Yesaya 1:3

1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,

a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; ¹ 

but Israel does not recognize me, ² 

my people do not understand.”

Yesaya 44:18-20

44:18 They do not comprehend or understand,

for their eyes are blind and cannot see;

their minds do not discern. ³ 

44:19 No one thinks to himself,

nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:

‘I burned half of it in the fire –

yes, I baked bread over the coals;

I roasted meat and ate it.

With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?

Should I bow down to dry wood?’ ⁴ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ⁵ 

his deceived mind misleads him.

He cannot rescue himself,

nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ ⁶ 

Ulangan 4:6

4:6 So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding ⁷  to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise ⁸  people.”

Ulangan 32:28-29

32:28 They are a nation devoid of wisdom,

and there is no understanding among them.

32:29 I wish that they were wise and could understand this,

and that they could comprehend what will happen to them.”

Yeremia 4:22

4:22 The Lord answered, ⁹ 

“This will happen ¹⁰  because my people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are like children who have no sense. ¹¹ 

They have no understanding.

They are skilled at doing evil.

They do not know how to do good.”

Yeremia 5:4-5

5:4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. ¹² 

They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. ¹³ 

They do not know what their God requires of them. ¹⁴ 

5:5 I will go to the leaders ¹⁵ 

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands. ¹⁶ 

Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ¹⁷ 

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him. ¹⁸ 

Yeremia 5:21-22

5:21 Tell them: ‘Hear this,

you foolish people who have no understanding,

who have eyes but do not discern,

who have ears but do not perceive: ¹⁹ 

5:22 “You should fear me!” says the Lord.

“You should tremble in awe before me! ²⁰ 

I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea,

a permanent barrier that it can never cross.

Its waves may roll, but they can never prevail.

They may roar, but they can never cross beyond that boundary.” ²¹ 

Yeremia 8:7

8:7 Even the stork knows

when it is time to move on. ²² 

The turtledove, swallow, and crane ²³ 

recognize ²⁴  the normal times for their migration.

But my people pay no attention

to ²⁵  what I, the Lord, require of them. ²⁶ 

Hosea 4:6

4:6 You have destroyed ²⁷  my people

by failing to acknowledge me!

Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ²⁸ 

I will reject you as my priests.

Because you reject ²⁹  the law of your God,

I will reject ³⁰  your descendants.

Matius 13:15

13:15 For the heart of this people has become dull;

they are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes,

so that they would not see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’ ³¹ 

Matius 13:19

13:19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one ³²  comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; ³³  this is the seed sown along the path.

Roma 1:28

1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ³⁴  God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. ³⁵ 

Roma 1:31

1:31 senseless, covenant-breakers, ³⁶  heartless, ruthless.

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[1:3]  ² tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).

[44:18]  ³ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ⁴ tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.

[44:20]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[4:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “it is wisdom and understanding.”

[4:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “wise and understanding.”

[4:22]  ⁹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

[4:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

[4:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

[5:4]  ¹² tn Heb “Surely they are poor.” The translation is intended to make clear the explicit contrasts and qualifications drawn in this verse and the next.

[5:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”

[5:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.

[5:21]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear.”

[5:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Should you not fear me? Should you not tremble in awe before me?” The rhetorical questions expect the answer explicit in the translation.

[5:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “it.” The referent is made explicit to avoid any possible confusion.

[8:7]  ²² tn Heb “its appointed time.” The translation is contextually motivated to avoid lack of clarity.

[8:7]  ²³ tn There is debate in the commentaries and lexicons about the identification of some of these birds, particularly regarding the identification of the “swallow” which is more likely the “swift” and the “crane” which some identify with the “thrush.” For a discussion see the Bible encyclopedias and the UBS handbook Fauna and Flora of the Bible. The identity of the individual birds makes little difference to the point being made and “swallow” is more easily identifiable to the average reader than the “swift.”

[8:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “keep.” Ironically birds, which do not think, obey the laws of nature, but Israel does not obey the laws of God.

[8:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “do not know.” But here as elsewhere the word “know” is more than an intellectual matter. It is intended here to summarize both “know” and “follow” (Heb “observe”) in the preceding lines.

[8:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the ordinance/requirement of the Lord.”

[4:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[4:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”

[4:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”

[4:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”

[13:15]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.

[13:19]  ³² sn Interestingly, the synoptic parallels each use a different word for Satan here: Mark 4:15 has “Satan,” while Luke 8:12 has “the devil.” This illustrates the fluidity of the gospel tradition in often using synonyms at the same point of the parallel tradition.

[13:19]  ³³ sn The word of Jesus has the potential to save if it germinates in a person’s heart, something the devil is very much against.

[1:28]  ³⁴ tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”

[1:28]  ³⁵ tn Grk “the things that are improper.”

[1:31]  ³⁶ tn Or “promise-breakers.”