Matthew 6:24

Last month, I read a few chapters in Matthew, and I found an-other instance where a chiastic structure illustrates opposites.  In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money."  There's an inversion between "he will hate the one and love the other" and "he will be devoted to the one and despise the other," demonstrating these opposites.

This feature is also present in the Greek ("ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει"), the Latin Vulgate ("aut enim unum odio habebit et alterum diliget aut unum sustinebit et alterum contemnet"), my German New Testament ("entweder er wird den einen hassen und den andern lieben, oder er wird an dem einen hängen und den andern verachten"), and my French New Testament ("Car, ou il haïra l'un, et aimera l'autre; ou il s'attachera à l'un, et méprisera l'autre").

Psalm 1:3-4

A little more than a month ago, I finished reading Proverbs in the NIV and started over again with the Psalms (in the ESV this time).  Previously, I'd noticed the contrast between the tree and the chaff in Psalm 1:3-4, but in reading it again last month, I realized that I'd been considering only one facet of this contrast.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields it fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.  4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

I'd been focusing only on the agricultural nature of these similes and the contrast between the prosperity of the living tree and the inactivity of the worthless and dead chaff, but the two also differ in their positions:  the tree is firmly "planted," but the chaff is "drive[n] away" by the wind.  The man who delights in and meditates on the law of the Lord has an arboreal steadfastness that the wicked man does not.

Psalm 23:4

For Good Shepherd Sunday (the Fourth Sunday of Easter) at the end of April, the Psalm on Worship Anew was Psalm 23 (although the text below the video lists Psalm 43).  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a feature specific to this translation.  Verse 4 is:  "sed et si ambulavero in valle mortis non timebo malum quoniam tu mecum es virga tua et baculus tuus ipsa consolabunter me."  In the ESV, this is:  "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."  Often in Latin, the words in the prepositional phrase "with me" are combined (and inverted), so instead of "cum me," there's the single word "mecum."  Because of this idiosyncracy, there's a closer sense of God's accompaniment in this verse; "tu" and "me" are side-by-side.

Genesis 4:4-5

In mid-April, I finished reading The Lutheran Study Bible, the first time (hopefully of many) that I read the Bible straight through.  The same day I finished, I also started reading the NIV (my current plan is to alternate between the two, but I'll see what happens).

When I read Genesis 4, I noticed something interesting in these verses:  "3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.  4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.  The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.  So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast."

Bridging verses 4 and 5, there's a chiastic structure in the description of how the Lord receives Abel and Cain and their respective offerings:  "The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor."  The structure highlights that the Lord's responses are opposite.

This feature is also present in Hebrew (I can't get the formatting to work correctly, so here's a link to the  passage in the STEP Bible) and in Latin ("et respexit Dominus ad Abel et ad munera eius ad Cain vero et ad munera illius non respexit").