Yeremia 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ¹ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ² 

Yeremia 6:13

6:13 “That is because, from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all of them practice deceit.

Yeremia 8:10

8:10 ³ So I will give their wives to other men

and their fields to new owners.

For from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all practice deceit.

Yehezkiel 22:25-31

22:25 Her princes ⁴  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ⁵  within it. 22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ⁶  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ⁷  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst. 22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ⁸  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ⁹ 

22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ¹⁰  22:31 So I have poured my anger on them, and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I hereby repay them for what they have done, ¹¹  declares the sovereign Lord.”

Hosea 6:9

6:9 The company of priests is like a gang of robbers,

lying in ambush to pounce on a victim.

They commit murder on the road to Shechem;

they have done heinous crimes!

Mikha 3:11

3:11 Her ¹²  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ¹³ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ¹⁴  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ¹⁵ 

Disaster will not overtake ¹⁶  us!”

Mikha 7:2-3

7:2 Faithful men have disappeared ¹⁷  from the land;

there are no godly men left. ¹⁸ 

They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ¹⁹ 

they hunt their own brother with a net. ²⁰ 

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ²¹ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ²² 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ²³ 

Zefanya 3:1-4

Jerusalem is Corrupt

3:1 The filthy, ²⁴  stained city is as good as dead;

the city filled with oppressors is finished! ²⁵ 

3:2 She is disobedient; ²⁶ 

she refuses correction. ²⁷ 

She does not trust the Lord;

she does not seek the advice of ²⁸  her God.

3:3 Her princes ²⁹  are as fierce as roaring lions; ³⁰ 

her rulers ³¹  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ³² 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ³³ 

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ³⁴ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ³⁵ 

they break God’s laws. ³⁶ 

Matius 21:38-39

21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ 21:39 So ³⁷  they seized him, ³⁸  threw him out of the vineyard, ³⁹  and killed him.

Matius 26:3-4

26:3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people met together in the palace of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas. 26:4 They ⁴⁰  planned to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

Matius 26:15

26:15 and said, “What will you give me to betray him into your hands?” ⁴¹  So they set out thirty silver coins for him.

Yohanes 11:53

11:53 So from that day they planned together to kill him.

Kisah Para Rasul 23:12-15

The Plot to Kill Paul

23:12 When morning came, ⁴²  the Jews formed ⁴³  a conspiracy ⁴⁴  and bound themselves with an oath ⁴⁵  not to eat or drink anything ⁴⁶  until they had killed Paul. 23:13 There were more than forty of them who formed this conspiracy. ⁴⁷  23:14 They ⁴⁸  went ⁴⁹  to the chief priests ⁵⁰  and the elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath ⁵¹  not to partake ⁵²  of anything until we have killed Paul. 23:15 So now you and the council ⁵³  request the commanding officer ⁵⁴  to bring him down to you, as if you were going to determine ⁵⁵  his case ⁵⁶  by conducting a more thorough inquiry. ⁵⁷  We are ready to kill him ⁵⁸  before he comes near this place.” ⁵⁹ 

[5:31]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[8:10]  ³ sn See Jer 6:12-15 for parallels to 8:10-12. The words of Jeremiah to the people may have been repeated on more than one occasion or have been found appropriate to more than one of his collection of messages in written and edited form. See Jer 36:4 and Jer 36:28 for reference to at least two of these collections.

[22:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[22:26]  ⁶ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

[22:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[22:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

[22:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I did not find.”

[22:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”

[3:11]  ¹² sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[7:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”

[7:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”

[7:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”

[7:2]  ²⁰ sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.

[7:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ²² tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ²³ tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.

[3:1]  ²⁴ tn The present translation assumes מֹרְאָה (mor’ah) is derived from רֹאִי (ro’i,“excrement”; see Jastrow 1436 s.v. רֳאִי). The following participle, “stained,” supports this interpretation (cf. NEB “filthy and foul”; NRSV “soiled, defiled”). Another option is to derive the form from מָרָה (marah, “to rebel”); in this case the term should be translated “rebellious” (cf. NASB, NIV “rebellious and defiled”). This idea is supported by v. 2. For discussion of the two options, see HALOT 630 s.v. I מרא and J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 206.

[3:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Woe, soiled and stained one, oppressive city.” The verb “is finished” is supplied in the second line. On the Hebrew word הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), see the note on the word “dead” in 2:5.

[3:1]  sn The following verses show that Jerusalem, personified as a woman (“she”), is the referent.

