Keluaran 23:8

23:8 “You must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see ¹  and subverts the words of the righteous.

Ulangan 16:18-19

Provision for Justice

16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants ²  for each tribe in all your villages ³  that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. ⁴  16:19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort ⁵  the words of the righteous. ⁶ 

Ulangan 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ⁷  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ⁸  he ⁹  brought you out of Egypt by night.

1 Samuel 8:3

8:3 But his sons did not follow ¹⁰  his ways. Instead, they made money dishonestly, accepted bribes, and perverted justice. ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 12:3-4

12:3 Here I am. Bring a charge against me before the Lord and before his chosen king. ¹²  Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I wronged? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe so that I would overlook something? Tell me, ¹³  and I will return it to you!”

12:4 They replied, “You have not wronged us or oppressed us. You have not taken anything from the hand of anyone.”

Mazmur 26:9-10

26:9 Do not sweep me away ¹⁴  with sinners,

or execute me along with violent people, ¹⁵ 

26:10 who are always ready to do wrong ¹⁶ 

or offer a bribe. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 33:15

33:15 The one who lives ¹⁸  uprightly ¹⁹ 

and speaks honestly;

the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures

and rejects a bribe; ²⁰ 

the one who does not plot violent crimes ²¹ 

and does not seek to harm others ²²  –

Yehezkiel 22:12

22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ²³  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ²⁴  declares the sovereign Lord. ²⁵ 

Kisah Para Rasul 20:33

20:33 I have desired ²⁶  no one’s silver or gold or clothing.

Kisah Para Rasul 20:1

Paul Travels Through Macedonia and Greece

20:1 After the disturbance had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging ²⁷  them and saying farewell, ²⁸  he left to go to Macedonia. ²⁹ 

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.

Titus 1:9-11

1:9 He must hold firmly to the faithful message as it has been taught, ³⁰  so that he will be able to give exhortation in such healthy teaching ³¹  and correct those who speak against it.

1:10 For there are many ³²  rebellious people, idle talkers, and deceivers, especially those with Jewish connections, ³³  1:11 who must be silenced because they mislead whole families by teaching for dishonest gain what ought not to be taught.

Titus 1:2

1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the ages began. ³⁴ 

Pengkhotbah 2:14-15

2:14 The wise man can see where he is going, ³⁵  but the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I also realized that the same fate ³⁶  happens to them both. ³⁷ 

2:15 So I thought to myself, “The fate of the fool will happen even to me! ³⁸ 

Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively ³⁹  wise?” ⁴⁰ 

So I lamented to myself, ⁴¹ 

“The benefits of wisdom ⁴²  are ultimately ⁴³  meaningless!”

[23:8]  ¹ tn Heb “blinds the open-eyed.”

[16:18]  ² tn The Hebrew term וְשֹׁטְרִים (vÿshoterim), usually translated “officers” (KJV, NCV) or “officials” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), derives from the verb שֹׁטֵר (shoter, “to write”). The noun became generic for all types of public officials. Here, however, it may be appositionally epexegetical to “judges,” thus resulting in the phrase, “judges, that is, civil officers,” etc. Whoever the שֹׁטְרִים are, their task here consists of rendering judgments and administering justice.

[16:18]  ³ tn Heb “gates.”

[16:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

[16:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”

[16:19]  ⁶ tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”

[16:1]  ⁷ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[8:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “walk in” (also in v. 5).

[8:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they turned aside after unjust gain and took bribes and perverted justice.”

[12:3]  ¹² tn Heb “anointed [one].”

[12:3]  ¹³ tn The words “tell me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “do not gather up my life with.”

[26:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “or with men of bloodshed my life.” The verb is supplied; it is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[26:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “who [have] in their hands evil.”

[26:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and their right hand is full of a bribe.”

[33:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).

[33:15]  ¹⁹ tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”

[33:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”

[33:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”

[33:15]  ²² tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”

[22:12]  ²³ tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

[22:12]  ²⁴ sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

[22:12]  ²⁵ tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.

