Today’s Word
Quite the Opposite
A merciful person does himself good, but the cruel person does himself harm. Proverbs 11:17 NASB Cruel – Who is the cruel person? The torturer? The egotistic dictator? Men like Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin? When we think of the antonym of “cruel” these days, what term comes to mind? Kind? Forgiving? Merriam-Webster lists “tender, warm, warmhearted, charitable, clement, lenient, merciful, pitying, pacific, peaceable, peaceful.” The…
The Spiritual Tautology
A merciful person does himself good, but the cruel person does himself harm. Proverbs 11:17 NASB Merciful – It should come as no surprise that the word translated “mercy” is really ḥesed. The translation relies on the way ḥesed is treated in the LXX, but as you know, even there we find eight different Greek words for…
Law and Order
A merciful person does himself good, but the cruel person does himself harm. Proverbs 11:17 NASB Does himself good – Arthur Branch, the District Attorney in the television series Law and Order, quipped, “Sometimes the good you do doesn’t do you any good.” Regretfully, he seems to be correct. Human experience suggests that doing good doesn’t always…
The Instructions of Amenemope (2)
I have informed you today, even you. Have I not written for you thirty things in good counsel and knowledge? Proverbs 22:20 Robert Alter Thirty things – “The Masoretic Text has shalishim (‘captains’?) in the ketiv (consonantal text) and shelishim (‘threes’?) in the qeri (marginal gloss). Neither makes sense, and the translation [here] adopts Michael…
The Instructions of Amenemope (1)
Extend your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge; Proverbs 22:17 NASB Words of the wise – Many years ago I led a Bible study on the book of Proverbs. When we reached this section (which runs to 24:22), I remarked that this material was most likely…
Victims of the Past
So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir. Jacob, however, went to Sukkoth, Genesis 33:16-17a NIV However – Take a moment to read Genesis 33, Jacob’s reunion with Esau. You’ll find something odd about Jacob’s protests. Again and again, Esau shows no animosity, no hidden agenda of revenge, but Jacob turns away…
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