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Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

Showing 2251 to 2275 of 4976 results

2251. Mordecai Persuades Esther to Help

Esther 4:1-17

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... as her own and emerges as a leader in her own right. It is she who “commands” Mordecai and the Jews how to prepare for a counter-scheme that only she knows (vv. 16–17). Esther’s Jewishness has been a secret, and she will continue to keep this identity secret. In this chapter, though, she resolves to be an active, loyal Jew. Her first responses to Mordecai indicate that she has not yet fully identified with her people. When she hears of the plot, she apparently assumes that she will be exempt from ...

2252. Esther's Request to the King

Esther 5:1-8

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... by the king and two answers/offers by the queen. In both answers Esther invites the king to another banquet at which she will state her request. Whichever the nuance, Esther is acting cleverly and intentionally. Certainly the rest of the story will prove her wisdom in keeping the king and his prime minister together over this two-day period. 5:14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him: Zeresh consoles her pouting husband in much the same way that Jezebel comforts Ahab in 1 Kgs. 21:7. Both devise a ...

2253. Sayings of the Wise

Proverbs 22:17--24:22

Understanding Series

Roland E. Murphy

... advisers in verse 6, which itself repeats 20:18b and 11:14b. 24:7 High is not a certain translation for a word that is usually translated (e.g., Ezek. 27:16; Job 28:18) as “corals”—something valuable. The fool, who is otherwise talkative when he should keep silent, will be of no help when decision is to be made at the gate of the city. 24:8–9 These verses are linked by the word “scheme” (Hb. zmm), which is associated with evil and folly. 24:10–12 These verses probably go together, urging one ...

2254. Restoration of Israel

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... of Israel will be a nation before him for as long as the sun, moon, and stars shine and the seas pound the shores with their waves. Thus God expresses his continual commitment to future restored Israel by likening it to his continual commitment to keep his creation working according to its normal rhythms (Gen. 8:22; 9:8–17). A similar oracle follows which also connects creation to God’s commitment to Israel. God will not reject Israel as long as the heavens remain unmeasured and the foundations of the ...

2255. Witnesses Summoned Against Israel

Amos 3:1-15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... and “Therefore you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain,” just as in Exodus 19:5–6 the presupposition is that Israel can be to God “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” if it will obey God’s voice and keep God’s covenant. Israel was elected not to privilege but to responsibility, namely, to the responsibility of being set apart (as “holy”) in order to mediate the knowledge of God to the rest of the world (as a “kingdom of priests”). But Israel has not fulfilled its ...

2256. Timeout at Tiberias

John 21:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... going to start crying. I heard somebody come up to me, and it was little Timmy Berra, Yogi’s boy, standing there next to me. He tapped me on the knee, nice and soft, and I figured he was going to say something nice to me--you know, like, ‘You keep hanging in there,’ or something like that. But all he did was look at me, and then he said in his little kid’s voice, ‘You stink!’” (1) Out of the mouths of babes . . . that’s not the kind of encouragement you hope for at a moment like that, is ...

2257. Follow that Dream

Genesis 12:1-8

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... read somewhere that if your feet are cold, you should put something on your head. That didn't make sense to me until someone explained that your body works extra hard to keep your brain warm. It will even let your feet freeze in order to keep your brain warm. That is why a cap is so important on a cold day. But why does the body work so hard to keep the brain warm? Your brain is the most important part of your body, isn't it? What do you do with your brain? That's right, you think. That is also ...

2258. The Last Day of the Feast

John 7:45--8:11, John 8:12-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... he was unschooled in the law (cf. v. 15), and despite all that had transpired since then the Pharisees persisted in keeping this impression alive. Their scornful question in verse 48 implies that none of their number has believed in Jesus, and that no ... I am the one I claim to be (v. 24). The reverse side of this warning is the promise of life in verse 51: “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Even in the nearer context, Jesus can speak more positively: When you have lifted up the Son of Man ...

2259. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... (perfect); the reference is not particularly to his conversion experience, as it would be if the aorist hēgēsamēn had been used. (In v. 8 I consider represents the present hēgoumai.) Paul’s language here is different from the adaptation of the book-keeping terminology of profit and loss occasionally found elsewhere. Cf. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 5.4.13, where justice is said to be the mean between profit and loss (no one gets more or less than is due); also Pirqe Abot 2.1, where Rabbi Judah the ...

