Yesaya 28:15

28:15 For you say,

“We have made a treaty with death,

with Sheol ¹  we have made an agreement. ² 

When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ³ 

it will not reach us.

For we have made a lie our refuge,

we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ⁴ 

Yudas 1:5

1:5 Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts ⁵  once for all ⁶ ) that Jesus, ⁷  having saved the ⁸  people out of the land of Egypt, later ⁹  destroyed those who did not believe.

Yudas 1:13

1:13 wild sea waves, ¹⁰  spewing out the foam of ¹¹  their shame; ¹²  wayward stars ¹³  for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness ¹⁴  have been reserved.

Yudas 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ¹⁵ 

1 Samuel 16:20-23

16:20 So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a container of wine, and a young goat ¹⁶  and sent them to Saul with ¹⁷  his son David. 16:21 David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul liked him a great deal, ¹⁸  and he became his armor bearer. 16:22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse saying, “Let David be my servant, for I really like him.” ¹⁹ 

16:23 So whenever the spirit from God would come upon Saul, David would take his lyre and play it. This would bring relief to Saul and make him feel better. Then the evil spirit would leave him alone. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 10:11

10:11 He says to himself, ²¹ 

“God overlooks it;

he does not pay attention;

he never notices.” ²² 

Mazmur 14:1

Psalm 14 ²³ 

For the music director; by David.

14:1 Fools say to themselves, ²⁴  “There is no God.” ²⁵ 

They sin and commit evil deeds; ²⁶ 

none of them does what is right. ²⁷ 

Mazmur 36:2

36:2 for he is too proud

to recognize and give up his sin. ²⁸ 

Mazmur 94:5-11

94:5 O Lord, they crush your people;

they oppress the nation that belongs to you. ²⁹ 

94:6 They kill the widow and the one residing outside his native land,

and they murder the fatherless. ³⁰ 

94:7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.” ³¹ 

94:8 Take notice of this, ³²  you ignorant people! ³³ 

You fools, when will you ever understand?

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see? ³⁴ 

94:10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?

He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!

94:11 The Lord knows that

peoples’ thoughts are morally bankrupt. ³⁵ 

Yeremia 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ³⁶ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ³⁷ 

Yeremia 8:5-9

8:5 Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem ³⁸ 

continually turn away from me in apostasy?

They hold fast to their deception. ³⁹ 

They refuse to turn back to me. ⁴⁰ 

8:6 I have listened to them very carefully, ⁴¹ 

but they do not speak honestly.

None of them regrets the evil he has done.

None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ⁴² 

All of them persist in their own wayward course ⁴³ 

like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

8:7 Even the stork knows

when it is time to move on. ⁴⁴ 

The turtledove, swallow, and crane ⁴⁵ 

recognize ⁴⁶  the normal times for their migration.

But my people pay no attention

to ⁴⁷  what I, the Lord, require of them. ⁴⁸ 

8:8 How can you say, “We are wise!

We have the law of the Lord”?

The truth is, ⁴⁹  those who teach it ⁵⁰  have used their writings

to make it say what it does not really mean. ⁵¹ 

8:9 Your wise men will be put to shame.

They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. ⁵² 

Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,

what wisdom do they really have?

Yeremia 23:10

23:10 For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. ⁵³ 

They live wicked lives and they misuse their power. ⁵⁴ 

So the land is dried up ⁵⁵  because it is under his curse. ⁵⁶ 

The pastures in the wilderness are withered.

Yeremia 23:14

23:14 But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ⁵⁷ 

doing something just as shocking.

