Yesaya 2:9

2:9 Men bow down to them in homage,

they lie flat on the ground in worship. ¹ 

Don’t spare them! ² 

Yesaya 3:2-8

3:2 the mighty men and warriors,

judges and prophets,

omen readers and leaders, ³ 

3:3 captains of groups of fifty,

the respected citizens, ⁴ 

advisers and those skilled in magical arts, ⁵ 

and those who know incantations.

3:4 The Lord says, ⁶  “I will make youths their officials;

malicious young men ⁷  will rule over them.

3:5 The people will treat each other harshly;

men will oppose each other;

neighbors will fight. ⁸ 

Youths will proudly defy the elderly

and riffraff will challenge those who were once respected. ⁹ 

3:6 Indeed, a man will grab his brother

right in his father’s house ¹⁰  and say, ¹¹ 

‘You own a coat –

you be our leader!

This heap of ruins will be under your control.’ ¹² 

3:7 At that time ¹³  the brother will shout, ¹⁴ 

‘I am no doctor, ¹⁵ 

I have no food or coat in my house;

don’t make me a leader of the people!’”

3:8 Jerusalem certainly stumbles,

Judah falls,

for their words and their actions offend the Lord; ¹⁶ 

they rebel against his royal authority. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 5:15

5:15 Men will be humiliated,

they will be brought low;

the proud will be brought low. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 9:14-17

9:14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,

both the shoots and stalk ¹⁹  in one day.

9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people ²⁰  are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

9:16 The leaders of this nation were misleading people,

and the people being led were destroyed. ²¹ 

9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased ²²  with their young men,

he took no pity ²³  on their orphans and widows;

for the whole nation was godless ²⁴  and did wicked things, ²⁵ 

every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. ²⁶ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ²⁷ 

Yesaya 9:2

9:2 (9:1) The people walking in darkness

see a bright light; ²⁸ 

light shines

on those who live in a land of deep darkness. ²⁹ 

Yesaya 36:14-17

36:14 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you! 36:15 Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 36:16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. ³⁰  Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, 36:17 until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Yesaya 36:20

36:20 Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’” ³¹ 

Yeremia 5:3-6

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ³² 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ³³ 

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

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ³⁴ 

They refuse to change their ways. ³⁵ 

5:4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. ³⁶ 

They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. ³⁷ 

They do not know what their God requires of them. ³⁸ 

5:5 I will go to the leaders ³⁹ 

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands. ⁴⁰ 

Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ⁴¹ 

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him. ⁴² 

5:6 So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them.

Like a wolf from the desert they will destroy them.

Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their cities

and totally destroy anyone who ventures out. ⁴³ 

For they have rebelled so much

and done so many unfaithful things. ⁴⁴ 

Yeremia 23:11-13

23:11 Moreover, ⁴⁵  the Lord says, ⁴⁶ 

“Both the prophets and priests are godless.

I have even found them doing evil in my temple!

23:12 So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.

They will stumble and fall headlong.

For I will bring disaster on them.

A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ⁴⁷ 

The Lord affirms it! ⁴⁸ 

23:13 The Lord says, ⁴⁹  “I saw the prophets of Samaria ⁵⁰ 

doing something that was disgusting. ⁵¹ 

They prophesied in the name of the god Baal

and led my people Israel astray. ⁵² 

Yeremia 41:2

41:2 Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him stood up, pulled out their swords, and killed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan. Thus Ishmael killed the man that the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the country.

Yeremia 42:18

42:18 For ⁵³  the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁵⁴  says, ‘If you go to Egypt, I will pour out my wrath on you just as I poured out my anger and wrath on the citizens of Jerusalem. ⁵⁵  You will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ⁵⁶  You will never see this place again.’ ⁵⁷ 

Yeremia 44:11-13

44:11 “Because of this, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘I am determined to bring disaster on you, ⁵⁸  even to the point of destroying all the Judeans here. ⁵⁹  44:12 I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ⁶⁰  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ⁶¹  or perish from starvation. People of every class ⁶²  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ⁶³  44:13 I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt with war, starvation, and disease just as I punished Jerusalem.

Yeremia 52:24-30

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. ⁶⁴  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 ⁶⁵  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 ⁶⁶  at Riblah in the territory of Hamath.

