¹ tn The optative is again expressed with the interrogative clause “Who will give that they be written?” Job wishes that his words be preserved long after his death.

³ tn Heb “it was written”; this passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

² tn Heb “and the founding of the house of God, look, they are written on the writing of the scroll of the kings?”

¹ tn Heb “Look, the events of Asa, the former and the latter, look, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel.”

¹ tc “Courtyard” (חָצֵר, khatser) is the reading tradition (Qere) also supported by the LXX, while the written text (Kethib) has הָעִיר (haʿir), “the city.”

¹ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam, look, they are written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.”

¹ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Amaziah, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”

¹ tn Heb “Is it not written down in the Scroll of the Upright One?” Many modern translations render this as “the Book of Jashar.” Yashar (יָשָׁר) means “Upright One.”

¹ sn The words written on the scroll were written with a combination of ingredients mixed into an ink. The idea is probably that they would have been washed or flaked off into the water, so that she drank the words of the curse—it became a part of her being.

² sn These are the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments would be written. This is the first time they are mentioned. The commandments were apparently proclaimed by God first and then proclaimed to the people by Moses. Now that they have been formally agreed on and ratified, they will be written by God on stone for a perpetual covenant.

⁴ tn Although many translations supply a prepositional phrase to specify what the name was written on (“upon Him,” NASB; “on him,” NIV), there is no location for the name specified in the Greek text.

¹ tn Grk “I wrote” Here ἔγραψα (egrapsa) is functioning as an epistolary aorist. Paul puts it in the past tense because from Philemon’s perspective when he reads the letter it will, of course, already have been written.

³ tn Or “regarding,” “concerning.” “Written” is implied by the mention of the scriptures in context; “said” could also be used here, referring to the original utterances, but by now these things had been committed to writing.

² tn The word translated “mark” is in Hebrew the letter ת (tav). Outside this context the only other occurrence of the word is in Job 31:35. In ancient Hebrew script this letter was written like the letter X.

³ tc The Kethib is written עַמִּים (ʿammim, “peoples”), but the Qere, followed by many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions (LXX and Aramaic Targum), reads הָעַמִּים (haʿammim, “O peoples”). The Qere is probably the original reading.

⁴ tn Heb “all who are written down for life in Jerusalem.” A city register is envisioned; everyone whose name appears on the roll will be spared. This group comprises the remnant of the city referred to earlier in the verse.

¹ tc The plural verb נָסוּ (nasu) “they fled,” should be read as singular to match the subject. It is a case of dittography: the vav beginning the next word was written twice, with the extra vav appended to this verb.

⁴ tn The last line is very difficult; it simply says, “a scroll [that] my [legal] adversary had written.” The simplest way to handle this is to see it as a continuation of the optative (RSV).

⁶ sn The double reference in v. 7 to the Aramaic language is difficult. It would not make sense to say that the letter was written in Aramaic and then translated into Aramaic. Some interpreters understand the verse to mean that the letter was written in the Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language, but this does not seem to give sufficient attention to the participle “translated” at the end of the verse. The second reference to Aramaic in the verse is more probably a gloss that calls attention to the fact that the following verses retain the Aramaic language of the letter in its original linguistic form. A similar reference to Aramaic occurs in Dan 2:4b, where the language of that book shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic. Ezra 4:8-6:18 and 7:12-26 are written in Aramaic, whereas the rest of the book is written in Hebrew.

¹ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoiakim, and his horrible deeds which he did and that which was found against him, look, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.”