They are unfaithful to me

and continually prophesy lies. ⁵⁸ 

So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,

with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ⁵⁹ 

I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom,

and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ⁶⁰ 

Yeremia 23:24

23:24 “Do you really think anyone can hide himself

where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. ⁶¹ 

“Do you not know that I am everywhere?” ⁶² 

the Lord asks. ⁶³ 

Yeremia 28:15-16

28:15 Then the prophet Jeremiah told the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you! You are making these people trust in a lie! ⁶⁴  28:16 So the Lord says, ‘I will most assuredly remove ⁶⁵  you from the face of the earth. You will die this very year because you have counseled rebellion against the Lord.’” ⁶⁶ 

Yeremia 44:15-19

44:15 Then all the men who were aware that their wives were sacrificing to other gods, as well as all their wives, answered Jeremiah. There was a great crowd of them representing all the people who lived in northern and southern Egypt. ⁶⁷  They answered, 44:16 “We will not listen to what you claim the Lord has spoken to us! ⁶⁸  44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ⁶⁹  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ⁷⁰  just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. ⁷¹  44:18 But ever since we stopped sacrificing and pouring out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in great need. Our people have died in wars or of starvation.” ⁷²  44:19 The women added, ⁷³  “We did indeed sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven. But it was with the full knowledge and approval of our husbands that we made cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her.” ⁷⁴ 

Yehezkiel 13:10-11

13:10 “‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” ⁷⁵  when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, ⁷⁶  they coat it with whitewash. 13:11 Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones ⁷⁷  will fall and a violent wind will break out. ⁷⁸ 

Yehezkiel 13:22

13:22 This is because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies (although I have not grieved him), and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct and preserve his life.

Zefanya 1:12

1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ⁷⁹ 

those who think to themselves, ⁸⁰ 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ⁸¹ 

Yohanes 16:2

16:2 They will put you out of ⁸²  the synagogue, ⁸³  yet a time ⁸⁴  is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. ⁸⁵ 

Kisah Para Rasul 26:9

26:9 Of course, ⁸⁶  I myself was convinced ⁸⁷  that it was necessary to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus the Nazarene.

[28:15]  ¹ sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.

[28:15]  ² tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.

[28:15]  ³ tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).

[28:15]  ⁴ sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.

[1:5]  ⁵ tn Grk “knowing all things.” The subject of the participle “knowing” (εἰδότας, eidota") is an implied ὑμᾶς (Jumas), though several ancient witnesses actually add it. The πάντα (panta) takes on an adverbial force in this context (“fully”), intensifying how acquainted the readers are with the following points.

[1:5]  sn That Jude comments on his audience’s prior knowledge of what he is about to tell them (you have been fully informed of these facts) may imply that they were familiar with 2 Peter. In 2 Pet 2:4ff., the same illustrations from the OT are drawn. See the note on the following phrase once for all.

[1:5]  ⁶ tc ‡ Some translations take ἅπαξ (Japax) with the following clause (thus, “[Jesus,] having saved the people once for all”). Such a translation presupposes that ἅπαξ is a part of the ὅτι (Joti) clause. The reading of NA²⁷, πάντα ὅτι [ὁ] κύριος ἅπαξ (panta {oti [Jo] kurio" {apax), suggests this interpretation (though with “Lord” instead of “Jesus”). This particle is found before λαόν (laon) in the ὅτι clause in א C* Ψ 630 1241 1243 1505 1739 1846 1881 pc co. But ἅπαξ is found before the ὅτι clause in most witnesses, including several important ones (Ì⁷² A B C² 33 81 623 2344 Ï vg). What seems best able to explain the various placements of the adverb is that scribes were uncomfortable with ἅπαξ referring to the readers’ knowledge, feeling it was more appropriate to the theological significance of “saved” (σώσας, swsas).

[1:5]  sn In this translation, Jude is stressing that the readers have been informed once for all of the OT illustrations he is about to mention. Where would they get this information? Most likely from having read 2 Peter. Earlier Jude used the same adverb to indicate that these believers had a written record of the faith. This seems to be his implication here, too. Thus, for the second time Jude is appealing to the written documents of the early church as authoritative as opposed to the messages of the false teachers. As the 1st century began to draw to a close, the early church found itself increasingly dependent on the letters and gospels of the apostles and their associates. Once those apostles died, false apostles and false teachers sprang up, like wolves in sheep’s clothing (cf. Acts 20:29-30). To combat this, some of the latest books of the NT stressed the authority of what had been written (so Hebrews, Jude, Ephesians, 1 John). Although these writers anticipated the return of the Lord, they also braced their audiences for a delay of the parousia (the second coming of Christ) by suggesting that when they were gone the NT documents should guide them.