So Judah was taken into exile away from its land. 52:28 Here is the official record of the number of people ⁶⁷  Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, ⁶⁸  3,023 Jews; 52:29 in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, ⁶⁹  832 people from Jerusalem; 52:30 in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, ⁷⁰  Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4,600 people went into exile.

Ratapan 4:13

מ (Mem)

4:13 But it happened ⁷¹  due to the sins of her prophets ⁷² 

and the iniquities of her priests,

who poured out in her midst

the blood of the righteous.

Ratapan 5:12-14

5:12 Princes were hung by their hands;

elders were mistreated. ⁷³ 

5:13 The young men perform menial labor; ⁷⁴ 

boys stagger from their labor. ⁷⁵ 

5:14 The elders are gone from the city gate;

the young men have stopped playing their music.

Yehezkiel 7:12-13

7:12 The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath ⁷⁶  comes against their whole crowd. 7:13 The customer will no longer pay the seller ⁷⁷  while both parties are alive, for the vision against their whole crowd ⁷⁸  will not be revoked. Each person, for his iniquity, ⁷⁹  will fail to preserve his life.

Yehezkiel 14:8-10

14:8 I will set my face against that person and will make him an object lesson and a byword ⁸⁰  and will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

14:9 “‘As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word – I, the Lord, have made a fool of ⁸¹  that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel. 14:10 They will bear their punishment; ⁸²  the punishment of the one who sought an oracle will be the same as the punishment of the prophet who gave it ⁸³ 

Daniel 9:5-8

9:5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 9:6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority ⁸⁴  to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, ⁸⁵  and to all the inhabitants ⁸⁶  of the land as well.

9:7 “You are righteous, ⁸⁷  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ⁸⁸  – the people ⁸⁹  of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 9:8 O LORD, we have been humiliated ⁹⁰  – our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors – because we have sinned against you.

Hosea 4:9

4:9 I will deal with the people and priests together: ⁹¹ 

I will punish them both for their ways,

and I will repay them for their deeds.

Efesus 6:8-9

6:8 because you know that each person, whether slave or free, if he does something good, this ⁹²  will be rewarded by the Lord.

6:9 Masters, ⁹³  treat your slaves ⁹⁴  the same way, ⁹⁵  giving up the use of threats, ⁹⁶  because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, ⁹⁷  and there is no favoritism with him.

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “men bow down, men are low.” Since the verbs שָׁחָח (shakhakh) and שָׁפַל (shafal) are used later in this discourse to describe how God will humiliate proud men (see vv. 11, 17), some understand v. 9a as a prediction of judgment, “men will be brought down, men will be humiliated.” However, these prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive appear to carry on the description that precedes and are better taken with the accusation. They draw attention to the fact that human beings actually bow down and worship before the lifeless products of their own hands.

[2:9]  ² tn Heb “don’t lift them up.” The idiom “lift up” (נָשָׂא with לְ, nasa’ with preposition lamed) can mean “spare, forgive” (see Gen 18:24, 26). Here the idiom plays on the preceding verbs. The idolaters are bowed low as they worship their false gods; the prophet asks God not to “lift them up.”

[3:2]  ³ tn Heb “elder” (so ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “older leaders.”

[3:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “the ones lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

[3:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the wise with respect to magic.” On the meaning of חֲרָשִׁים (kharashim, “magic”), see HALOT 358 s.v. III חרשׁ. Some understand here a homonym, meaning “craftsmen.” In this case, one could translate, “skilled craftsmen” (cf. NIV, NASB).

[3:4]  ⁶ tn The words “the Lord says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The prophet speaks in vv. 1-3 (note the third person reference to the Lord in v. 1), but here the Lord himself announces that he will intervene in judgment. It is unclear where the Lord’s words end and the prophet’s pick up again. The prophet is apparently speaking again by v. 8, where the Lord is referred to in the third person. Since vv. 4-7 comprise a thematic unity, the quotation probably extends through v. 7.

