Matius 20:12

20:12 saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’

Ayub 21:14-15

21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!

We do not want to ¹  know your ways. ² 

21:15 Who is the Almighty, that ³  we should serve him?

What would we gain

if we were to pray ⁴  to him?’ ⁵ 

Yesaya 58:3

58:3 They lament, ⁶  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast?

Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ⁷ 

you oppress your workers. ⁸ 

Yeremia 2:31

2:31 You people of this generation,

listen to what the Lord says.

“Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?

Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you? ⁹ 

Why then do you ¹⁰  say, ‘We are free to wander. ¹¹ 

We will not come to you any more?’

Yeremia 44:16-18

44:16 “We will not listen to what you claim the Lord has spoken to us! ¹²  44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ¹³  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵  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.” ¹⁶ 

Yehezkiel 18:25-29

18:25 “Yet you say, ‘The Lord’s conduct ¹⁷  is unjust!’ Hear, O house of Israel: Is my conduct unjust? Is it not your conduct that is unjust? 18:26 When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; ¹⁸  because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die. 18:27 When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life. 18:28 Because he considered ¹⁹  and turned from all the sins he had done, he will surely live; he will not die. 18:29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The Lord’s conduct is unjust!’ Is my conduct unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your conduct that is unjust?

Maleakhi 1:12-13

1:12 “But you are profaning it by saying that the table of the Lord is common and its offerings ²⁰  despicable. 1:13 You also say, ‘How tiresome it is.’ You turn up your nose at it,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and instead bring what is stolen, lame, or sick. You bring these things for an offering! Should I accept this from you?” ²¹  asks the Lord.

Maleakhi 3:14-15

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ²²  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ²³  3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ²⁴  In fact, those who challenge ²⁵  God escape!’”

Lukas 15:29

15:29 but he answered ²⁶  his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave ²⁷  for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet ²⁸  you never gave me even a goat ²⁹  so that I could celebrate with my friends!

Lukas 19:20-22

19:20 Then another ³⁰  slave ³¹  came and said, ‘Sir, here is ³²  your mina that I put away for safekeeping ³³  in a piece of cloth. ³⁴  19:21 For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe ³⁵  man. You withdraw ³⁶  what you did not deposit ³⁷  and reap what you did not sow.’ 19:22 The king ³⁸  said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, ³⁹  you wicked slave! ⁴⁰  So you knew, did you, that I was a severe ⁴¹  man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow?

Roma 8:7

8:7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.

Roma 9:20

9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being ⁴²  – to talk back to God? ⁴³  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ⁴⁴ 

[21:14]  ¹ tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”

[21:14]  ² sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.

[21:15]  ³ tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”

[21:15]  ⁴ tn The verb פָּגַע (paga’) means “to encounter; to meet,” but also “to meet with request; to intercede; to interpose.” The latter meaning is a derived meaning by usage.

[21:15]  ⁵ tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.

[58:3]  ⁶ tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

[58:3]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

[2:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “a land of the darkness of Yah [= thick or deep darkness].” The idea of danger is an added connotation of the word in this context.

[2:31]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my people.”

[2:31]  ¹¹ tn Or more freely, “free to do as we please.” There is some debate about the meaning of this verb (רוּד, rud) because its usage is rare and its meaning is debated in the few passages where it does occur. The key to its meaning may rest in the emended text (reading וְרַדְתִּי [vÿradti] for וְיָרַדְתִּי [vÿyaradti]) in Judg 11:37 where it refers to the roaming of Jephthah’s daughter on the mountains of Israel.

[44:16]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.

[44:17]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”

[44:18]  ¹⁶ 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.

[18:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “way.”

[18:26]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for them” or “because of them.”

[18:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he saw.”

[1:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fruit.” The following word “food” in the Hebrew text (אָכְלוֹ, ’okhlo) appears to be an explanatory gloss to clarify the meaning of the rare word נִיב (niv, “fruit”; see Isa 57:19 Qere; נוֹב, nov, “fruit,” in Kethib). Cf. ASV “the fruit thereof, even its food.” In this cultic context the reference is to the offerings on the altar.

[1:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “from your hand,” a metonymy of part (the hand) for whole (the person).

[3:14]  ²² tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ²³ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.

[3:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “built up” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “prosper”; NLT “get rich.”

[3:15]  ²⁵ tn Or “test”; NRSV, CEV “put God to the test.”

[15:29]  ²⁶ tn Grk “but answering, he said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “but he answered.”

[15:29]  ²⁷ tn Or simply, “have served,” but in the emotional context of the older son’s outburst the translation given is closer to the point.

[15:29]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “yet” to bring out the contrast indicated by the context.

[15:29]  ²⁹ sn You never gave me even a goat. The older son’s complaint was that the generous treatment of the younger son was not fair: “I can’t get even a little celebration with a basic food staple like a goat!”

[19:20]  ³⁰ sn Though ten were given minas, the story stops to focus on the one who did nothing with the opportunity given to him. Here is the parable’s warning about the one who does not trust the master. This figure is called “another,” marking him out as different than the first two.

[19:20]  ³¹ tn The word “slave” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied for stylistic reasons.

[19:20]  ³² tn Grk “behold.”

[19:20]  ³³ tn Or “that I stored away.” L&N 85.53 defines ἀπόκειμαι (apokeimai) here as “to put something away for safekeeping – ‘to store, to put away in a safe place.’”

[19:20]  ³⁴ tn The piece of cloth, called a σουδάριον (soudarion), could have been a towel, napkin, handkerchief, or face cloth (L&N 6.159).

[19:21]  ³⁵ tn Or “exacting,” “harsh,” “hard.”

[19:21]  ³⁶ tn Grk “man, taking out.” The Greek word can refer to withdrawing money from a bank (L&N 57.218), and in this context of financial accountability that is the most probable meaning. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronoun “you” as subject and translating the participle αἴρεις (airei") as a finite verb.

[19:21]  ³⁷ tn The Greek verb τίθημι (tiqhmi) can be used of depositing money with a banker to earn interest (L&N 57.217). In effect the slave charges that the master takes what he has not earned.

[19:22]  ³⁸ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the nobleman of v. 12, now a king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:22]  ³⁹ tn Grk “out of your own mouth” (an idiom).

[19:22]  ⁴⁰ tn Note the contrast between this slave, described as “wicked,” and the slave in v. 17, described as “good.”

[19:22]  ⁴¹ tn Or “exacting,” “harsh,” “hard.”

[9:20]  ⁴² tn Grk “O man.”

[9:20]  ⁴³ tn Grk “On the contrary, O man, who are you to talk back to God?”

[9:20]  ⁴⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9.