[1:5]  ⁷ tc ‡ The reading ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsous, “Jesus”) is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel. However, not only does this reading enjoy the strongest support from a variety of early witnesses (e.g., A B 33 81 1241 1739 1881 2344 pc vg co Or^1739mg), but the plethora of variants demonstrate that scribes were uncomfortable with it, for they seemed to exchange κύριος (kurios, “Lord”) or θεός (qeos, “God”) for ᾿Ιησοῦς (though Ì⁷² has the intriguing reading θεὸς Χριστός [qeos Cristos, “God Christ”] for ᾿Ιησοῦς). In addition to the evidence supplied in NA²⁷ for this reading, note also {88 322 323 424^c 665 915 2298 eth Cyr Hier Bede}. As difficult as the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is, in light of v. 4 and in light of the progress of revelation (Jude being one of the last books in the NT to be composed), it is wholly appropriate.

[1:5]  sn The construction our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ in v. 4 follows Granville Sharp’s rule (see note on Lord). The construction strongly implies the deity of Christ. This is followed by a statement that Jesus was involved in the salvation (and later judgment) of the Hebrews. He is thus to be identified with the Lord God, Yahweh. Verse 5, then, simply fleshes out what is implicit in v. 4.

[1:5]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps “a,” though this is less likely.

[1:5]  ⁹ tn Grk “the second time.”

[1:13]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”

[1:13]  ¹¹ tn Grk “foaming, causing to foam.” The verb form is intensive and causative. BDAG 360 s.v. ἐπαφρίζω suggests the meaning “to cause to splash up like froth, cause to foam,” or, in this context, “waves casting up their own shameless deeds like (dirty) foam.”

[1:13]  ¹² tn Grk “shames, shameful things.” It is uncertain whether shameful deeds or shameful words are in view. Either way, the picture has taken a decided turn: Though waterless clouds and fruitless trees may promise good things, but deliver nothing, wild sea-waves are portents of filth spewed forth from the belly of the sea.

[1:13]  ¹³ sn The imagery of a star seems to fit the nautical theme that Jude is developing. Stars were of course the guides to sailors at night, just as teachers are responsible to lead the flock through a benighted world. But false teachers, as wayward stars, are not fixed and hence offer unreliable, even disastrous guidance. They are thus both the dangerous reefs on which the ships could be destroyed and the false guides, leading them into these rocks. There is a special irony that these lights will be snuffed out, reserved for the darkest depths of eternal darkness.

[1:13]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.

[1:2]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[16:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a kid of the goats.”

[16:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[16:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he loved him.”

[16:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my eyes.”

[16:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “would turn aside from upon him.”

[10:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “he says in his heart.” See v. 6.

[10:11]  ²² tn Heb “God forgets, he hides his face, he never sees.”

[14:1]  ²³ sn Psalm 14. The psalmist observes that the human race is morally corrupt. Evildoers oppress God’s people, but the psalmist is confident of God’s protection and anticipates a day when God will vindicate Israel.

[14:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a fool says in his heart.” The singular is used here in a collective or representative sense; the typical fool is envisioned.

[14:1]  ²⁵ sn “There is no God.” The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see Ps 10:4, 11).

[14:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they act corruptly, they make a deed evil.” The verbs describe the typical behavior of the wicked. The subject of the plural verbs is “sons of man” (v. 2). The entire human race is characterized by sinful behavior. This practical atheism – living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions – makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

[14:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”

[36:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for it causes to be smooth to him in his eyes to find his sin to hate.” The meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. Perhaps the point is this: His rebellious attitude makes him reject any notion that God will hold him accountable. His attitude also prevents him from recognizing and repudiating his sinful ways.

[94:5]  ²⁹ tn Or “your inheritance.”

[94:6]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14; 68:5; 82:3; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).

[94:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “does not understand.”

