Ulangan 12:2

12:2 You must by all means destroy ¹  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ² 

Ulangan 12:1

The Central Sanctuary

12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ³  has given you to possess. ⁴ 

Kisah Para Rasul 14:23

14:23 When they had appointed elders ⁵  for them in the various churches, ⁶  with prayer and fasting ⁷  they entrusted them to the protection ⁸  of the Lord in whom they had believed.

Kisah Para Rasul 14:2

14:2 But the Jews who refused to believe ⁹  stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds ¹⁰  against the brothers.

Kisah Para Rasul 16:3-4

16:3 Paul wanted Timothy ¹¹  to accompany him, and he took ¹²  him and circumcised ¹³  him because of the Jews who were in those places, ¹⁴  for they all knew that his father was Greek. ¹⁵  16:4 As they went through the towns, ¹⁶  they passed on ¹⁷  the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem ¹⁸  for the Gentile believers ¹⁹  to obey. ²⁰ 

Kisah Para Rasul 17:10

Paul and Silas at Berea

17:10 The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea ²¹  at once, during the night. When they arrived, ²²  they went to the Jewish synagogue. ²³ 

Yeremia 2:20

The Lord Expresses His Exasperation at Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

2:20 “Indeed, ²⁴  long ago you threw off my authority

and refused to be subject to me. ²⁵ 

You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ²⁶ 

Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill

and under every green tree,

like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ²⁷ 

Yeremia 3:6

3:6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. ²⁸  You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. ²⁹ 

Yeremia 3:13

3:13 However, you must confess that you have done wrong, ³⁰ 

and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.

You must confess ³¹  that you have given yourself to ³²  foreign gods under every green tree,

and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord.

Yeremia 17:2

17:2 Their children are always thinking about ³³  their ³⁴  altars

and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, ³⁵ 

set up beside the green trees on the high hills

Yehezkiel 6:13

6:13 Then you will know that I am the Lord – when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, ³⁶  the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

[12:2]  ¹ tn Heb “destroying you must destroy”; KJV “Ye shall utterly (surely ASV) destroy”; NRSV “must demolish completely.” The Hebrew infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by the words “by all means.”

[12:2]  ² sn Every leafy tree. This expression refers to evergreens which, because they keep their foliage throughout the year, provided apt symbolism for nature cults such as those practiced in Canaan. The deity particularly in view is Asherah, wife of the great god El, who was considered the goddess of fertility and whose worship frequently took place at shrines near or among clusters (groves) of such trees (see also Deut 7:5). See J. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:569-70; J. DeMoor, TDOT 1:438-44.

[12:1]  ³ tn Heb “fathers.”

[12:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “you must be careful to obey in the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days which you live in the land.” This adverbial statement modifies “to obey,” not “to possess,” so the order in the translation has been rearranged to make this clear.

[14:23]  ⁵ sn Appointed elders. See Acts 20:17.

[14:23]  ⁶ tn The preposition κατά (kata) is used here in a distributive sense; see BDAG 512 s.v. κατά B.1.d.

[14:23]  ⁷ tn Literally with a finite verb (προσευξάμενοι, proseuxamenoi) rather than a noun, “praying with fasting,” but the combination “prayer and fasting” is so familiar in English that it is preferable to use it here.

[14:23]  ⁸ tn BDAG 772 s.v. παρατίθημι 3.b has “entrust someone to the care or protection of someone” for this phrase. The reference to persecution or suffering in the context (v. 22) suggests “protection” is a better translation here. This looks at God’s ultimate care for the church.

[14:2]  ⁹ tn Or “who would not believe.”

[14:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “embittered their minds” (Grk “their souls”). BDAG 502 s.v. κακόω 2 has “make angry, embitter τὰς ψυχάς τινων κατά τινος poison the minds of some persons against another Ac 14:2.”

[16:3]  ¹¹ tn Grk “this one”; the referent (Timothy) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:3]  ¹² tn Grk “and taking him he circumcised him.” The participle λαβών (labwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. Paul’s cultural sensitivity showed in his action here. He did not want Timothy’s lack of circumcision to become an issue (1 Cor 9:15-23).

