1 Samuel 27:1-12 
Context27:1 David thought to himself, 1 “One of these days I’m going to be swept away by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me through all the territory of Israel and I will escape from his hand.”
27:2 So David left and crossed over to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath accompanied by his six hundred men. 27:3 David settled with Achish in Gath, along with his men and their families. 2 David had with him his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the Carmelite, Nabal’s widow. 27:4 When Saul learned that David had fled to Gath, he did not mount a new search for him.
27:5 David said to Achish, “If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?” 27:6 So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (For that reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this very day.) 27:7 The length of time 3 that David lived in the Philistine countryside was a year 4 and four months.
27:8 Then David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (They had been living in that land for a long time, from the approach 5 to Shur as far as the land of Egypt.) 27:9 When David would attack a district, 6 he would leave neither man nor woman alive. He would take sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing and would then go back to Achish. 27:10 When Achish would ask, “Where 7 did you raid today?” David would say, “The Negev of Judah” or “The Negev of Jeharmeel” or “The Negev of the Kenites.” 27:11 Neither man nor woman would David leave alive so as to bring them back to Gath. He was thinking, “This way they can’t tell on us, saying, ‘This is what David did.’” Such was his practice the entire time 8 that he lived in the country of the Philistines. 27:12 So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself, 9 “He is really hated 10 among his own people in 11 Israel! From now on 12 he will be my servant.”
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Context8:1 With regard to food sacrificed to idols, we know that “we all have knowledge.” 13 Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 8:2 If someone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know to the degree that he needs to know. 8:3 But if someone loves God, he 14 is known by God. 15
8:4 With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.” 16 8:5 If after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live. 17
8:7 But this knowledge is not shared by all. And some, by being accustomed to idols in former times, eat this food as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, because it is weak, is defiled. 8:8 Now food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. 8:9 But be careful that this liberty of yours does not become a hindrance to the weak. 8:10 For if someone weak sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience be “strengthened” 18 to eat food offered to idols? 8:11 So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister, 19 for whom Christ died, is destroyed. 20 8:12 If you sin against your brothers or sisters 21 in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 8:13 For this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause one of them 22 to sin.
Ezekiel 6:1-14
Context6:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 6:2 “Son of man, turn toward 23 the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them: 6:3 Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, 24 Hear the word of the sovereign Lord! 25 This is what the sovereign Lord says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am bringing 26 a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. 27 6:4 Your altars will be ruined and your incense altars will be broken. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. 28 6:5 I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, 29 and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6:6 In all your dwellings, the cities will be laid waste and the high places ruined so that your altars will be laid waste and ruined, your idols will be shattered and demolished, your incense altars will be broken down, and your works wiped out. 30 6:7 The slain will fall among you and then you will know that I am the Lord. 31
6:8 “‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands. 32 6:9 Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are exiled. They will realize 33 how I was crushed by their unfaithful 34 heart which turned from me and by their eyes which lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves 35 because of the evil they have done and because of all their abominable practices. 6:10 They will know that I am the Lord; my threats to bring this catastrophe on them were not empty.’ 36
6:11 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and say, “Ah!” because of all the evil, abominable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine, and pestilence. 37 6:12 The one far away will die by pestilence, the one close by will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and has escaped these 38 will die by famine. I will fully vent my rage against them. 6:13 Then you will know that I am the Lord – when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, 39 the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols. 6:14 I will stretch out my hand against them 40 and make the land a desolate waste from the wilderness to Riblah, 41 in all the places where they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”
Psalms 44:1-26
ContextFor the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song. 43
44:1 O God, we have clearly heard; 44
our ancestors 45 have told us
what you did 46 in their days,
in ancient times. 47
44:2 You, by your power, 48 defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; 49
you crushed 50 the people living there 51 and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. 52
44:3 For they did not conquer 53 the land by their swords,
and they did not prevail by their strength, 54
but rather by your power, 55 strength 56 and good favor, 57
for you were partial to 58 them.
44:4 You are my 59 king, O God!
Decree 60 Jacob’s 61 deliverance!
44:5 By your power 62 we will drive back 63 our enemies;
by your strength 64 we will trample down 65 our foes! 66
44:6 For I do not trust in my bow,
and I do not prevail by my sword.
44:7 For you deliver 67 us from our enemies;
you humiliate 68 those who hate us.
44:8 In God I boast all day long,
and we will continually give thanks to your name. (Selah)
44:9 But 69 you rejected and embarrassed us!
You did not go into battle with our armies. 70
44:10 You made us retreat 71 from the enemy.
Those who hate us take whatever they want from us. 72
44:11 You handed us 73 over like sheep to be eaten;
you scattered us among the nations.