2260. God’s Covenant with Noah

Genesis 9:1-17

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... violated God’s image. 9:8–17 In this second speech God solemnly bound himself by a covenant never again to wipe out the inhabitants of the earth by a deluge. This covenant was unilateral; that is, no conditions were laid on humans for keeping it in force. This was an everlasting covenant (v. 16) for all generations to come (v. 12). The repetition of several pivotal terms communicates God’s goal. In the Hebrew the key term “covenant” (berit) occurs seven times (three times with establish, heqim, vv ...

2261. God’s Covenant with Abram

Genesis 15:1-18

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... him as righteousness. “Believe in” means “put trust in, rely on.” Here it means that Abram put his full trust in God. In expressing his complaint to God Abram demonstrated that trust. Instead of letting his bitter frustration at God’s apparent failure to keep his promise fester inside him, he voiced his distress when God came to him. Thus he preempted it from eroding his faith in God and in the promise of a son. As a result, God credited Abram’s faith as righteousness. The term “righteousness ...

2262. The Second Journey to Egypt

Genesis 43:1-34

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... save lives. He went on to inform them that in addition to the past two years of famine, five more years were to come without any productive farming. Thus God had sent him to Egypt ahead of them in order that he might preserve them as a remnant and keep them alive by a great deliverance. He sought to alleviate his brothers’ anxiety by stressing that not they but God had sent him to Egypt. God had ordered the course of his life so that he had become father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler ...

2263. Obedience Commanded

Deuteronomy 4:1-14

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... section of the chapter, then, should be seen in the light of, and for the sake of, the positive “missionary” potential of verses 6–8. That is what is at stake. 4:9 The opening words are emphatic, and the command to watch (be careful; lit. keep, guard) yourselves is repeated in verses 15 and 23. The educational thrust of the book of Deuteronomy as a whole is reinforced by frequent instructions for parents to take seriously their own teaching role within the family network of the nation (see 6:7, 20ff ...

2264. Driving Out the Nations

Deuteronomy 7:1-26

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... 7:9–10 And so we come to the core of the chapter, affirming Yahweh as God and affirming God’s character as Yahweh. In the final analysis, it is because Yahweh is God, as well as being your God, and because Yahweh is the faithful God, keeping a covenant of love, that God acted as God did toward Israel. Because of that action, Israel was constituted a unique people committed to preserving a distinctiveness among the nations. On that basis, they were to make no compromise with the idolatrous and perverted ...

2265. Exclusion From the Assembly

Deuteronomy 23:1-8

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... relationships of family or neighborhood trust. The loss of that element is a factor in the rise of gigantic fraud and it is interesting that there has been a resurgence in the forming of local credit unions and neighborhood banking schemes, designed specifically to keep interest low (basically to cover costs) and provide genuine help to the needy in a more human, relational, and personal way. 23:21–23 Though entirely voluntary (v. 22, cf. Num. 30), once a vow to the Lord is made it is a serious matter ...

2266. Miscellaneous Laws

Deut 23:15–25:19

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

2267. David’s Charge to Solomon

1 Kings 2:1-12

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... his obituary. Additional Notes 2:3 That you may prosper: David himself had “prospered” because God was with him (śḵl: 1 Sam. 18:5, 14, 15, 30). Now he passes the secret of his success on to his son. 2:4 That the LORD may keep his promise to me: The nature of the Davidic promise in Kings has been much discussed, and the tension between its conditional and unconditional aspects has often been exploited in redactional studies of the book. R. D. Nelson, The Double Redaction of the Deuteronomistic History ...

2268. Solomon Asks for Wisdom

1 Kings 3:1-15

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... action quickly enough with regard to this matter of worship. As in 3:2, there is no hint yet of apostasy. His worship at Gibeon (3:4ff.) is worship of the LORD. Yet we are bound to ask: what kind of “love” is this, that does not issue in the keeping of the Law? Certainly not a love that involves all of Solomon’s heart and soul and strength (Deut. 6:4). As in 3:1–2, the atmosphere is rather that of divided loyalties. And in a way the choice of the word love (ʾhḇ) itself reflects that—at least ...

