You have granted me life and goodness; and Your care has guarded my spirit. Job 10:12 NASB Care – Be very careful with this one. “It has been said of this verb, which occurs more than three hundred times in the ot; ‘There is probably no other Hebrew verb that has caused translators as much trouble…
You have granted me life and goodness; and Your care has guarded my spirit. Job 10:12 NASB Goodness – As we discovered the last time we examined this verse, the translation “goodness” just misses the point. God doesn’t grant us goodness, at least not in this verse. What He grants is ḥesed—relationship, reciprocity, transitivity, and action. …
You have granted me life and goodness; and Your care has guarded my spirit. Job 10:12 NASB Life – Yesterday we examined the Qohelet’s claim that the animating spirit returns to God at death. This idea is an important correction to the popular Western conception of eternal life. It is important to note that this correction…
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12:7 NASB Spirit will return – Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher-mathematician, invented the doctrine of the eternal existence of the soul (in Greek psyche). The ancient world did believe in life after death (e.g., Egyptian burial…
His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Psalm 146:4 NASB Perish – “We’re spending our children’s inheritance,” said the man reclining in the deck chair on the cruise ship. Yes, of course, it was a joke. I’m sure he planned to leave an amount of his estate to his children, but perhaps David’s…
and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 NASB 1995 Not be conformed – Paul’s exhortation might just be shy of impossible for us. Two thousand…
Then [a]he said to the people, “Go forward and march around the city, and the armed men shall go on ahead of the ark of the Lord.” Joshua 6:7 NASB He said – During the summer we encountered two American girls at a gelateria in Reggio Emilia. Meeting English speaking Americans is still unusual enough to generate…
Then [a]he said to the people, “Go forward and march around the city, and the armed men shall go on ahead of the ark of the Lord.” Joshua 6:7 NASB He (they) said – Did you notice the little footnote in this text. It reads: “Joshua 6:7 Another reading is they.” It’s pretty hard to confuse “he” and “they.” …
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19 NASB Dust – Remember this: The Hebrew word dakkāʾ means both “crushed” and “contrite.” However, it has a second root spelling exactly the…
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 NASB Crushed – One of the joys of teaching English to Italian businesspeople is explaining English idioms. Every language and every culture has its own idioms. Italian, for example, has a lovely idiom about keeping a secret: acqua en boca, which…