[94:8]  ³² tn Heb “understand.” The verb used in v. 7 is repeated here for rhetorical effect. The people referred to here claim God is ignorant of their actions, but the psalmist corrects their faulty viewpoint.

[94:8]  ³³ tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”

[94:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”

[94:11]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are emptiness.” The psalmist thinks specifically of the “thoughts” expressed in v. 7.

[5:31]  ³⁶ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ³⁷ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[8:5]  ³⁸ 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]  ³⁹ 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]  ⁴⁰ 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]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² 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]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “its appointed time.” The translation is contextually motivated to avoid lack of clarity.

[8:7]  ⁴⁵ 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]  ⁴⁶ 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]  ⁴⁷ 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]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the ordinance/requirement of the Lord.”

[8:8]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “Surely, behold!”

[8:8]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “the scribes.”

[8:8]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “The lying pen of the scribes have made [it] into a lie.” The translation is an attempt to make the most common interpretation of this passage understandable for the average reader. This is, however, a difficult passage whose interpretation is greatly debated and whose syntax is capable of other interpretations. The interpretation of the NJPS, “Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored, for naught the scribes,” surely deserves consideration within the context; i.e. it hasn’t done any good for the scribes to produce a reliable copy of the law, which the people have refused to follow. That interpretation has the advantage of explaining the absence of an object for the verb “make” or “labored” but creates a very unbalanced poetic couplet.

[8:9]  ⁵² tn Heb “be trapped.” However, the word “trapped” generally carries with it the connotation of divine judgment. See BDB 540 s.v. לָכַד Niph.2, and compare usage in Jer 6:11 for support. The verbs in the first two lines are again the form of the Hebrew verb that emphasizes that the action is as good as done (Hebrew prophetic perfects).

[23:10]  ⁵³ tn Heb “adulterers.” But spiritual adultery is clearly meant as also in 3:8-9; 9:2, and probably also 5:7.

[23:10]  ⁵⁴ tn For the word translated “They live…lives” see usage in Jer 8:6. For the idea of “misusing” their power (Heb “their power is not right” i.e., used in the wrong way) see 2 Kgs 7:9; 17:9. In the original text this line (really two lines in the Hebrew poetry) are at the end of the verse. However, this places the antecedent too far away and could lead to confusion. The lines have been rearranged to avoid such confusion.

[23:10]  ⁵⁵ tn For the use of this verb see 12:4 and the note there.

[23:10]  ⁵⁶ tc The translation follows the majority of Hebrew mss (מֵאָלָה, me’alah) rather than the Greek and Syriac version and a few Hebrew mss which read “because of these” (מֵאֵלֶּה [me’elleh], referring to the people unfaithful to him).

[23:10]  sn The curse is, of course, the covenant curse. See Deut 29:20-21 (29:19-20 HT) and for the specific curse see Deut 28:23-24. The curse is appropriate since their “adultery” lay in attributing their fertility to the god Baal (see Hos 2:9-13 (2:11-15 HT) and violating the covenant (see Hos 4:1-3).

[23:14]  ⁵⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[23:14]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “they commit adultery and deal falsely.” The word “shocking” only occurs here and in 5:30 where it is found in the context of prophesying lies. This almost assures that the reference to “walking in lies” (Heb “in the lie”) is referring to false prophesy. Moreover the references to the prophets in 5:13 and in 14:13-15 are all in the context of false prophesy as are the following references in this chapter in 23:24, 26, 32 and in 28:15. This appears to be the theme of this section. This also makes it likely that the reference to adultery is not literal adultery, though two of the false prophets in Babylon were guilty of this (29:23). The reference to “encouraging those who do evil” that follows also makes more sense if they were preaching messages of comfort rather than messages of doom. The verbs here are infinitive absolutes in place of the finite verb, probably used to place greater emphasis on the action (cf. Hos 4:2 in a comparable judgment speech.)

[23:14]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “So they strengthen the hands of those doing evil so that they do not turn back from their evil.” For the use of the figure “strengthen the hands” meaning “encourage” see Judg 9:24; Ezek 13:22 (and cf. BDB 304 s.v. חָזַק Piel.2). The vav consecutive on the front of the form gives the logical consequence equivalent to “so” in the translation.