[3:4]  ⁷ tn תַעֲלוּלִים (ta’alulim) is often understood as an abstract plural meaning “wantonness, cruelty” (cf. NLT). In this case the chief characteristic of these leaders is substituted for the leaders themselves. However, several translations make the parallelism tighter by emending the form to עוֹלְלִים (’olÿlim, “children”; cf. ESV, NASB, NCV, NIV, NKJV, NRSV). This emendation is unnecessary for at least two reasons. The word in the MT highlights the cruelty or malice of the “leaders” who are left behind in the wake of God’s judgment. The immediate context makes clear the fact that they are mere youths. The coming judgment will sweep away the leaders, leaving a vacuum which will be filled by incompetent, inexperienced youths.

[3:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “man against man, and a man against his neighbor.”

[3:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “and those lightly esteemed those who are respected.” The verb רָהַב (rahav) does double duty in the parallelism.

[3:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[in] the house of his father” (so ASV); NIV “at his father’s home.”

[3:6]  ¹¹ tn The words “and say” are supplied for stylistic reasons.

[3:6]  ¹² tn Heb “your hand”; NASB “under your charge.”

[3:6]  sn The man’s motives are selfish. He tells his brother to assume leadership because he thinks he has some wealth to give away.

[3:7]  ¹³ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[3:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he will lift up [his voice].”

[3:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “wrapper [of wounds]”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “healer.”

[3:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for their tongue and their deeds [are] to the Lord.”

[3:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to rebel [against] the eyes of his majesty.” The word כָּבוֹד (kavod) frequently refers to the Lord’s royal splendor that is an outward manifestation of his authority as king.

[5:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “men are brought down, men are brought low, the eyes of pride are brought low.”

[9:14]  ¹⁹ sn The metaphor in this line is that of a reed being cut down.

[9:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

[9:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the ones being led were swallowed up.” Instead of taking מְבֻלָּעִים (mÿbulla’im) from בָּלַע (bala’, “to swallow”), HALOT 134 s.v. בלע proposes a rare homonymic root בלע (“confuse”) here.

[9:17]  ²² tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”

[9:17]  ²³ tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)

[9:17]  ²⁴ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”

[9:17]  ²⁵ tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.

[9:17]  ²⁶ tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.

[9:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[9:17]  sn See the note at 9:12.

[9:2]  ²⁸ sn The darkness symbolizes judgment and its effects (see 8:22); the light represents deliverance and its effects, brought about by the emergence of a conquering Davidic king (see vv. 3-6).

[9:2]  ²⁹ tn Traditionally צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmavet) has been interpreted as a compound noun, meaning “shadow of death” (so KJV, ASV, NIV), but usage indicates that the word, though it sometimes refers to death, means “darkness.” The term should probably be repointed as an abstract noun צַלְמוּת (tsalmut). See the note at Ps 23:4.

[36:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”

[36:20]  ³¹ tn Heb “that the Lord might rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” The logic runs as follows: Since no god has ever been able to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, how can the people of Jerusalem possibly think the Lord will rescue them?

[5:3]  ³² tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ³⁵ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[5:4]  ³⁶ 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]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:4]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ³⁹ tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”

[5:5]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ⁴² tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.

[5:6]  ⁴³ tn Heb “So a lion from the thicket will kill them. A wolf from the desert will destroy them. A leopard will watch outside their cities. Anyone who goes out from them will be torn in pieces.” However, it is unlikely that, in the context of judgment that Jeremiah has previously been describing, literal lions are meant. The animals are metaphorical for their enemies. Compare Jer 4:7.

[5:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “their rebellions are so many and their unfaithful acts so numerous.”

[23:11]  ⁴⁵ tn The particle כִּי (ki) which begins this verse is parallel to the one at the beginning of the preceding verse. However, the connection is too distant to render it “for.” “Moreover” is intended to draw the parallel. The words “the Lord says” (Heb “Oracle of the Lord”) have been drawn up to the front to introduce the shift in speaker from Jeremiah, who describes his agitated state, to God, who describes the sins of the prophets and priests and his consequent judgment on them.

[23:11]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:12]  ⁴⁷ tn For the last two lines see 11:23 and the notes there.

[23:12]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:13]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “The Lord says” are not in the text, but it is clear from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:13]  ⁵⁰ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[23:13]  ⁵¹ tn According to BDB 1074 s.v. תִּפְלָּה this word means “unseemly, unsavory.” The related adjective is used in Job 6:6 of the tastelessness of something that is unseasoned.

[23:13]  ⁵² tn Heb “by Baal.”