[20:33]  ²⁶ tn Traditionally, “coveted.” BDAG 371 s.v. ἐπιθυμέω 1 has “to have a strong desire to do or secure someth., desire, long for w. gen. of the thing desired…silver, gold, clothing Ac 20:33.” The traditional term “covet” is not in common usage and difficult for many modern English readers to understand. The statement affirms Paul’s integrity. He was not doing this for personal financial gain.

[20:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “exhorting.”

[20:1]  ²⁸ tn Or “and taking leave of them.”

[20:1]  ²⁹ sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.

[1:9]  ³⁰ tn Grk “the faithful message in accordance with the teaching” (referring to apostolic teaching).

[1:9]  ³¹ tn Grk “the healthy teaching” (referring to what was just mentioned).

[1:10]  ³² tc ‡ The earliest and best mss lack καί (kai) after πολλοί (polloi; so א A C P 088 81 104 365 614 629 630 al sy co), though the conjunction is found in several significant witnesses, chiefly of the Western and Byzantine texts (D F G I Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï lat). Although it is possible that some scribes omitted the word, thinking it was superfluous, it is also possible that others added the conjunction for clarification. Judging by the pedigree of the witnesses and the inconclusiveness of the internal evidence, the shorter reading is considered to be most likely original. NA²⁷ puts the conjunction in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[1:10]  ³³ tn Grk “those of the circumcision.” Some translations take this to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity (cf. NAB “Jewish Christians”; TEV “converts from Judaism”; CEV “Jewish followers”) while others are less clear (cf. NLT “those who insist on circumcision for salvation”).

[1:2]  ³⁴ tn Grk “before eternal ages.”

[2:14]  ³⁵ tn Heb “has his eyes in his head.” The term עַיִן (’ayin, “eye”) is used figuratively in reference to mental and spiritual faculties (BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.a). The term “eye” is a metonymy of cause (eye) for effect (sight and perception).

[2:14]  ³⁶ sn The common fate to which Qoheleth refers is death.

[2:14]  ³⁷ tn The term כֻּלָּם (kullam, “all of them”) denotes “both of them.” This is an example of synecdoche of general (“all of them”) for the specific (“both of them,” that is, both the wise man and the fool).

[2:15]  ³⁸ tn The emphatic use of the 1st person common singular personal pronoun אֲנִי (’ani, “me”) with the emphatic particle of association גַּם (gam, “even, as well as”; HALOT 195–96 s.v. גַּם) appears to emphasize the 1st person common singular suffix on יִקְרֵנִי (yiqreni) “it will befall [or “happen to”] me” (Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine singular + 1st person common singular suffix from קָרָה, qarah, “to befall; to happen to”); see GKC 438 §135.e. Qoheleth laments not that the fate of the wise man is the same as that of the fool, but that even he himself – the wisest man of all – would fare no better in the end than the most foolish.

[2:15]  ³⁹ tn The adjective יוֹתֵר (yoter) means “too much; excessive,” e.g., 7:16 “excessively righteous” (HALOT 404 s.v. יוֹתֵר 2; BDB 452 s.v. יוֹתֵר). It is derived from the root יֶתֶר (yeter, “what is left over”); see HALOT 452 s.v. I יֶתֶר. It is related to the verbal root יתר (Niphal “to be left over”; Hiphil “to have left over”); see HALOT 451–52 s.v. I יתר. The adjective is related to יִתְרוֹן (yitron, “advantage; profit”) which is a key-term in this section, creating a word-play: The wise man has a relative “advantage” (יִתְרוֹן) over the fool (2:13-14a); however, there is no ultimate advantage because both share the same fate, i.e., death (2:14b-15a). Thus, Qoheleth’s acquisition of tremendous wisdom (1:16; 2:9) was “excessive” because it exceeded its relative advantage over folly: it could not deliver him from the same fate as the fool. He had striven to obtain wisdom, yet it held no ultimate advantage.

[2:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “And why was I wise (to) excess?” The rhetorical question is an example of negative affirmation, expecting a negative answer: “I gained nothing!” (E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 949).

[2:15]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “So I said in my heart.”

[2:15]  ⁴² tn Heb “and also this,” referring to the relative advantage of wisdom over folly.

[2:15]  ⁴³ tn The word “ultimately” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.