[23:14]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “All of them are to me like Sodom and its [Jerusalem’s] inhabitants like Gomorrah.”

[23:14]  sn The rhetoric of this passage is very forceful. Like Amos who focuses attention on the sins of the surrounding nations to bring out more forcefully the heinousness of Israel’s sin, God focuses attention on the sins of the prophets of Samaria to bring out the even worse sin of the prophets of Jerusalem. (The oracle is directed at them, not at the prophets of Samaria. See the announcement of judgment that follows.) The Lord has already followed that tack with Judah in Jeremiah 2 (cf. 2:11). Moreover, he here compares the prophets and the evil-doing citizens of Jerusalem, whom they were encouraging through their false prophesy, to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah who were proverbial for their wickedness (Deut 32:32; Isa 1:10).

[23:24]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ⁶² tn The words “Don’t you know” are not in the text. They are a way of conveying the idea that the question which reads literally “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” expects a positive answer. They follow the pattern used at the beginning of the previous two questions and continue that thought. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:24]  ⁶³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[28:15]  ⁶⁴ tn Or “You are giving these people false assurances.”

[28:16]  ⁶⁵ sn There is a play on words here in Hebrew between “did not send you” and “will…remove you.” The two verbs are from the same root word in Hebrew. The first is the simple active and the second is the intensive.

[28:16]  ⁶⁶ sn In giving people false assurances of restoration when the Lord had already told them to submit to Babylon, Hananiah was really counseling rebellion against the Lord. What Hananiah had done was contrary to the law of Deut 13:6 and was punishable by death.

[44:15]  ⁶⁷ tn The translation is very interpretive at several key points: Heb “Then all the men who were aware that their wives were sacrificing to other gods and all their wives who were standing by, a great crowd/congregation, and all the people who were living in the land of Egypt in Pathros answered, saying.” It is proper to assume that the phrase “a great crowd” is appositional to “all the men…and their wives….” It is also probably proper to assume that the phrase “who were standing by” is unnecessary to the English translation. What is interpretive is the assumption that the “and all the people who were living in Egypt in Pathros” is explicative of “the great crowd” and that the phrase “in Pathros” is conjunctive and not appositional. Several commentaries and English versions (e.g., J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 678-79, n. 2; NJPS) assume that the phrase is descriptive of a second group, i.e., all the Jews from Pathros in Egypt (i.e., southern Egypt [see the study note on 44:1]). Those who follow this interpretation generally see this as a gloss (see Thompson, 678, n. 2, and also W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:279, n. 15b). It is probably better to assume that the phrase is explicative and that “all” is used in the same rhetorical way that it has been used within the chapter, i.e., “all” = representatives of all. Likewise the phrase “in Pathros” should be assumed to be conjunctive as in the Syriac translation and as suggested by BHS fn c since Jeremiah’s answer in vv. 24, 26 is directed to all the Judeans living in Egypt.

[44:16]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “the word [or message] you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord.” For an explanation of the rendering of “in the name of the Lord” see the study notes on 10:25 and 23:27.

[44:17]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.

[44:17]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” The expressions have been combined to simplify and shorten the sentence. The same combination also occurs in vv. 18, 19.

[44:17]  sn See the translator’s note and the study note on 7:18 for the problem of translation and identification of the term translated here “the goddess called the Queen of Heaven.”

[44:17]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”

[44:18]  ⁷² tn Heb “we have been consumed/destroyed by sword or by starvation.” The “we” cannot be taken literally here since they are still alive.

[44:18]  sn What is being contrasted here is the relative peace and prosperity under the reign of Manasseh, who promoted all kinds of pagan cults including the worship of astral deities (2 Kgs 21:2-9), and the disasters that befell Judah after the reforms of Josiah, which included the removal of all the cult images and altars from Jerusalem and Judah (2 Kgs 23:4-15). The disasters included the death of Josiah himself at the battle of Megiddo, the deportation of his son Jehoahaz to Egypt, the death of Jehoiakim, the deportation of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) and many other Judeans in 597 b.c., the death by war, starvation, and disease of many Judeans during the siege of Jerusalem in 588-86 b.c., and the captivity of many of those who survived. Instead of seeing these as punishments for their disobedience to the Lord as Jeremiah had preached to them, they saw these as consequences of their failure to continue the worship of the foreign gods.

