Ulangan 32:6

32:6 Is this how you repay ¹  the Lord,

you foolish, unwise people?

Is he not your father, your creator?

He has made you and established you.

Ayub 28:28

28:28 And he said to mankind,

‘The fear of the Lord ²  – that is wisdom,

and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” ³ 

Mazmur 81:12

81:12 I gave them over to their stubborn desires; ⁴ 

they did what seemed right to them. ⁵ 

Amsal 1:7

Introduction to the Theme of the Book

1:7 Fearing the Lord ⁶  is the beginning ⁷  of moral knowledge, ⁸ 

but ⁹  fools ¹⁰  despise ¹¹  wisdom and instruction. ¹² 

Yesaya 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ¹³  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ¹⁴ 

For these people lack understanding, ¹⁵ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Yesaya 29:14

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed. ¹⁶ 

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.” ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 4:22

4:22 The Lord answered, ¹⁸ 

“This will happen ¹⁹  because my people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are like children who have no sense. ²⁰ 

They have no understanding.

They are skilled at doing evil.

They do not know how to do good.”

Yeremia 8:9

8:9 Your wise men will be put to shame.

They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. ²¹ 

Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,

what wisdom do they really have?

Hosea 4:6

4:6 You have destroyed ²²  my people

by failing to acknowledge me!

Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ²³ 

I will reject you as my priests.

Because you reject ²⁴  the law of your God,

I will reject ²⁵  your descendants.

Matius 13:14-15

13:14 And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

‘You will listen carefully ²⁶  yet will never understand,

you will look closely ²⁷  yet will never comprehend.

13:15 For the heart of this people has become dull;

they are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes,

so that they would not see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’ ²⁸ 

Roma 11:25

11:25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, ²⁹  so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel ³⁰  until the full number ³¹  of the Gentiles has come in.

Roma 11:1

Israel’s Rejection not Complete nor Final

11:1 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

Kolose 3:19

3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.

[32:6]  ¹ tn Or “treat” (TEV).

[28:28]  ² tc A number of medieval Hebrew manuscripts have YHWH (“Lord”); BHS has אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”). As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 383) points out, this is the only occurrence of אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”) in the book of Job, creating doubt for retaining it. Normally, YHWH is avoided in the book. “Fear of” (יִרְאַת, yir’at) is followed by שַׁדַּי (shadday, “Almighty”) in 6:14 – the only other occurrence of this term for “fear” in construct with a divine title.

[28:28]  ³ tc Many commentators delete this verse because (1) many read the divine name Yahweh (translated “Lord”) here, and (2) it is not consistent with the argument that precedes it. But as H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 185) points out, there is inconsistency in this reasoning, for many of the critics have already said that this chapter is an interpolation. Following that line of thought, then, one would not expect it to conform to the rest of the book in this matter of the divine name. And concerning the second difficulty, the point of this chapter is that wisdom is beyond human comprehension and control. It belongs to God alone. So the conclusion that the fear of the Lord is wisdom is the necessary conclusion. Rowley concludes: “It is a pity to rob the poem of its climax and turn it into the expression of unrelieved agnosticism.”

[81:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “and I sent him away in the stubbornness of their heart.”

[81:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “they walked in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite (“walked”) or a customary imperfect (“were walking”).

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “fear of the Lord.” The expression יְהוָה יִרְאַת (yir’at yÿhvah, “fear of Yahweh”) is a genitive-construct in which יְהוָה (“the Lord”) functions as an objective genitive: He is the object of fear. The term יָרַא (yara’) is the common word for fear in the OT and has a basic three-fold range of meanings: (1) “dread; terror” (Deut 1:29; Jonah 1:10), (2) “to stand in awe” (1 Kgs 3:28), (3) “to revere; to respect” (Lev 19:3). With the Lord as the object, it captures the polar opposites of shrinking back in fear and drawing close in awe and adoration. Both categories of meaning appear in Exod 20:20 (where the Lord descended upon Sinai amidst geophysical convulsions); Moses encouraged the Israelites to not be afraid of God arbitrarily striking them dead for no reason (“Do not fear!”) but informed the people that the Lord revealed himself in such a terrifying manner to scare them from sinning (“God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him in you so that you do not sin”). The fear of the Lord is expressed in reverential submission to his will – the characteristic of true worship. The fear of the Lord is the foundation for wisdom (9:10) and the discipline leading to wisdom (15:33). It is expressed in hatred of evil (8:13) and avoidance of sin (16:6), and so results in prolonged life (10:27; 19:23).

[1:7]  ⁷ tn The noun רֵאשִׁית (re’shit) has a two-fold range of meaning (BDB 912 s.v.): (1) “beginning” = first step in a course of action (e.g., Ps 111:10; Prov 17:14; Mic 1:13) or (2) “chief thing” as the principal aspect of something (e.g., Prov 4:7). So fearing the Lord is either (1) the first step in acquiring moral knowledge or (2) the most important aspect of moral knowledge. The first option is preferred because 1:2-6 focuses on the acquisition of wisdom.

[1:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “knowledge.” The noun דָּעַת (da’at, “knowledge”) refers to experiential knowledge, not just cognitive knowledge, including the intellectual assimilation and practical application (BDB 394 s.v.). It is used in parallelism to מוּסָר (musar, “instruction, discipline”) and חָכְמָה (khokhmah, “wisdom, moral skill”).

[1:7]  ⁹ tn The conjunction “but” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the antithetical parallelism. It is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tn The term אֱוִיל (’evil, “fool”) refers to a person characterized by moral folly (BDB 17 s.v.). Fools lack understanding (10:21), do not store up knowledge (10:14), fail to attain wisdom (24:7), and refuse correction (15:5; 27:22). They are arrogant (26:5), talk loosely (14:3) and are contentious (20:3). They might have mental intelligence but they are morally foolish. In sum, they are stubborn and “thick-brained” (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 6).

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn The verb of בָּזָה (bazah, “despise”) means to treat things of value with contempt, as if they were worthless (BDB 102 s.v.). The classic example is Esau who despised his birthright and sold it for lentil stew (Gen 25:34). The perfect tense of this verb may be classified as characteristic perfect (what they have done and currently do) or gnomic perfect (what they always do in past, present and future). The latter is preferred; this describes a trait of fools, and elsewhere the book says that fools do not change.

[1:7]  ¹² sn Hebrew word order is emphatic here. Normal word order is: verb + subject + direct object. Here it is: direct object + subject + verb (“wisdom and instruction fools despise”).

[27:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[29:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.

[29:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”

[4:22]  ¹⁸ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

[4:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

[4:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

[8:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “be trapped.” However, the word “trapped” generally carries with it the connotation of divine judgment. See BDB 540 s.v. לָכַד Niph.2, and compare usage in Jer 6:11 for support. The verbs in the first two lines are again the form of the Hebrew verb that emphasizes that the action is as good as done (Hebrew prophetic perfects).

[4:6]  ²² tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[4:6]  ²³ tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”

[4:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”

[4:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”

[13:14]  ²⁶ tn Grk “with hearing,” a cognate dative that intensifies the action of the main verb “you will listen” (ExSyn 168-69).

[13:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “look by looking.” The participle is redundant, functioning to intensify the force of the main verb.

[13:15]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.

[11:25]  ²⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[11:25]  ³⁰ tn Or “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.”

[11:25]  ³¹ tn Grk “fullness.”