[5:14] 1 tn The expression כִּמְעַט (kim’at) is “like a little.” It means “almost,” and is used of unrealized action (BDB 590 s.v. 2). Cf. NCV “I came close to”; NLT “I have come to the brink of.”
[5:14] 2 tn Heb “I was in all evil” (cf. KJV, ASV).
[5:14] 3 tn The text uses the two words “congregation and assembly” to form a hendiadys, meaning the entire assembly.
[14:23] 4 sn The Hebrew term עֶצֶב (’etsev, “painful toil; labor”) is first used in scripture in Gen 3:19 to describe the effects of the Fall. The point here is that people should be more afraid of idle talk than of hard labor.
[14:23] 5 tn Heb “word of lips.” This construct phrase features a genitive of source (“a word from the lips”) or a subjective genitive (“speaking a word”). Talk without work (which produces nothing) is contrasted with labor that produces something.
[14:23] 6 tn The term “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.
[14:23] 7 sn The noun מַחְסוֹר (makhsor, “need; thing needed; poverty”) comes from the verb “to lack; to be lacking; to decrease; to need.” A person given to idle talk rather than industrious work will have needs that go unmet.