44:12 You sold 74 your people for a pittance; 75
you did not ask a high price for them. 76
44:13 You made us 77 an object of disdain to our neighbors;
those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. 78
44:14 You made us 79 an object of ridicule 80 among the nations;
foreigners treat us with contempt. 81
44:15 All day long I feel humiliated 82
and am overwhelmed with shame, 83
44:16 before the vindictive enemy
who ridicules and insults me. 84
44:17 All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you 85
or violated your covenant with us. 86
44:18 We have not been unfaithful, 87
nor have we disobeyed your commands. 88
44:19 Yet you have battered us, leaving us a heap of ruins overrun by wild dogs; 89
you have covered us with darkness. 90
44:20 If we had rejected our God, 91
and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, 92
44:21 would not God discover it,
for he knows 93 one’s thoughts? 94
44:22 Yet because of you 95 we are killed all day long;
we are treated like 96 sheep at the slaughtering block. 97
44:23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Wake up! 98 Do not reject us forever!
44:24 Why do you look the other way, 99
and ignore 100 the way we are oppressed and mistreated? 101
44:25 For we lie in the dirt,
with our bellies pressed to the ground. 102
44:26 Rise up and help us!
Rescue us 103 because of your loyal love!
1 tn Heb “said to his heart.”
2 tn Heb “a man and his house.”
3 tn Heb “the number of the days.”
4 tn Heb “days.” The plural of the word “day” is sometimes used idiomatically to refer specifically to a year. In addition to this occurrence in v. 7 see also 1 Sam 1:3, 21; 2:19; 20:6; Lev 25:29; Judg 17:10.
5 tn Heb “from where you come.”
6 tn Heb “the land.”
7 tc The translation follows the LXX (ἐπι τίνα, epi tina) and Vulgate (in quem) which assume אֶל מִי (’el mi, “to whom”) rather than the MT אַל (’al, “not”). The MT makes no sense here. Another possibility is that the text originally had אַן (’an, “where”), which has been distorted in the MT to אַל. Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and the Targum, which have “where.”
8 tn Heb “all the days.”
9 tn Heb “saying.”
10 tn Heb “he really stinks.” The expression is used figuratively here to describe the rejection and ostracism that David had experienced as a result of Saul’s hatred of him.
11 tc Many medieval Hebrew
12 tn Heb “permanently.”
13 sn “We all have knowledge.” Here and in v. 4 Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior (cf. 6:12-13; 7:1; 10:23). Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.
14 tn Grk “this one.”
15 tn Grk “him”; in the translation the most likely referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
16 sn “An idol in this world is nothing” and “There is no God but one.” Here and in v. 1 Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior (cf. 6:12-13; 7:1; 10:23). Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.
17 tn Grk “through whom [are] all things and we [are] through him.”
18 tn Or “built up”; This is the same word used in v. 1b. It is used ironically here: The weak person is “built up” to commit what he regards as sin.
19 tn Grk “the one who is weak…the brother for whom Christ died,” but see note on the word “Christian” in 5:11.
20 tn This may be an indirect middle, “destroys himself.”
21 tn See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.
22 tn Grk “my brother.” Both “my brother or sister” earlier in the verse and “one of them” here translate the same Greek phrase. Since the same expression occurs in the previous line, a pronoun phrase is substituted here to suit English style, which is less tolerant of such repetition.
23 tn Heb “set your face against.” The expression occurs at the beginning of Ezekiel’s prophetic oracles in Ezek 13:17; 20:46; 21:2; 25:2; 28:21; 29:2; 35:2; 38:2.
sn Based on comparison to a similar expression in Ugaritic, the phrase may imply that Ezekiel was to actually go to these locations to deliver his message.
24 tn The phrase “mountains of Israel” occurs only in the book of Ezekiel (6:2, 3; 19:9; 33:28; 34:13, 14; 35:12; 36:1, 4, 8; 37:22; 38:8; 39:2, 4, 17). The expression refers to the whole land of Israel.
sn The mountainous terrain of Israel would contrast with the exiles’ habitat in the river valley of Babylonia.
25 tn The introductory formula “Hear the word of the sovereign
26 tn Heb “Look I, I am bringing.” The repetition of the pronoun draws attention to the speaker. The construction also indicates that the action is soon to come; the Lord is “about to bring a sword against” them.
27 tn The Hebrew term refers to elevated platforms where pagan sacrifices were performed.
28 tn Thirty-nine of the forty-eight biblical occurrences of this Hebrew word are found in the book of Ezekiel.
sn This verse is probably based on Lev 26:30 in which God forecasts that he will destroy their high places, cut off their incense altars, and set their corpses by the corpses of their idols.
