Ayub 33:12

33:12 Now in this, you are not right – I answer you, ¹ 

for God is greater than a human being. ² 

Ayub 35:5-7

35:5 Gaze at the heavens and see;

consider the clouds, which are higher than you! ³ 

35:6 If you sin, how does it affect God? ⁴ 

If your transgressions are many,

what does it do to him? ⁵ 

35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God,

or what does he receive from your hand?

Bilangan 23:19

23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,

nor a human being, ⁶  that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? ⁷ 

Bilangan 23:1

Balaam Blesses Israel

23:1 ⁸ Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

1 Samuel 16:7

16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t be impressed by ⁹  his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do. ¹⁰  People look on the outward appearance, ¹¹  but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Pengkhotbah 6:10

The Futile Way Life Works

6:10 Whatever has happened was foreordained, ¹² 

and what happens to a person ¹³  was also foreknown.

It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate

because God is more powerful than he is. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 45:9

The Lord Gives a Warning

45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ¹⁵ 

one who is like a mere ¹⁶  shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter, ¹⁷ 

“What in the world ¹⁸  are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!” ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 49:19

49:19 “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan ²⁰ 

scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. ²¹ 

So too I will chase the Edomites off their land. ²² 

Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. ²³ 

For there is no one like me, and there is no one who can call me to account. ²⁴ 

There is no ²⁵  ruler ²⁶  who can stand up against me.

Roma 9:20

9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being ²⁷  – to talk back to God? ²⁸  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ²⁹ 

Roma 9:1

Israel’s Rejection Considered

9:1 ³⁰ I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me ³¹  in the Holy Spirit –

Yohanes 3:20

3:20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

[33:12]  ¹ tn The meaning of this verb is “this is my answer to you.”

[33:12]  ² tc The LXX has “he that is above men is eternal.” Elihu is saying that God is far above Job’s petty problems.

[35:5]  ³ tn The preposition is taken here as a comparative min (מִן). The line could also read “that are high above you.” This idea has appeared in the speech of Eliphaz (22:12), Zophar (11:7ff.), and even Job (9:8ff.).

[35:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “him” (also in v. 7); the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[35:6]  ⁵ tn See Job 7:20.

[23:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “son of man.”

[23:19]  ⁷ tn The verb is the Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “to cause to rise; to make stand”). The meaning here is more of the sense of fulfilling the promises made.

[23:1]  ⁸ sn The first part of Balaam’s activity ends in disaster for Balak – he blesses Israel. The chapter falls into four units: the first prophecy (vv. 1-10), the relocation (vv. 11-17), the second prophecy (vv. 18-24), and a further location (vv. 25-30).

[16:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “don’t look toward.”

[16:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for not that which the man sees.” The translation follows the LXX, which reads, “for not as man sees does God see.” The MT has suffered from homoioteleuton or homoioarcton. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 274.

[16:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to the eyes.”

[6:10]  ¹² tn Heb “already its name was called.”

[6:10]  ¹³ tn Or “and what a person (Heb “man”) is was foreknown.”

[6:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he cannot contend with the one who is more powerful than him.” The referent of the “the one who is more powerful than he is” (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The words “with God about his fate” have been added for clarity as well.

[45:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”

[45:9]  ¹⁶ tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[45:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”

[45:9]  ¹⁸ tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.

[45:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your work, there are no hands for it,” i.e., “your work looks like something made by a person who has no hands.”

[49:19]  ²⁰ tn See the study note on Jer 12:5 for the rendering of this term.

[49:19]  ²¹ tn “The pasture-ground on the everflowing river” according to KBL 42 s.v. I אֵיתָן 1. The “everflowing river” refers to the Jordan.

[49:19]  ²² tn Heb “Behold, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan into the pastureland of everflowing water so [reading כֵּן (ken) for כִּי (ki); or “indeed” (reading כִּי as an asseverative particle with J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 719, n. 6)] I will suddenly chase him [Edom] from upon it [the land].” The sentence has been restructured to better conform with contemporary English style and the significance of the simile drawn from the comparison has been spelled out for the sake of clarity. The form אַרְגִּיעָה (’argi’ah) is functioning here as an adverbial modifier in a verbal hendiadys (cf. GKC 386 §120.g).

[49:19]  ²³ tn For the use of the interrogative מִי (mi) in the sense of “whoever” and functioning like an adjective see BDB 567 s.v. מִי g and compare the usage in Prov 9:4, 16.

[49:19]  ²⁴ tn For the meaning of this verb in the sense of “arraign” or “call before the bar of justice” compare Job 9:19 and see BDB 417 s.v. יָעַד Hiph.

[49:19]  ²⁵ tn The interrogative מִי (mi) is rendered “there is no one” in each of the last three occurrences in this verse because it is used in a rhetorical question that expects the answer “no one” or “none” and is according to BDB 566 s.v. מִי f(c) equivalent to a rhetorical negative.

[49:19]  ²⁶ tn The word “shepherd” (רֹעֶה, ro’eh) has been used often in the book of Jeremiah to refer metaphorically to the ruler or leader (cf. BDB 945 s.v. I רָעָה Qal.1.d(2) and compare usage, e.g., in Jer 2:8; 23:1).

[9:20]  ²⁷ tn Grk “O man.”

[9:20]  ²⁸ tn Grk “On the contrary, O man, who are you to talk back to God?”

[9:20]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9.

[9:1]  ³⁰ sn Rom 9:1–11:36. These three chapters are among the most difficult and disputed in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. One area of difficulty is the relationship between Israel and the church, especially concerning the nature and extent of Israel’s election. Many different models have been constructed to express this relationship. For a representative survey, see M. Barth, The People of God (JSNTSup), 22-27. The literary genre of these three chapters has been frequently identified as a diatribe, a philosophical discussion or conversation evolved by the Cynic and Stoic schools of philosophy as a means of popularizing their ideas (E. Käsemann, Romans, 261 and 267). But other recent scholars have challenged the idea that Rom 9–11 is characterized by diatribe. Scholars like R. Scroggs and E. E. Ellis have instead identified the material in question as midrash. For a summary and discussion of the rabbinic connections, see W. R. Stegner, “Romans 9.6-29 – A Midrash,” JSNT 22 (1984): 37-52.

[9:1]  ³¹ tn Or “my conscience bears witness to me.”