and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Therefore they plundered the Egyptians. Exodus 12:36 NASB Let them have – Imagine you’re an Egyptian. You’ve just had your crops ruined, your water made undrinkable, your livestock destroyed, and your sons killed. And it’s all…
to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, “What do these stones mean?” Joshua 4:6 NIV Ask – Don’t you just love the messiness of Hebrew? It’s so pedestrian. No Greek eloquence. No tight specifications for definitions. Sloppy translations suffice because the language is so flexible. And filled with…
Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 NASB Desires – Does God want you to have what you want? By translating the feminine noun mishalot as “desires,” we are inclined to believe that one of God’s purposes is to be the genie who grants us…
You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. James 4:2 NASB You do not ask – You might treat this verse rather lightly because of the way it begins. After all, you aren’t…
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;” Luke 22:31 NASB Demanded permission – How much authority do you give to Satan? Even this translation seems to suggest that he can demand opportunity to cause spiritual distress. But closer examination corrects some of our Medieval additions to his power and character….
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:3 ESV Passions – But I thought being passionate was a good thing. Ah, if we only read it in Greek. Hedonais, the plural noun, makes it quite clear that James is talking about self-centered pleasures, not passions. …
“Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the LORD’s commandments and His statutes which I…
And they continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:12 “What Does This Mean?” – Sometimes a culturally significant expression goes right by us because we read it with different eyes. You’ve probably read this verse dozens of times, but you probably never considered why these men…
One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple. Psalm 27:4 One Thing – What is the most important thing in life? What…
“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God demand of you? Only this: . . .” Deuteronomy 10:12 Demand – We don’t like the sound of this, do we? What God demands doesn’t sound much like the gentle, compassionate God we hear about in church. We would rather have this Hebrew word translated…
