⁴ tn Or “pressed.”

¹ tn Or “pressed.”

² tn Heb “pressed out.”

² tn Or “conscripted”; or “pressed into service.”

² tn Or “conscripted”; or “pressed into service.”

¹ tn Grk “we are hard pressed [by crowds] on every side.”

¹ tn Heb “that which is pressed in hatches [as] a snake.”

⁵ tn Heb “and they pressed against the man, against Lot, exceedingly.”

⁴ sn Pressing is a graphic term used in everyday Greek of pressing grapes. Peter says in effect, “How could you ask this? Everyone is touching you!”

² sn Pressed is a very emphatic term—the crowds were pressing in so hard that one could hardly breathe (L&N 19.48).

¹ tn Grk “I am hard-pressed between the two.” Cf. L&N 30.18.

¹ tn Heb “making haste and hurrying”; KJV, ASV “being hastened and pressed.”

³ sn The image of the crowd pressing around him suggests the people leaning forward to catch Jesus’ every word.

³ sn The analogy indicates that continuously pressing certain things will yield results, some good, some bad. So pressing anger produces strife. The proverb advises people to strive for peace and harmony through humility and righteousness. To do that will require “letting up” on anger.

² tn The verb צוּק (tsuq) means “to constrain; to urge; to press.” It is used in Judg 14:17; 16:16 with the sense of wearing someone down with repeated entreaties. Elihu cannot restrain himself any longer.

¹ tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading וַיִּפְצְרוּ (vayyifts^eru, “and they pressed”; from the root פָּצַר, patsar) rather than the MT’s וַיִּפְרְצוּ (vayyifr^etsu, “and they broke forth”; from the root פָּרַץ, parats).

¹ tn The Hebrew verb פָּצַר (patsar, “to press, to insist”) ironically foreshadows the hostile actions of the men of the city (see v. 9, where the verb also appears). The repetition of the word serves to contrast Lot to his world.

³ tn Heb “he who is hasty with his feet.” The verb אוּץ (ʾuts) means “to be pressed; to press; to make haste.” The verb is followed by the preposition ב (bet) which indicates that with which one hastens—his feet. The word “feet” is a synecdoche of part for the whole person—body and mind working together (cf. NLT “a person who moves too quickly”).

² tn Grk “no small storm pressing on us.” The genitive absolute construction with the participle ἐπικειμένου (epikeimenou) has been translated as parallel to the previous genitive absolute construction (which was translated as temporal). BDAG 373 s.v. ἐπίκειμαι 2.b states, “of impersonal force confront χειμῶνος ἐπικειμένου since a storm lay upon us Ac 27:20.” L&N 14.2, “‘the stormy weather did not abate in the least’ or ‘the violent storm continued’ Ac 27:20.” To this last was added the idea of “battering” from the notion of “pressing upon” inherent in ἐπίκειμαι (epikeimai).

¹ tc The Hebrew term is שׁוּרֹתָם (shurotam), which may be translated “terraces” or “olive rows.” But that would not be the proper place to have a press to press the olives and make oil. E. Dhorme (Job, 360-61) proposes on the analogy of an Arabic word that this should be read as “millstones” (which he would also write in the dual). But the argument does not come from a clean cognate, but from a possible development of words. The meaning of “olive rows” works well enough.