically to suggest that the enemies who surround him are like the barbarians who live in these distant regions. For a discussion of the problem, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 146.

[14:30]  ²¹ tn Heb “heart of healing.” The genitive מַרְפֵּא (marpe’, “healing”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a healing heart.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) is a metonymy for the emotional state of a person (BDB 660 s.v. 6). A healthy spirit is tranquil, bringing peace to the body (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 158).

[14:30]  ²² tn Heb “life of the flesh” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NIV “gives life to the body.”

[14:30]  ²³ tn The term קִנְאָה (qin’ah, “envy”) refers to passionate zeal or “jealousy” (so NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT), depending on whether the object is out of bounds or within one’s rights. In the good sense one might be consumed with zeal to defend the institutions of the sanctuary. But as envy or jealousy the word describes an intense and sometimes violent excitement and desire that is never satisfied.

[14:30]  ²⁴ tn Heb “rottenness of bones.” The term “bones” may be a synecdoche representing the entire body; it is in contrast with “flesh” of the first colon. One who is consumed with envy finds no tranquility or general sense of health in body or spirit.

[27:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “fierceness of wrath and outpouring [= flood] of anger.” A number of English versions use “flood” here (e.g., NASB, NCV, NLT).

[27:4]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “jealousy” here probably has the negative sense of “envy” rather than the positive sense of “zeal.” It is a raging emotion (like “anger” and “wrath,” this word has nuances of heat, intensity) that defies reason at times and can be destructive like a consuming fire (e.g., 6:32-35; Song 8:6-7). The rhetorical question is intended to affirm that no one can survive a jealous rage. (Whether one is the subject who is jealous or the object of the jealousy of someone else is not so clear.)

[4:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “saw.”

[4:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “all the toil and all the skill.” This Hebrew clause (אֶת־כָּל־עָמָל וְאֵת כָּל־כִּשְׁרוֹן, ’et-kol-’amal vÿ’et kol-kishron) is a nominal hendiadys (a figurative expression in which two independent phrases are used to connote the same thing). The second functions adverbially, modifying the first, which retains its full nominal function: “all the skillful work.”

[4:4]  ²⁹ tn The phrase “nothing more than” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[4:4]  ³⁰ tn The noun קִנְאַה (qin’ah, “competition”) has a wide range of meanings: “zeal; jealousy; envy; rivalry; competition; suffering; animosity; anger; wrath” (HALOT 1110 s.v.; BDB 888 s.v.). Here, as in 9:6, it denotes “rivalry” (BDB 888 s.v. 1) or “competitive spirit” (HALOT 1110 s.v. 1.b). The LXX rendered it ζῆλος (zhlos, “envy; jealousy”). The English versions reflect this broad range: “rivalry” (NEB, NAB, NASB), “envy” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NRSV, MLB, NIV, NJPS), and “jealousy” (Moffatt).

[4:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “a man and his neighbor.”

[4:4]  ³² tn The word “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.