Proverbs 14:25

After I finished reading the Psalms in the NIV, I continued on into Proverbs.  A couple weeks ago, I read chapter 14, and I noticed a contrast in verse 25:  "A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful."  (The ESV is similar:  "A truthful witness saves lives, but one who breathes out lies is deceitful.")  Obviously, "truthful" and "false" are opposites, and to some degree, these are mirrored by the different types of verbs:  "saves" is an active verb, but "is" is merely a stative verb.

John 20:1

A couple weeks ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek video on John 20:1:

In the ESV, this verse is:  "Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb."

I realized that the description "while it was still dark," while providing a veritable detail of the account, could also be understood metaphorically.  Its being "still dark" could also refer either to the gloom of Mary's sadness after Jesus' death or to her ignorance of His resurrection.

Isaiah 55:8

Last month, I watched the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 28 September 2017:

The text was Isaiah 55:8-11, and I noticed a small feature in verse 8:  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD."  The possessive adjectives have a chiastic structure ("my" "your" "your" "my"), and this provides some indication of the disparity between the two "thoughts" and the two "ways."  Arranging the clauses so that these possessive adjectives are parallel ("My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways") doesn't have the same effect.

This same structure is also present in Hebrew (כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם וְלֹא דַרְכֵיכֶם דְּרָכָי נְאֻם יְהוָֽה) and Latin ("non enim cogitationes meae cogitationes vestrae neque viae vestrae viae meae dicit Dominus").

Last First/First Last

Last month, I tried to watch the Concordia University Wisconsin chapel service from 25 September 2017 (the audio cuts out about two thirds of the way through).  The reading, which was Matthew 20:1-16, is intact, though, and I had a small realization about verse 16:  "'So the last will be first, and the first last.'"  There's a chiastic structure here, and it illustrates that inversion.

The same feature is present elsewhere:  Matthew 19:30 ("'But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'"), Mark 10:31 ("'But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'"), and Luke 13:30 ("'And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.'").

Psalm 119:150, 155

In continuing on in reading Psalm 119 in the NIV, I found two more instances where two nouns are placed at opposite ends of a clause, giving a sense of distance.

Psalm 119:150:

Those who devise wicked schemes are near, but they are far from your law.

and Psalm 119:155:

Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek out your degrees.

The same feature is present in the ESV, the NKJV, and even my German Psalter ("sie sind fern von deinem Gesetz" and "das Heil ist fern von den Gottlosen"), but it's not in either verse in the original Hebrew text.