[23:13]  sn Prophesying in the name of the god Baal was a clear violation of Mosaic law and punishable by death (see Deut 13:1-5). For an example of the apostasy encouraged by prophets of Baal in the northern kingdom of Israel see 1 Kgs 18:16-40.

[42:18]  ⁵³ tn Or “Indeed.”

[42:18]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study note on 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title.

[42:18]  ⁵⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[42:18]  ⁵⁶ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[42:18]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “land.” The reference is, of course, to the land of Judah.

[44:11]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “Behold I am setting my face against you for evil/disaster.” For the meaning of the idiom “to set the face to/against” see the translator’s note on 42:15 and compare the references listed there.

[44:11]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “and to destroy all Judah.” However, this statement must be understood within the rhetoric of the passage (see vv. 7-8 and the study note on v. 8) and within the broader context of the Lord’s promises to restore the remnant who are in Babylon and those scattered in other lands (23:3; 24:5-6; 29:14; 30:3; 32:27). In this context “all Judah” must refer to all the Judeans living in Egypt whom Jeremiah is now addressing. This involves the figure of synecdoche where all does not extend to all individuals but to all that are further specified or implied (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 616-18, and the comments in H. Freedman, Jeremiah [SoBB], 285). The “and” in front of “to destroy” is to be understood as an example of the epexegetical use of the conjunction ו (vav; see BDB 252 s.v. וַ 1.b and compare the translation of J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 260).

[44:12]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “they set their face to go.” Compare 44:11 and 42:14 and see the translator’s note at 42:15.

[44:12]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “fall by the sword.”

[44:12]  ⁶² tn Or “All of them without distinction,” or “All of them from the least important to the most important”; Heb “From the least to the greatest.” See the translator’s note on 42:1 for the meaning of this idiom.

[44:12]  ⁶³ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[44:12]  sn See Jer 42:18 for parallel usage.

[52:24]  ⁶⁴ sn See the note at Jer 35:4.

[52:25]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “men, from the people of the land” (also later in this verse).

[52:27]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”

[52:28]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “these are the people.”

[52:28]  ⁶⁸ sn This would be 597 b.c.

[52:29]  ⁶⁹ sn This would be 586 b.c.

[52:30]  ⁷⁰ sn This would be 581 b.c.

[4:13]  ⁷¹ tn These words do not appear in the Hebrew, but are supplied to make sense of the line. The introductory causal preposition מִן (min) (“because”) indicates that this phrase – or something like it – is implied through elision.

[4:13]  ⁷² tn There is no main verb in the verse; it is an extended prepositional phrase. One must either assume a verbal idea such as “But it happened due to…” or connect it to the following verses, which themselves are quite difficult. The former option was employed in the present translation.

[5:12]  ⁷³ tn Heb “elders were shown no respect.” The phrase “shown no respect” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression of understatement: to show no respect to elders = to terribly mistreat elders.

[5:13]  ⁷⁴ tn The text is difficult. Word by word the MT has “young men hand mill(?) they take up” Perhaps it means “they take [our] young men for mill grinding,” or perhaps it means “the young men take up [the labor of] mill grinding.” This expression is an example of synecdoche where the mill stands for the labor at the mill and then that labor stands for performing menial physical labor as servants. The surface reading, “young men carry hand mills,” does not portray any great adversity for them. The Vulgate translates as an abusive sexual metaphor (see D. R. Hillers, Lamentations [AB], 99), but this gives no known parallel to the second part of the verse.

[5:13]  ⁷⁵ tc Heb “boys trip over wood.” This phrase makes little sense. The translation adopts D. R. Hillers’ suggestion (Lamentations [AB], 99) of בְּעֶצֶב כָּשָׁלוּ (bÿ’etsev kashalu). Due to letter confusion and haplography the final ב (bet) of בְּעֶצֶב (bÿ’etsev) which looks like the כ (kaf) beginning the next word, was dropped. This verb can have an abstract noun after the preposition ב (bet) meaning “from, due to” rather than “over.”

[7:12]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “wrath.” Context clarifies that God’s wrath is in view.