[16:3]  ¹³ tn The verb περιέτεμεν (perietemen) here may be understood as causative (cf. ExSyn 411-12) if Paul did not personally perform the circumcision.

[16:3]  ¹⁴ tn Or “who lived in the area.”

[16:3]  ¹⁵ tn The anarthrous predicate nominative has been translated as qualitative (“Greek”) rather than indefinite (“a Greek”).

[16:3]  sn His father was Greek. Under Jewish law at least as early as the 2nd century, a person was considered Jewish if his or her mother was Jewish. It is not certain whether such a law was in effect in the 1st century, but even if it was, Timothy would not have been accepted as fully Jewish because he was not circumcised.

[16:4]  ¹⁶ tn Or “cities.”

[16:4]  ¹⁷ tn BDAG 762-63 s.v. παραδίδωμι 3 has “they handed down to them the decisions to observe Ac 16:4.”

[16:4]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[16:4]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “for them”; the referent (Gentile believers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:4]  ²⁰ tn Or “observe” or “follow.”

[17:10]  ²¹ sn Berea (alternate spelling in NRSV Beroea; Greek Beroia) was a very old city in Macedonia on the river Astraeus about 45 mi (75 km) west of Thessalonica.

[17:10]  map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[17:10]  ²² tn Grk “who arriving there, went to.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (οἵτινες, Joitine") has been left untranslated and a new English sentence begun. The participle παραγενόμενοι (paragenomenoi) has been taken temporally.

[17:10]  ²³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[2:20]  ²⁴ tn Or “For.” The Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) here introduces the evidence that they had no respect for him.

[2:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you broke your yoke…tore off your yoke ropes.” The metaphor is that of a recalcitrant ox or heifer which has broken free from its master.

[2:20]  ²⁶ tc The MT of this verse has two examples of the old second feminine singular perfect, שָׁבַרְתִּי (shavarti) and נִתַּקְתִּי (nittaqti), which the Masoretes mistook for first singulars leading to the proposal to read אֶעֱבוֹר (’e’evor, “I will not transgress”) for אֶעֱבֹד (’e’evod, “I will not serve”). The latter understanding of the forms is accepted in KJV but rejected by almost all modern English versions as being less appropriate to the context than the reading accepted in the translation given here.

[2:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “you sprawled as a prostitute on….” The translation reflects the meaning of the metaphor.

[3:6]  ²⁸ tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

[3:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”

[3:13]  ³¹ tn The words “You must confess” are repeated to convey the connection. The Hebrew text has an introductory “that” in front of the second line and a coordinative “and” in front of the next two lines.

[3:13]  ³² tc MT reads דְּרָכַיִךְ (dÿrakhayikh, “your ways”), but the BHS editors suggest דּוֹדַיִךְ (dodayikh, “your breasts”) as an example of orthographic confusion. While the proposal makes sense, it remains a conjectural emendation since it is not supported by any actual manuscripts or ancient versions.

[3:13]  tn Heb “scattered your ways with foreign [gods]” or “spread out your breasts to strangers.”

[17:2]  ³³ tn It is difficult to convey in good English style the connection between this verse and the preceding. The text does not have a finite verb but a temporal preposition with an infinitive: Heb “while their children remember their altars…” It is also difficult to translate the verb “literally.” (i.e., what does “remember” their altars mean?). Hence it has been rendered “always think about.” Another possibility would be “have their altars…on their minds.”

[17:2]  sn There is possibly a sarcastic irony involved here as well. The Israelites were to remember the Lord and what he had done and were to commemorate certain days, e.g., the Passover and the Sabbath which recalled their deliverance. Instead they resorted to the pagan altars and kept them in mind.

[17:2]  ³⁴ tc This reading follows many Hebrew mss and ancient versions. Many other Hebrew mss read “your” [masc. pl.].

[17:2]  ³⁵ sn Sacred poles dedicated to…Asherah. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], plural). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[6:13]  ³⁶ sn By referring to every high hill…all the mountaintops…under every green tree and every leafy oak Ezekiel may be expanding on the phraseology of Deut 12:2 (see 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 16:4; 17:10; Jer 2:20; 3:6, 13; 2 Chr 28:4).