[3:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “she does not hear a voice” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.

[3:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “she does not receive correction.” The Hebrew phrase, when negated, refers elsewhere to rejecting verbal advice (Jer 17:23; 32:33; 35:13) and refusing to learn from experience (Jer 2:30; 5:3).

[3:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “draw near to.” The present translation assumes that the expression “draw near to” refers to seeking God’s will (see 1 Sam 14:36).

[3:3]  ²⁹ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ³¹ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ³² tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ³³ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

[3:4]  ³⁴ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ³⁵ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  sn These priests defile what is holy by not observing the proper distinctions between what is ritually clean and unclean (see Ezek 22:26).

[3:4]  ³⁶ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”

[21:39]  ³⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the tenants’ decision to kill the son in v. 38.

[21:39]  ³⁸ tn Grk “seizing him.” The participle λαβόντες (labontes) has been translated as attendant circumstance.

[21:39]  ³⁹ sn Throwing the heir out of the vineyard pictures Jesus’ death outside of Jerusalem.

[26:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:15]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “What will you give to me, and I will betray him to you?”

[23:12]  ⁴² tn Grk “when it was day.”

[23:12]  ⁴³ tn Grk “forming a conspiracy, bound.” The participle ποιήσαντες (poihsantes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:12]  ⁴⁴ tn L&N 30.72 has ‘some Jews formed a conspiracy’ Ac 23:12”; BDAG 979 s.v. συστροφή 1 has “Judeans came together in a mob 23:12. But in the last pass. the word may also mean – 2. the product of a clandestine gathering, plot, conspiracy” (see also Amos 7:10; Ps 63:3).

[23:12]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “bound themselves under a curse.” BDAG 63 s.v. ἀναθεματίζω 1 has “trans. put under a curse τινά someone…pleonastically ἀναθέματι ἀ. ἑαυτόν Ac 23:14…ἀ. ἑαυτόν vss. 12, 21, 13 v.l.” On such oaths see m. Shevi’it 3:1-5. The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[23:12]  ⁴⁶ tn The word “anything” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[23:13]  ⁴⁷ tn L&N 30.73 defines συνωμοσία (sunwmosia) as “a plan for taking secret action someone or some institution, with the implication of an oath binding the conspirators – ‘conspiracy, plot.’ …‘there were more than forty of them who formed this conspiracy’ Ac 23:13.”

[23:14]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “who.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (“whom”) was translated by the third person plural pronoun (“them”) and a new sentence begun in the translation.

[23:14]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “going.” The participle προσελθόντες (proselqonte") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:14]  ⁵⁰ sn They went to the chief priests. The fact that the high priest knew of this plot and did nothing shows the Jewish leadership would even become accomplices to murder to stop Paul. They would not allow Roman justice to take its course. Paul’s charge in v. 3 of superficially following the law is thus shown to be true.

[23:14]  ⁵¹ tn Or “bound ourselves under a curse.” BDAG 63 s.v. ἀναθεματίζω 1 has “trans. put under a curse τινά someone…pleonastically ἀναθέματι ἀ. ἑαυτόν Ac 23:14…ἀ. ἑαυτόν vss. 12, 21, 13 v.l.” The pleonastic use ἀναθέματι ἀνεθεματίσαμεν (literally “we have cursed ourselves with a curse”) probably serves as an intensifier following Semitic usage, and is represented in the translation by the word “solemn.” On such oaths see m. Nedarim 3:1, 3.

[23:14]  ⁵² tn This included both food and drink (γεύομαι [geuomai] is used of water turned to wine in John 2:9).

[23:15]  ⁵³ tn Grk “the Sanhedrin” (the Sanhedrin was the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

[23:15]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “the chiliarch” (an officer in command of a thousand soldiers). See note on the term “commanding officer” in v. 10.

[23:15]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “decide.” BDAG 227 s.v. διαγινώσκω has “ἀκριβέστερον τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ to make a more thorough examination of his case Ac 23:15.”

[23:15]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “determine the things about him.”

[23:15]  ⁵⁷ tn The expression “more thorough inquiry” reflects the comparative form of ἀκριβέστερον (akribesteron).

[23:15]  ⁵⁸ sn “We are ready to kill him.” Now those Jews involved in the conspiracy, along with the leaders as accomplices, are going to break one of the ten commandments.

[23:15]  ⁵⁹ tn The words “this place” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.