Yehezkiel 3:9-11

3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! ¹  Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, ²  for they are a rebellious house.”

3:10 And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully. 3:11 Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, ³  and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”

Yehezkiel 3:2

3:2 So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll.

Kisah Para Rasul 25:18-22

25:18 When his accusers stood up, they did not charge ⁴  him with any of the evil deeds I had suspected. ⁵  25:19 Rather they had several points of disagreement ⁶  with him about their own religion ⁷  and about a man named Jesus ⁸  who was dead, whom Paul claimed ⁹  to be alive. 25:20 Because I was at a loss ¹⁰  how I could investigate these matters, ¹¹  I asked if he were willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried ¹²  there on these charges. ¹³  25:21 But when Paul appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of His Majesty the Emperor, ¹⁴  I ordered him to be kept under guard until I could send him to Caesar.” ¹⁵  25:22 Agrippa ¹⁶  said to Festus, ¹⁷  “I would also like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he replied, ¹⁸  “you will hear him.”

Yeremia 52:24-27

52:24 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹  52:25 From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ²⁰  for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city. 52:26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 52:27 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed ²¹  at Riblah in the territory of Hamath.

So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.

[3:9]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “diamond” is parallel to “iron” in Jer 17:1. The Hebrew uses two terms which are both translated at times as “flint,” but here one is clearly harder than the other. The translation “diamond” attempts to reflect this distinction in English.

[3:9]  ² tn Heb “of their faces.”

[3:11]  ³ tn Heb “to the sons of your people.”

[25:18]  ⁴ tn Grk “they brought no charge of any of the evil deeds.” BDAG 31 s.v. αἰτία 3.b has “αἰτίαν φέρειν…bring an accusation Ac 25:18.” Since κατήγοροι (kathgoroi, “accusers”) in the previous clause is somewhat redundant with this, “charge” was used instead.

[25:18]  ⁵ tn Or “I was expecting.”

[25:19]  ⁶ tn Grk “several controversial issues.” BDAG 428 s.v. ζήτημα states, “in our lit. only in Ac, w. the mng. it still has in Mod. Gk. (controversial) question, issue, argument…Ac 15:2; 26:3. ζ. περί τινος questions about someth.…18:15; 25:19.”

[25:19]  ⁷ tn On this term see BDAG 216 s.v. δεισιδαιμονία 2. It is a broad term for religion.

[25:19]  sn About their own religion. Festus made it clear that in his view as a neutral figure (and as one Luke had noted was disposed to help the Jews), he saw no guilt in Paul. The issue was a simple religious dispute.

[25:19]  ⁸ tn Grk “a certain Jesus.”

[25:19]  ⁹ tn Or “asserted.”

[25:20]  ¹⁰ tn Or “Because I was undecided.” Grk “Being at a loss.” The participle ἀπορούμενος (aporoumeno") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

[25:20]  ¹¹ tn L&N 27.34 states, “ἀπορούμενος δὲ ἐγὼ τὴν περὶ τούτων ζήτησιν ‘I was undecided about how I could get information on these matters’ Ac 25:20. The clause ‘about how I could get information on these matters’ may also be rendered as ‘about how I should try to find out about these matters’ or ‘about how I could learn about these matters.’”

[25:20]  ¹² tn Or “stand trial.”

[25:20]  ¹³ tn Grk “on these things.”

[25:21]  ¹⁴ tn A designation of the Roman emperor (in this case, Nero). BDAG 917 s.v. σεβαστός states, “ὁ Σεβαστός His Majesty the Emperor Ac 25:21, 25 (of Nero).” It was a translation into Greek of the Latin “Augustus.”

[25:21]  ¹⁵ tn Or “to the emperor” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).

[25:22]  ¹⁶ sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.

[25:22]  ¹⁷ sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.

[25:22]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “said.”

[52:24]  ¹⁹ sn See the note at Jer 35:4.

[52:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “men, from the people of the land” (also later in this verse).

[52:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”