2269. The Sign of Immanuel

Isaiah 7:1-25

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... your God (note the change of pronoun when Isaiah speaks of my God in v. 13) is trustworthy, but also to implement Yahweh’s purpose. The offer functions to expose Ahaz as a man who did not want to trust in God even if he had the evidence, in keeping with 6:9–10. Admittedly he is also a man good at argumentum ad hominem who knows how to sound scriptural (Deut. 6:16) when it suits (v. 12). “It is really the king himself who is being tested” (Oswalt, Isaiah 1–39, p. 203). Despite his refusal, they ...

2270. A Prophecy Against Babylon

Isaiah 13:1--14:23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... of chapters 1–12 merely sought to make Judah feel good by promising the downfall of its enemies. In fact, the poems keep turning into implicit or explicit warnings to Judah itself. The point is implicit not least in the central warning about majesty (“pride ... and the spiritual Sheol. A king has a more impressive tomb than a commoner (indeed, he has a private one), and a king also keeps his status in Sheol. Death is not, after all, the great leveler. So part of this king’s downfall is that this vestige ...

2271. Gods of Babylon

Isaiah 46:1-13

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... to be solved. Prophet and Yahweh join in trying to take the community by its shoulders and shake it to its senses. Won’t you see that my act of salvation is here? Won’t you recognize it for what it is? As is often the case, we must keep paying attention to the very end in the prophet’s poem. Yahweh intends to grant this salvation to Zion (v. 13). The name Jerusalem appears rarely in chapters 40–48, but even these chapters live by the vow in Psalm 137:5 and periodically make the fact explicit. The ...

2272. Judgment and Salvation

Isaiah 65:1-16

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... then implies, “OK, I have done what you asked, and met with no response” (so Westermann, Isaiah 40–66, p. 400). Yahweh’s own claim recalls 55:6 and, behind that, 30:1; 31:1; 45:11, 19; 51:1. How dare anyone claim that Yahweh has not been keeping promises? Yahweh can quote promises and ask why they have not been claiming them. It is not that people are not praying. They are praying, and that makes it worse. At the same time, verses 3–7 either cause us to assume that the people critiqued here are ...

2273. Signs and Oracles of Judgment

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17, Ezekiel 6:1-14, Ezekiel 7:1-27

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... Oddly, for Ezekiel the fall of Jerusalem becomes evidence of God’s trustworthiness. The divine character, which Jerusalem’s judgment and condemnation confirms as reliable, lends legitimacy to the promises of restoration in the latter part of the book. For good and for ill, God keeps God’s word. 7:1–27 Ezekiel 7 opens with the standard formula for the beginning of an oracle in Ezekiel, The word of the LORD came to me (v. 1). The chapter falls naturally into two sections. Verses 1–9 constitute a two ...

2274. Signs, Sayings, and Oracles of Judgment

Ezekiel 12:1-28, Ezekiel 13:1-23, Ezekiel 14:1-11, Ezekiel 14:12-23

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... , line 180–90; see Speiser’s translation in ANET, p. 95). After the flood waters have subsided, Ea god of wisdom chides the storm god Enlil for the wasteful destructiveness of the flood and states that, in the future, the lion, the wolf, famine, and pestilence will keep unruly humanity in check. The Lord brings these severe judgments upon the land because of unfaithfulness (v. 13, Heb. maʿal). This is a priestly term (e.g., Lev. 6:2; 26:40; note in particular its use in Num. 5:12, 27, in the ordeal to ...

2275. Oracles of Restoration

Ezekiel 34:1-31, Ezekiel 35:1-15, Ezekiel 36:1-38, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Ezekiel 37:15-28

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... of v. 8) carries multiple meanings. It can mean simply “breath.” So to say that there was no ruakh in the bodies could simply mean that they were not breathing. Related to this meaning is the use of ruakh for “wind” (as in 1:4 and 37:9). In keeping with the invisible force of the wind and the life-giving power of the breath is a third meaning. Ruakh can also mean “spirit”—that is, the empowering, enlivening agency of persons (see 1:12, 20), and particularly of God (as in 36:26–27). A similar ...

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