29 tc This first sentence, which explains the meaning of the last sentence of the previous verse, does not appear in the LXX and may be an instance of a marginal explanatory note making its way into the text.
30 tn The Hebrew verb translated “wiped out” is used to describe the judgment of the Flood (Gen 6:7; 7:4, 23).
31 sn The phrase you will know that I am the
32 tn Heb “when you have fugitives from the sword among the nations, when you are scattered among the lands.”
33 tn The words “they will realize” are not in the Hebrew text; they are added here for stylistic reasons since this clause assumes the previous verb “to remember” or “to take into account.”
34 tn Heb “how I was broken by their adulterous heart.” The image of God being “broken” is startling, but perfectly natural within the metaphorical framework of God as offended husband. The idiom must refer to the intense grief that Israel’s unfaithfulness caused God. For a discussion of the syntax and semantics of the Hebrew text, see M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:134.
35 tn Heb adds “in their faces.”
36 tn Heb “not in vain did I speak to do to them this catastrophe.” The wording of the last half of v. 10 parallels God’s declaration after the sin of the golden calf (Exod 32:14).
37 sn By the sword and by famine and by pestilence. A similar trilogy of punishments is mentioned in Lev 26:25-26. See also Jer 14:12; 21:9; 27:8, 13; 29:18).
38 tn Heb “the one who is left, the one who is spared.”
39 sn By referring to every high hill…all the mountaintops…under every green tree and every leafy oak Ezekiel may be expanding on the phraseology of Deut 12:2 (see 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 16:4; 17:10; Jer 2:20; 3:6, 13; 2 Chr 28:4).
40 sn I will stretch out my hand against them is a common expression in the book of Ezekiel (14:9, 13; 16:27; 25:7; 35:3).
41 tc The Vulgate reads the name as “Riblah,” a city north of Damascus. The MT reads Diblah, a city otherwise unknown. The letters resh (ר) and dalet (ד) may have been confused in the Hebrew text. The town of Riblah was in the land of Hamath (2 Kgs 23:33) which represented the northern border of Israel (Ezek 47:14).
42 sn Psalm 44. The speakers in this psalm (the worshiping community within the nation Israel) were disappointed with God. The psalm begins on a positive note, praising God for leading Israel to past military victories. Verses 1-8 appear to be a song of confidence and petition which the people recited prior to battle. But suddenly the mood changes as the nation laments a recent defeat. The stark contrast between the present and the past only heightens the nation’s confusion. Israel trusted in God for victory, but the Lord rejected them and allowed them to be humiliated in battle. If Israel had been unfaithful to God, their defeat would make sense, but the nation was loyal to the Lord. Comparing the Lord to a careless shepherd, the nation urges God to wake up and to extend his compassion to his suffering people.
43 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.
44 tn Heb “with our ears we have heard.”
45 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 2; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “fathers” or “ancestors” depending on the context.
46 tn Heb “the work you worked.”
47 tn Heb “in the days of old.” This refers specifically to the days of Joshua, during Israel’s conquest of the land, as vv. 2-3 indicate.
48 tn Heb “you, your hand.”
49 tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.
50 tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).
51 tn Or “peoples.”
52 tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.
53 tn Or “take possession of.”
54 tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.
55 tn Heb “your right hand.” The
56 tn Heb “your arm.”
57 tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).
58 tn Or “favorable toward.”
59 sn The speaker changes here to an individual, perhaps the worship leader or the king. The oscillation between singular (vv. 4, 6) and plural (vv. 1-3, 5, 7-8) in vv. 1-8 may reflect an antiphonal ceremony.
60 tc The LXX assumes a participle here (מְצַוֶּה [mÿtsavveh], “the one who commands/decrees”) which would stand in apposition to “my God.” It is possible that the MT, which has the imperative (צַוֵּה, tsavveh) form, has suffered haplography of the letter mem (ם). Note that the preceding word (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) ends in mem. Another option is that the MT is divided in the wrong place; perhaps one could move the final mem from אֱלֹהִים to the beginning of the next word and read מְצַוֶּה אֱלֹהָי (’elohay mÿtsavveh, “[You are my king,] my God, the one who decrees”).
tn Or “command.” This may be the Israelites’ petition prior to the battle. See the introductory note to the psalm.
61 tn That is, Israel. See Pss 14:7; 22:23.
62 tn Heb “by you.”
63 tn Heb “gore” (like an ox). If this portion of the psalm contains the song of confidence/petition the Israelites recited prior to battle, then the imperfects here and in the next line may express their expectation of victory. Another option is that the imperfects function in an emphatic generalizing manner. In this case one might translate, “you [always] drive back…you [always] trample down.”
sn The Hebrew verb translated “drive back” is literally “gore”; the imagery is that of a powerful wild ox that “gores” its enemies and tramples them underfoot.