[7:13]  ⁷⁷ tc The translation follows the LXX for the first line of the verse, although the LXX has lost the second line due to homoioteleuton (similar endings of the clauses). The MT reads “The seller will not return to the sale.” This Hebrew reading has been construed as a reference to land redemption, the temporary sale of the use of property, with property rights returned to the seller in the year of Jubilee. But the context has no other indicator that land redemption is in view. If correct, the LXX evidence suggests that one of the cases of “the customer” has been replaced by “the seller” in the MT, perhaps due to hoimoioarcton (similar beginnings of the words).

[7:13]  ⁷⁸ tn The Hebrew word refers to the din or noise made by a crowd, and by extension may refer to the crowd itself.

[7:13]  ⁷⁹ tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in v. 16; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 18:17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”

[14:8]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “proverbs.”

[14:9]  ⁸¹ tn The translation is uncertain due to difficulty both in determining the meaning of the verb’s stem and its conjugation in this context. In the Qal stem the basic meaning of the verbal root פָּתַה (patah) is “to be gullible, foolish.” The doubling stems (the Pual and Piel used in this verse) typically give such stative verbs a factitive sense, hence either “make gullible” (i.e., “entice”) or “make into a fool” (i.e., “to show to be a fool”). The latter represents the probable meaning of the term in Jer 20:7, 10 and is followed here (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:193; R. Mosis “Ez 14, 1-11 - ein Ruf zur Umkehr,” BZ 19 [1975]: 166-69 and ThWAT 4:829-31). In this view, if a prophet speaks when not prompted by God, he will be shown to be a fool, but this does not reflect negatively on the Lord because it is God who shows him to be a fool. Secondly, the verb is in the perfect conjugation and may be translated “I have made a fool of him” or “I have enticed him,” or to show determination (see IBHS 439-41 §27.2f and g), or in certain syntactical constructions as future. Any of these may be plausible if the doubling stems used are understood in the sense of “making a fool of.” But if understood as “to make gullible,” more factors come into play. As the Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, it is often translated as present perfect: “I have enticed.” In this case the Lord states that he himself enticed the prophet to cooperate with the idolaters. Such enticement to sin would seem to be a violation of God’s moral character, but sometimes he does use such deception and enticement to sin as a form of punishment against those who have blatantly violated his moral will (see, e.g., 2 Sam 24). If one follows this line of interpretation in Ezek 14:9, one would have to assume that the prophet had already turned from God in his heart. However, the context gives no indication of this. Therefore, it is better to take the perfect as indicating certitude and to translate it with the future tense: “I will entice.” In this case the Lord announces that he will judge the prophet appropriately. If a prophet allows himself to be influenced by idolaters, then the Lord will use deception as a form of punishment against that deceived prophet. A comparison with the preceding oracles also favors this view. In 14:4 the perfect of certitude is used for emphasis (see “I will answer”), though in v. 7 a participle is employed. For a fuller discussion of this text, see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 23-25.

[14:10]  ⁸² tn Or “They will bear responsibility for their iniquity.” The Hebrew term “iniquity” (three times in this verse) often refers by metonymy to the consequence of sin (see Gen 4:13).

[14:10]  ⁸³ tn Or “As is the guilt of the inquirer so is the guilt of the prophet.”

[9:6]  ⁸⁴ tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate, “as your representatives.”

[9:6]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “our fathers” (also in vv. 8, 16). The Hebrew term translated “father” can refer to more distant relationships such as grandfathers or ancestors.

[9:6]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “people.”

[9:7]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “to you (belongs) righteousness.”

[9:7]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “and to us (belongs) shame of face like this day.”

[9:7]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “men.”

[9:8]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “to us (belongs) shame of face.”

[4:9]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “And it shall be, like people, like priest” (so ASV); NAB “The priests shall fare no better than the people.”

[6:8]  ⁹² sn The pronoun “this” (τοῦτο, touto) stands first in its clause for emphasis, and stresses the fact that God will reward those, who in seeking him, do good.

[6:9]  ⁹³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:9]  ⁹⁴ tn Though the Greek text only has αὐτούς (autous, “them”), the antecedent is the slaves of the masters. Therefore, it was translated this way to make it explicit in English.

[6:9]  ⁹⁵ tn Grk “do the same things to them.”

[6:9]  ⁹⁶ tn Grk “giving up the threat.”

[6:9]  ⁹⁷ tn Grk “because of both they and you, the Lord is, in heaven…”