2 Tawarikh 28:22

28:22 During his time of trouble King Ahaz was even more unfaithful to the Lord.

Ayub 36:13

36:13 The godless at heart ¹  nourish anger, ² 

they do not cry out even when he binds them.

Yesaya 9:13

9:13 The people did not return to the one who struck them,

they did not seek reconciliation ³  with the Lord who commands armies.

Yesaya 42:25

42:25 So he poured out his fierce anger on them,

along with the devastation ⁴  of war.

Its flames encircled them, but they did not realize it; ⁵ 

it burned against them, but they did notice. ⁶ 

Yeremia 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ⁷ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ⁸ 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ⁹ 

They refuse to change their ways. ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 6:16-17

6:16 The Lord said to his people: ¹¹ 

“You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. ¹² 

Ask where the old, reliable paths ¹³  are.

Ask where the path is that leads to blessing ¹⁴  and follow it.

If you do, you will find rest for your souls.”

But they said, “We will not follow it!”

6:17 The Lord said, ¹⁵ 

“I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, ¹⁶  saying:

‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” ¹⁷ 

But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

Yeremia 8:4-7

Willful Disregard of God Will Lead to Destruction

8:4 The Lord said to me, ¹⁸ 

“Tell them, ‘The Lord says,

Do people not get back up when they fall down?

Do they not turn around when they go the wrong way? ¹⁹ 

8:5 Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem ²⁰ 

continually turn away from me in apostasy?

They hold fast to their deception. ²¹ 

They refuse to turn back to me. ²² 

8:6 I have listened to them very carefully, ²³ 

but they do not speak honestly.

None of them regrets the evil he has done.

None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ²⁴ 

All of them persist in their own wayward course ²⁵ 

like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

8:7 Even the stork knows

when it is time to move on. ²⁶ 

The turtledove, swallow, and crane ²⁷ 

recognize ²⁸  the normal times for their migration.

But my people pay no attention

to ²⁹  what I, the Lord, require of them. ³⁰ 

Hosea 7:9-10

7:9 Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced, ³¹ 

but he does not recognize it!

His head is filled with gray hair,

but he does not realize it!

7:10 The arrogance of Israel testifies against him,

yet they refuse to return to the Lord their God!

In spite of all this they refuse to seek him!

Amos 4:8-11

4:8 People from ³²  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ³³  water,

but remained thirsty. ³⁴ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:9 “I destroyed your crops ³⁵  with blight and disease.

Locusts kept ³⁶  devouring your orchards, ³⁷  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ³⁸ 

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with the horses you had captured.

I made the stench from the corpses ³⁹  rise up into your nostrils.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God ⁴⁰  overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ⁴¹ 

You were like a burning stick ⁴²  snatched from the flames.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Zakharia 1:2-4

1:2 The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. ⁴³  1:3 Therefore say to the people: ⁴⁴  The Lord who rules over all ⁴⁵  says, “Turn ⁴⁶  to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will turn to you,” says the Lord who rules over all. 1:4 “Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘The Lord who rules over all says, “Turn now from your evil wickedness,”’ but they would by no means obey me,” says the Lord.

Zakharia 7:9-13

7:9 “The Lord who rules over all said, ‘Exercise true judgment and show brotherhood and compassion to each other. 7:10 You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.’

7:11 “But they refused to pay attention, turning away stubbornly and stopping their ears so they could not hear. 7:12 Indeed, they made their heart as hard as diamond, ⁴⁷  so that they could not obey the Torah and the other words the Lord who rules over all had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, the Lord who rules over all had poured out great wrath.

7:13 “‘It then came about that just as I ⁴⁸  cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord Lord who rules over all had said.

Wahyu 2:21

2:21 I ⁴⁹  have given her time to repent, but ⁵⁰  she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality.

Wahyu 9:20-21

9:20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made ⁵¹  of gold, silver, ⁵²  bronze, stone, and wood – idols that cannot see or hear or walk about. 9:21 Furthermore, ⁵³  they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, ⁵⁴  of their sexual immorality, or of their stealing.

[36:13]  ¹ tn The expression “godless [or hypocrite] in heart” is an intensification of the description. It conveys that they are intentionally godless. See Matt 23:28.

[36:13]  ² tn Heb “they put anger.” This is usually interpreted to mean they lay up anger, or put anger in their hearts.

[9:13]  ³ tn This verse describes the people’s response to the judgment described in vv. 11-12. The perfects are understood as indicating simple past.

[42:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “strength” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “fury”; NASB “fierceness”; NIV “violence.”

[42:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it blazed against him all around, but he did not know.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb “blazed” is the divine חֵמָה (khemah, “anger”) mentioned in the previous line.

[42:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “and it burned against him, but he did not set [it] upon [the] heart.”

[5:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ⁸ tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

[5:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ¹⁰ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[6:16]  ¹¹ tn The words, “to his people” are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:16]  ¹² tn Heb “Stand at the crossroads and look.”

[6:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “the ancient path,” i.e., the path the Lord set out in ancient times (cf. Deut 32:7).

[6:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the way of/to the good.”

[6:17]  ¹⁵ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I appointed watchmen over you.”

