Amsal 3:7

3:7 Do not be wise in your own estimation; ¹ 

fear the Lord and turn away from evil. ² 

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 16:17

16:17 The highway ⁸  of the upright is to turn ⁹  away from evil;

the one who guards ¹⁰  his way safeguards his life. ¹¹ 

Ayub 28:28

28:28 And he said to mankind,

‘The fear of the Lord ¹²  – that is wisdom,

and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” ¹³ 

Mazmur 34:14

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! ¹⁴ 

Strive for peace and promote it! ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 37:27

37:27 Turn away from evil! Do what is right! ¹⁶ 

Then you will enjoy lasting security. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 37:2

37:2 For they will quickly dry up like grass,

and wither away like plants. ¹⁸ 

Titus 2:1

Conduct Consistent with Sound Teaching

2:1 But as for you, communicate the behavior that goes with ¹⁹  sound teaching.

[3:7]  ¹ tn Heb “in your own eyes” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.”

[3:7]  ² sn The second colon clarifies the first. If one fears the Lord and turns away from evil, then he is depending on the Lord and not wise in his own eyes. There is a higher source of wisdom than human insight.

[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.

[16:17]  ⁸ sn The point of righteous living is made with the image of a highway, a raised and well-graded road (a hypocatastasis, implying a comparison between a highway and the right way of living).

[16:17]  ⁹ tn The form סוּר (sur) is a Qal infinitive; it indicates that a purpose of the righteous life is to turn away from evil. “Evil” here has the sense of sinful living. So the first line asserts that the well-cared-for life avoids sin.

[16:17]  ¹⁰ sn The second half of the verse uses two different words for “guard”; this one is נֹצֵר (notser) “the one who guards his way,” and the first is שֹׁמֵר (shomer) “the one who guards his life” (the order of the words is reversed in the translation). The second colon then explains further the first (synthetic parallelism), because to guard one’s way preserves life.

[16:17]  ¹¹ tc The LXX adds three lines after 17a and one after 17b: “The paths of life turn aside from evils, and the ways of righteousness are length of life; he who receives instruction will be prosperous, and he who regards reproofs will be made wise; he who guards his ways preserves his soul, and he who loves his life will spare his mouth.”

[28:28]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.”

[34:14]  ¹⁴ tn Or “do good.”

[34:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

[37:27]  ¹⁶ tn Or “Do good!” The imperatives are singular (see v. 1).

[37:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and dwell permanently.” The imperative with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause after the preceding imperatives.

[37:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “like green vegetation.”

[2:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “say what is fitting for sound teaching” (introducing the behavior called for in this chapter.).