³ tn Heb “go”; “walk,” but in English “crawl” or “slither” better describes a serpent’s movement.

² tn Or “better”; Grk “good.” This is an instance of the positive adjective used in place of the superlative adjective. According to ExSyn 298, this could also be treated as a positive for comparative (“better”).

² tn The comparative term טוֹב (tov, “better”) is repeated throughout 7:1-12. It introduces a series of “Better-than sayings,” particularly in 7:1-6 in which every poetic unit is introduced by טוֹב.

¹ tn English versions which translate the Hebrew term as “roof” here sometimes produce amusing images for modern readers: TEV “Better to live on the roof”; CEV “It’s better to stay outside on the roof of your house.”

¹ tn Grk “And,” but “now” better represents the somewhat parenthetical nature of this statement in the flow of the narrative.

¹ tn This word appears in an awkward position in the Hebrew, following “Kiyyun.” It is placed here for better sense.

¹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord about.” The first person construction has been used in the translation for better English style.

² tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…” The person is shifted from third to first to better conform with English style.

⁴ sn Rash speech cannot easily be remedied. The prospects for a fool are better (e.g., Prov 26:12).

³ tn The two infinitives construct form the contrast in this “better” sayings; each serves as the subject of its respective clause.

¹ tn The word actually means “to spread,” but with lightning as the object, “to scatter” appears to fit the context better.

³ tn The rest of the verse makes better sense if it is interpreted as what his friends say.

¹ tn To make a better parallelism, some commentators have replaced the imperative with another finite verb, “we have found it.”

⁴ tn Heb “you have made the latter act of devotion better than the former”; NIV “than that which you showed earlier.”

¹ tn Grk “when I am present,” but in the context of Paul’s third (upcoming) visit to Corinth, this is better translated as “when I arrive.”

¹ tn Grk “with the gospel of Christ,” but since Χριστοῦ (Christou) is clearly an objective genitive here, it is better to translate “with the gospel about Christ.”

² tn Grk “to the obedience of Christ,” but since Χριστοῦ (Christou) is clearly an objective genitive here, it is better to translate “to make it obey Christ.”

³ sn They fulfilled the sayings. The people in Jerusalem and the Jewish rulers should have known better because they had the story read to them weekly in the synagogue.

² tn Grk “two chains, and.” Logically it makes better sense to translate this as a temporal clause, although technically it is a coordinate clause in Greek.

⁵ tn Grk “he said,” but since what follows is a question, it is better English style to translate the introduction to the question “he asked him.”