Ayub 34:31-32

Job Is Foolish to Rebel

34:31 “Has anyone said to God,

‘I have endured chastisement, ¹ 

but I will not act wrongly any more.

34:32 Teach me what I cannot see. ² 

If I have done evil, I will do so no more.’

Amsal 16:6

16:6 Through loyal love and truth ³  iniquity is appeased; ⁴ 

through fearing the Lord ⁵  one avoids ⁶  evil. ⁷ 

Amsal 28:13

28:13 The one who covers ⁸  his transgressions will not prosper, ⁹ 

but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 55:6-7

55:6 Seek the Lord while he makes himself available; ¹¹ 

call to him while he is nearby!

55:7 The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle ¹² 

and sinful people their plans. ¹³ 

They should return ¹⁴  to the Lord, and he will show mercy to them, ¹⁵ 

and to their God, for he will freely forgive them. ¹⁶ 

Yehezkiel 18:21

18:21 “But if the wicked person turns from all the sin he has committed and observes all my statutes and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.

Yehezkiel 18:27-32

18:27 When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life. 18:28 Because he considered ¹⁷  and turned from all the sins he had done, he will surely live; he will not die. 18:29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The Lord’s conduct is unjust!’ Is my conduct unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your conduct that is unjust?

18:30 “Therefore I will judge each person according to his conduct, ¹⁸  O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent ¹⁹  and turn from all your wickedness; then it will not be an obstacle leading to iniquity. ²⁰  18:31 Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! ²¹  Why should you die, O house of Israel? 18:32 For I take no delight in the death of anyone, ²²  declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live!

Matius 3:8

3:8 Therefore produce fruit ²³  that proves your ²⁴  repentance,

Kisah Para Rasul 8:22

8:22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord ²⁵  that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart. ²⁶ 

Kisah Para Rasul 26:20

26:20 but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, ²⁷  and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, ²⁸  performing deeds consistent with ²⁹  repentance.

Yakobus 4:8-10

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. ³⁰  4:9 Grieve, mourn, ³¹  and weep. Turn your laughter ³²  into mourning and your joy into despair. 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

Yakobus 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ³³  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ³⁴  from your passions that battle inside you? ³⁵ 

Pengkhotbah 4:8

4:8 A man who is all alone with no companion, ³⁶ 

he has no children nor siblings; ³⁷ 

yet there is no end to all his toil,

and he ³⁸  is never satisfied with riches.

He laments, ³⁹  “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself ⁴⁰  of pleasure?” ⁴¹ 

This also is futile and a burdensome task! ⁴² 

[34:31]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text has only “I lift up” or “I bear” (= I endure). The reading “I have been led astray” is obtained by changing the vowels to read a passive. If the MT is retained, an object has to be supplied, such as “chastisement” (so RSV, NASB) or “punishment” (NRSV). If not, then a different reading would be followed (e.g., “I was misguided” [NAB]; “I am guilty” [NIV]).

[34:32]  ² tn Heb “what I do not see,” more specifically, “apart from [that which] I see.”

[16:6]  ³ sn These two words are often found together to form a nominal hendiadys: “faithful loyal love.” The couplet often characterize the Lord, but here in parallel to the fear of the Lord it refers to the faithfulness of the believer. Such faith and faithfulness bring atonement for sin.

[16:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “is atoned”; KJV “is purged”; NAB “is expiated.” The verb is from I כָּפַר (kafar, “to atone; to expiate; to pacify; to appease”; HALOT 493-94 s.v. I כפר). This root should not be confused with the identically spelled Homonym II כָּפַר (kafar, “to cover over”; HALOT 494 s.v. II *כפר). Atonement in the OT expiated sins, it did not merely cover them over (cf. NLT). C. H. Toy explains the meaning by saying it affirms that the divine anger against sin is turned away and man’s relation to God is as though he had not sinned (Proverbs [ICC], 322). Genuine repentance, demonstrated by loyalty and truthfulness, appeases the anger of God against one’s sin.

[16:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “fear of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as an objective genitive: “fearing the Lord.”

[16:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “turns away from”; NASB “keeps away from.”

[16:6]  ⁷ sn The Hebrew word translated “evil” (רַע, ra’) can in some contexts mean “calamity” or “disaster,” but here it seems more likely to mean “evil” in the sense of sin. Faithfulness to the Lord brings freedom from sin. The verse uses synonymous parallelism with a variant: One half speaks of atonement for sin because of the life of faith, and the other of avoidance of sin because of the fear of the Lord.

[28:13]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew participles provide the subject matter in this contrast. On the one hand is the person who covers over (מְכַסֶּה, mÿkhasseh) his sins. This means refusing to acknowledge them in confession, and perhaps rationalizing them away. On the other hand there is the one who both “confesses” (מוֹדֶה, modeh) and “forsakes” (עֹזֵב, ’ozev) the sin. To “confess” sins means to acknowledge them, to say the same thing about them that God does.

[28:13]  ⁹ sn The verse contrasts the consequences of each. The person who refuses to confess will not prosper. This is an understatement (a figure of speech known as tapeinosis); the opposite is the truth, that eventually such a person will be undone and ruined. On the other hand, the penitent will find mercy. This expression is a metonymy of cause for the effect – although “mercy” is mentioned, what mercy provides is intended, i.e., forgiveness. In other passages the verb “conceal” is used of God’s forgiveness – he covers over the iniquity (Ps 32:1). Whoever acknowledges sin, God will cover it; whoever covers it, God will lay it open.