64 tn Heb “in your name.” The
65 sn The image of the powerful wild ox continues; see the note on the phrase “drive back” in the preceding line.
66 tn Heb “those who rise up [against] us.”
67 tn Or “have delivered,” if past successes are in view. Another option is to take the perfect as rhetorical, emphasizing that victory is certain (note the use of the imperfect in vv. 5-6).
68 tn Or “have humiliated,” if past successes are in view. Another option is to take the perfect as rhetorical, emphasizing that victory is certain (note the use of the imperfect in vv. 5-6).
69 tn The particle אַף (’af, “but”) is used here as a strong adversative contrasting the following statement with what precedes.
70 tn Heb “you did not go out with our armies.” The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
71 tn Heb “you caused us to turn backward.”
72 tn Heb “plunder for themselves.” The prepositional phrase לָמוֹ (lamo, “for themselves”) here has the nuance “at their will” or “as they please” (see Ps 80:6).
73 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
74 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
75 tn Heb “for what is not wealth.”
76 tn Heb “you did not multiply their purchase prices.”
77 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
78 tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.”
79 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
80 tn Heb “a proverb,” or “[the subject of] a mocking song.”
81 tn Heb “a shaking of the head among the peoples.” Shaking the head was a derisive gesture (see Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15).
82 tn Heb “all the day my humiliation [is] in front of me.”
83 tn Heb “and the shame of my face covers me.”
84 tn Heb “from the voice of one who ridicules and insults, from the face of an enemy and an avenger.” See Ps 8:2.
85 tn Heb “we have not forgotten you.” To “forget” God refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see v. 20, as well as Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 9:17).Thus the translation “we have not rejected you” has been used.
86 tn Heb “and we did not deal falsely with your covenant.”
87 tn Heb “our heart did not turn backward.” Cf. Ps 78:57.
88 tn Heb “and our steps did [not] turn aside from your path.” The negative particle is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line). God’s “path” refers to his commands, i.e., the moral pathway he has prescribed for the psalmist. See Pss 17:5; 25:4.
89 tn Heb “yet you have battered us in a place of jackals.”
90 tn The Hebrew term צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmavet) has traditionally been understood as a compound noun meaning “shadow of death” (צֵל+מָוֶת [mavet + tsel]; see BDB 853 s.v. צַלְמָוֶת; cf. NASB). Other scholars prefer to vocalize the form צַלְמוּת (tsalmut) and understand it as an abstract noun (from the root צלם) meaning “darkness” (cf. NIV, NRSV). An examination of the word’s usage favors the latter derivation. It is frequently associated with darkness/night and contrasted with light/morning (see Job 3:5; 10:21-22; 12:22; 24:17; 28:3; 34:22; Ps 107:10, 14; Isa 9:1; Jer 13:16; Amos 5:8). In some cases the darkness described is associated with the realm of death (Job 10:21-22; 38:17), but this is a metaphorical application of the word and does not reflect its inherent meaning. In Ps 44:19 darkness symbolizes defeat and humiliation.
91 tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the
92 tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense זר (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see L. A. Snijders, TDOT 4:54-55).
93 tn The active participle describes what is characteristically true.
94 tn Heb “would not God search out this, for he knows the hidden things of [the] heart?” The expression “search out” is used metonymically here, referring to discovery, the intended effect of a search. The “heart” (i.e., mind) is here viewed as the seat of one’s thoughts. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he would!” The point seems to be this: There is no way the Israelites who are the speakers in the psalm would reject God and turn to another god, for the omniscient God would easily discover such a sin.
95 tn The statement “because of you” (1) may simply indicate that God is the cause of the Israelites’ defeat (see vv. 9-14, where the nation’s situation is attributed directly to God’s activity, and cf. NEB, NRSV), or (2) it may suggest they suffer because of their allegiance to God (see Ps 69:7 and Jer 15:15). In this case one should translate, “for your sake” (cf. NASB, NIV). The citation of this verse in Rom 8:36 follows the LXX (Ps 43:23 LXX), where the Greek term ἕνεκεν (Jeneken; LXX ἕνεκα) may likewise mean “because of” or “for the sake of” (BDAG 334 s.v. ἕνεκα 1).
96 tn Or “regarded as.”
97 tn Heb “like sheep of slaughtering,” that is, sheep destined for slaughter.
99 tn Heb “Why do you hide your face?” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
100 tn Or “forget.”
101 tn Heb “our oppression and our affliction.”
102 tn Heb “for our being/life sinks down to the dirt, our belly clings to the earth.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, life”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
103 tn Or “redeem us.” See Pss 25:22; 26:11; 69:18; 119:134.