[6:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet.” The word “warning” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[8:4]  ¹⁸ tn The words “the Lord said to me” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation to make clear who is speaking and who is being addressed.

[8:4]  ¹⁹ sn There is a play on two different nuances of the same Hebrew word that means “turn” and “return,” “turn away” and “turn back.”

[8:5]  ²⁰ tc The text is quite commonly emended, changing שׁוֹבְבָה הָעָם (shovÿvah ha’am) to שׁוֹבָב הָעָם (shovav ha’am) and omitting יְרוּשָׁלַםִ (yÿrushalaim); this is due to the anomaly of a feminine singular verb with a masculine singular subject and the fact that the word “Jerusalem” is absent from one Hebrew ms and the LXX. However, it is possible that this is a case where the noun “Jerusalem” is a defining apposition to the word “these people,” an apposition which GKC 425 §131.k calls “permutation.” In this case the verb could be attracted to the appositional noun and there would be no reason to emend the text. The MT is undoubtedly the harder reading and is for that reason to be preferred.

[8:5]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:5]  ²¹ tn Or “to their allegiance to false gods,” or “to their false professions of loyalty”; Heb “to deceit.” Either “to their mistaken beliefs” or “to their allegiance to false gods” would fit the preceding context. The former is more comprehensive than the latter and was chosen for that reason.

[8:5]  ²² sn There is a continuing play on the same root word used in the preceding verse. Here the words “turn away from me,” “apostasy,” and “turn back to me” are all forms from the root that was translated “go the wrong way” and “turn around” in v. 4. The intended effect is to contrast Judah’s recalcitrant apostasy with the usual tendency to try and correct one’s mistakes.

[8:6]  ²³ tn Heb “I have paid attention and I have listened.” This is another case of two concepts being joined by “and” where one expresses the main idea and the other acts as an adverbial or adjectival modifier (a figure called hendiadys).

[8:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “What have I done?” The addition of the word “wrong” is implicit in the context and is supplied in the translation for clarity. The rhetorical question does not function as a denial of wrongdoing, but rather as contrite shock at one’s own wrongdoing. It is translated as a declaration for the sake of clarity.

[8:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “each one of them turns aside into their own running course.”

[8:6]  sn The wordplay begun in v. 4 is continued here. The word translated “turns aside” in the literal translation and “wayward” in the translation is from the same root as “go the wrong way,” “turn around,” “turn away from me,” “apostasy,” “turn back to me.” What God hoped for were confessions of repentance and change of behavior; what he got was denial of wrongdoing and continued turning away from him.

[8:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “its appointed time.” The translation is contextually motivated to avoid lack of clarity.

[8:7]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the ordinance/requirement of the Lord.”

[7:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “foreigners consume his strength”; NRSV “devour (sap NIV) his strength.”

[4:8]  ³² tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ³³ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ³⁴ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[4:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.

[4:9]  ³⁶ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).

[4:9]  ³⁷ tn Or “gardens.”

[4:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”

[4:10]  ³⁹ tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”

[4:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[4:11]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

[4:11]  sn The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is described in Gen 19:1-29.

[4:11]  ⁴² tn Heb “like that which is burning.”

[1:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB); NIV “forefathers” (also in vv. 4, 5).

[1:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “to them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:3]  ⁴⁵ sn The epithet Lord who rules over all occurs frequently as a divine title throughout Zechariah (53 times total). This name (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, yÿhvah tsÿva’ot), traditionally translated “Lord of hosts” (so KJV, NAB, NASB; cf. NIV, NLT “Lord Almighty”; NCV, CEV “Lord All-Powerful”), emphasizes the majestic sovereignty of the Lord, an especially important concept in the postexilic world of great human empires and rulers. For a thorough study of the divine title, see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 123-57.

[1:3]  ⁴⁶ tn The Hebrew verb שׁוּב (shuv) is common in covenant contexts. To turn from the Lord is to break the covenant and to turn to him (i.e., to repent) is to renew the covenant relationship (cf. 2 Kgs 17:13).

[7:12]  ⁴⁷ tn The Hebrew term שָׁמִיר (shamir) means literally “hardness” and since it is said in Ezek 3:9 to be harder than flint, many scholars suggest that it refers to diamond. It is unlikely that diamond was known to ancient Israel, however, so probably a hard stone like emery or corundum is in view. The translation nevertheless uses “diamond” because in modern times it has become proverbial for its hardness. A number of English versions use “flint” here (e.g., NASB, NIV).

[7:13]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “he.” Since the third person pronoun refers to the Lord, it has been translated as a first person pronoun (“I”) to accommodate English style, which typically does not exhibit switches between persons of pronouns in the same immediate context as Hebrew does.

[2:21]  ⁴⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and contemporary English style.

[2:21]  ⁵⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to bring out the contrast present in this woman’s obstinate refusal to repent.

[9:20]  ⁵¹ tn The word “made” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[9:20]  ⁵² tn The Greek conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here or before the following materials in this list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[9:21]  ⁵³ tn Grk “and.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation, with “furthermore” used to indicate a continuation of the preceding.

[9:21]  ⁵⁴ tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”