[28:13]  ¹⁰ sn This verse is unique in the book of Proverbs; it captures the theology of forgiveness (e.g., Pss 32 and 51). Every part of the passage is essential to the point: Confession of sins as opposed to concealing them, coupled with a turning away from them, results in mercy.

[55:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “while he allows himself to be found.” The Niphal form has a tolerative force here.

[55:7]  ¹² tn Heb “Let the wicked one abandon his way.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the man of evil his thoughts.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “let him return.” The singular is collective, meaning “let them.”

[55:7]  ¹⁵ tn The imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive after the jussive indicates purpose/result.

[55:7]  ¹⁶ sn The appeal and promise of vv. 6-7 echoes the language of Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-10; and 1 Kgs 8:46-53, all of which anticipate the exile and speak of the prerequisites for restoration.

[18:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he saw.”

[18:30]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “ways.”

[18:30]  ¹⁹ tn The verbs and persons in this verse are plural whereas the individual has been the subject of the chapter.

[18:30]  ²⁰ tn Or “leading to punishment.”

[18:31]  ²¹ sn In Ezek 11:19, 36:26 the new heart and new spirit are promised as future blessings.

[18:32]  ²² tn Heb “the death of the one dying.”

[3:8]  ²³ sn Fruit worthy of repentance refers to the deeds that indicate a change of attitude (heart) on the part of John’s hearers.

[3:8]  ²⁴ tn Grk “fruit worthy of.”

[8:22]  ²⁵ tn Or “and implore the Lord.”

[8:22]  ²⁶ tn Grk “that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.” The passive construction is somewhat awkward in contemporary English and has thus been converted to an active construction in the translation.

[26:20]  ²⁷ tn BDAG 1093-94 s.v. χώρα 2.b states, “of the provincial name (1 Macc 8:3) ἡ χώρα τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας Ac 26:20.”

[26:20]  ²⁸ sn That they should repent and turn to God. This is the shortest summary of Paul’s message that he preached.

[26:20]  ²⁹ tn BDAG 93 s.v. ἄξιος 1.b, “καρποὶ ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας fruits in keeping with your repentance…Lk 3:8; Mt 3:8. For this ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα Ac 26:20.” Note how Paul preached the gospel offer and the issue of response together, side by side.

[4:8]  ³⁰ tn Or “two-minded” (the same description used in 1:8).

[4:9]  ³¹ tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[4:9]  ³² tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”

[4:1]  ³³ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ³⁴ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ³⁵ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[4:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “There is one and there is not a second.”

[4:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “son nor brother.” The terms “son” and “brother” are examples of synecdoche of specific (species) for the general (genus). The term “son” is put for offspring, and “brother” for siblings (e.g., Prov 10:1).

[4:8]  ³⁸ tn Heb “his eye.” The term “eye” is a synecdoche of part (i.e., the eye) for the whole (i.e., the whole person); see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 647.

[4:8]  ³⁹ tn The phrase “he laments” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity. The direct discourse (“For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?”) is not introduced with an introductory structure. As in the LXX, some translations suggest that these words are spoken by a lonely workaholic, e.g., “He says…” (NAB, NEB, ASV, NIV, NRSV). Others suggest that this is a question that he never asks himself, e.g., “Yet he never asks himself…” (KJV, RSV, MLB, YLT, Douay, NASB, Moffatt).

[4:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “my soul.”

[4:8]  ⁴¹ tn This rhetorical question is an example of negative affirmation, that is, it expects a negative answer: “No one!” (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 949-51).

[4:8]  ⁴² tn The adjective רָע (ra’, “evil”) here means “misfortune” (HALOT 1263 s.v. רָעָה 4) or “injustice, wrong” (HALOT 1262 s.v. רָעָה 2.b). The phrase עִנְיַן רָע (’inyan ra’, “unhappy business; rotten business; grievous task”) is used only in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:23, 26; 3:10; 4:8; 5:2, 13; 8:16). It is parallel with הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile”) in 4:8, and describes a “grave misfortune” in 5:13. The noun עִנְיַן (’inyan, “business”) refers to something that keeps a person occupied or busy: “business; affair; task; occupation” (HALOT 857 s.v. עִנְיָן; BDB 775 s.v. עִנְיָן). The related verb עָנָה (’anah) means “to be occupied; to be busy with (בְּ, bet),” e.g., Eccl 1:13; 3:10; 5:19 (HALOT 854 s.v. III עָנָה; BDB 775 s.v. II עָנָה). The noun is from the Aramaic loanword עִנְיָנָא (’inyana’, “concern; care.” The verb is related to the Aramaic verb “to try hard,” the Arabic verb “to be busily occupied; to worry; to be a matter of concern,” and the Old South Arabic root “to be troubled; to strive with” (HALOT 854 s.v. III ענה). HALOT 857 s.v. עִנְיָן renders the phrase as “unhappy business” here. The phrase עִנְיַן רָע, is treated creatively by English versions: KJV, ASV “sore travail”; YLT “sad travail”; Douay “grievous vexation”; RSV, NRSV, NJPS “unhappy business”; NEB, Moffatt “sorry business”; NIV “miserable business”; NAB “worthless task”; NASB “grievous task”; MLB “sorry situation”; NLT “depressing.”