[44:19]  ⁷³ tc The words “And the women added” are not in the Hebrew text. They are, however, implicit in what is said. They are found in the Syriac version and in one recension of the Greek version. W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:279, n. 19a) suggests that these words are missing from the Hebrew text because of haplography, i.e., that the scribe left out וַהַנָּשִׁים אָמְרוּ כִי (vahannashim ’omru khi) because his eye jumped from the ו at the beginning to the כִּי (ki) that introduced the temporal clause and left out everything in between. It is, however, just as likely, given the fact that there are several other examples of quotes which have not been formally introduced in the book of Jeremiah, that the words were not there and are supplied by these two ancient versions as a translator’s clarification.

[44:19]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “When we sacrificed and poured out drink offering to the Queen of Heaven and made cakes in her image, wasn’t it with the knowledge and approval of our husbands?” Heb “When we sacrificed to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings [for the use of לְ (lamed) + the infinitive construct to carry on the tense of the preceding verb see BDB 518 s.v. לְ 7.b(h)] to her, did we make cakes to make an image of her and pour out drink offerings apart from [i.e., “without the knowledge and consent of,” so BDB 116 s.v. בִּלְעֲדֵי b(a)] our husbands?” The question expects a positive answer and has been rendered as an affirmation in the translation. The long, complex Hebrew sentence has again been broken in two and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.

[44:19]  sn According to Jer 7:18-19 it was not only with the full knowledge and approval of their husbands but also with their active participation. Most of the commentaries call attention to the fact that what is being alluded to here is that a woman’s vow had to have her husband’s conscious approval to have any validity (cf. Num 30:7-16 and see the reference to the vow in v. 17).

[13:10]  ⁷⁵ tn Or “peace.”

[13:10]  ⁷⁶ tn The Hebrew word only occurs here in the Bible. According to L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:202-3) it is also used in the Mishnah of a wall of rough stones without mortar. This fits the context here comparing the false prophetic messages to a nice coat of whitewash on a structurally unstable wall.

[13:11]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “and you, O hailstones.”

[13:11]  ⁷⁸ sn A violent wind will break out. God’s judgments are frequently described in storm imagery (Pss 18:7-15; 77:17-18; 83:15; Isa 28:17; 30:30; Jer 23:19; 30:23).

[1:12]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.

[1:12]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”

[16:2]  ⁸² tn Or “expel you from.”

[16:2]  ⁸³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[16:2]  ⁸⁴ tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:2]  ⁸⁵ sn Jesus now refers not to the time of his return to the Father, as he has frequently done up to this point, but to the disciples’ time of persecution. They will be excommunicated from Jewish synagogues. There will even be a time when those who kill Jesus’ disciples will think that they are offering service to God by putting the disciples to death. Because of the reference to service offered to God, it is almost certain that Jewish opposition is intended here in both cases rather than Jewish opposition in the first instance (putting the disciples out of synagogues) and Roman opposition in the second (putting the disciples to death). Such opposition materializes later and is recorded in Acts: The stoning of Stephen in 7:58-60 and the slaying of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:2-3 are notable examples.

[26:9]  ⁸⁶ tn BDAG 737 s.v. οὖν 3 states, “It has been proposed that some traces of older Gk. usage in which οὖν is emphatic, = certainly, really, to be sure etc. (s. L-S-J-M s.v. 1) remain in the pap…and in the NT…indeed, of course Ac 26:9.”

[26:9]  ⁸⁷ tn Grk “I thought to myself.” BDAG 255 s.v. δοκέω 2.a has “ἔδοξα ἐμαυτῷ δεῖν πρᾶξαι = Lat. mihi videbar I was convinced that it was necessary to do Ac 26:9.”