Keluaran 32:8

32:8 They have quickly turned aside ¹  from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

Ulangan 29:25

29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Ulangan 31:16-18

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ²  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ³  are going. They ⁴  will reject ⁵  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ⁶  31:17 At that time ⁷  my anger will erupt against them ⁸  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ⁹  them ¹⁰  so that they ¹¹  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ¹²  overcome us ¹³  because our ¹⁴  God is not among us ¹⁵ ?’ 31:18 But I will certainly ¹⁶  hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they ¹⁷  will have done by turning to other gods.

Yosua 23:15-16

23:15 But in the same way every faithful promise the Lord your God made to you has been realized, ¹⁸  it is just as certain, if you disobey, that the Lord will bring on you every judgment ¹⁹  until he destroys you from this good land which the Lord your God gave you. 23:16 If you violate the covenantal laws of the Lord your God which he commanded you to keep, ²⁰  and follow, worship, and bow down to other gods, ²¹  the Lord will be very angry with you and you will disappear ²²  quickly from the good land which he gave to you.”

Yosua 23:2

23:2 So Joshua summoned all Israel, including the elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and told them: “I am very old.

Kisah Para Rasul 17:15-18

17:15 Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, ²³  and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. ²⁴ 

Paul at Athens

17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, ²⁵  his spirit was greatly upset ²⁶  because he saw ²⁷  the city was full of idols. 17:17 So he was addressing ²⁸  the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles ²⁹  in the synagogue, ³⁰  and in the marketplace every day ³¹  those who happened to be there. 17:18 Also some of the Epicurean ³²  and Stoic ³³  philosophers were conversing ³⁴  with him, and some were asking, ³⁵  “What does this foolish babbler ³⁶  want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” ³⁷  (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ³⁸ 

Mazmur 78:10-11

78:10 They did not keep their covenant with God, ³⁹ 

and they refused to obey ⁴⁰  his law.

78:11 They forgot what he had done, ⁴¹ 

the amazing things he had shown them.

Mazmur 78:57

78:57 They were unfaithful ⁴²  and acted as treacherously as ⁴³  their ancestors;

they were as unreliable as a malfunctioning bow. ⁴⁴ 

Yesaya 24:5-6

24:5 The earth is defiled by ⁴⁵  its inhabitants, ⁴⁶ 

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation, ⁴⁷ 

and broken the permanent treaty. ⁴⁸ 

24:6 So a treaty curse ⁴⁹  devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt. ⁵⁰ 

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, ⁵¹ 

and are reduced to just a handful of people. ⁵² 

Yeremia 11:7-8

11:7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. ⁵³  I warned them again and again, ⁵⁴  ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day. 11:8 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ⁵⁵ 

Yeremia 22:8-9

22:8 “‘People from other nations will pass by this city. They will ask one another, “Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?” 22:9 The answer will come back, “It is because they broke their covenant with the Lord their God and worshiped and served other gods.”

Yeremia 31:32

31:32 It will not be like the old ⁵⁶  covenant that I made with their ancestors ⁵⁷  when I delivered them ⁵⁸  from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” ⁵⁹  says the Lord. ⁶⁰ 

Yehezkiel 16:8

16:8 “‘Then I passed by you and watched you, noticing ⁶¹  that you had reached the age for love. ⁶²  I spread my cloak ⁶³  over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

Yehezkiel 16:59

16:59 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you according to what you have done when you despised your oath by breaking your covenant.

Yehezkiel 20:37-38

20:37 I will make you pass under ⁶⁴  the shepherd’s staff, ⁶⁵  and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 20:38 I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt ⁶⁶  against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

[32:8]  ¹ tn The verb is a perfect tense, reflecting the present perfect nuance: “they have turned aside” and are still disobedient. But the verb is modified with the adverb “quickly” (actually a Piel infinitive absolute). It has been only a matter of weeks since they heard the voice of God prohibiting this.

[31:16]  ² tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ³ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

[31:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ⁵ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

[31:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

[31:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹² tn Heb “evils.”

[31:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my.”

[31:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:18]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”

[31:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[23:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and it will be as every good word which the Lord your God spoke to you has come to pass.”

[23:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “so the Lord will bring every injurious [or “evil”] word [or “thing”] upon you.”

[23:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “when you violate the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you.”

[23:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “and you walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

[23:16]  ²² tn Or “perish.”

[17:15]  ²³ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[17:15]  ²⁴ sn They left. See 1 Thess 3:1-2, which shows they went from here to Thessalonica.

[17:16]  ²⁵ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[17:16]  ²⁶ tn Grk “greatly upset within him,” but the words “within him” were not included in the translation because they are redundant in English. See L&N 88.189. The term could also be rendered “infuriated.”

[17:16]  sn His spirit was greatly upset. See Rom 1:18-32 for Paul’s feelings about idolatry. Yet he addressed both Jews and Gentiles with tact and reserve.

[17:16]  ²⁷ tn Or “when he saw.” The participle θεωροῦντος (qewrounto") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle; it could also be translated as temporal.

[17:17]  ²⁸ tn Although the word διελέξατο (dielexato; from διαλέγομαι, dialegomai) is frequently translated “reasoned,” “disputed,” or “argued,” this sense comes from its classical meaning where it was used of philosophical disputation, including the Socratic method of questions and answers. However, there does not seem to be contextual evidence for this kind of debate in Acts 17:17. As G. Schrenk (TDNT 2:94-95) points out, “What is at issue is the address which any qualified member of a synagogue might give.” Other examples of this may be found in the NT in Matt 4:23 and Mark 1:21.

[17:17]  ²⁹ tn Or “and the devout,” but this is practically a technical term for the category called God-fearers, Gentiles who worshiped the God of Israel and in many cases kept the Mosaic law, but did not take the final step of circumcision necessary to become a proselyte to Judaism. See further K. G. Kuhn, TDNT 6:732-34, 743-44, and the note on the phrase “God-fearing Greeks” in 17:4.

[17:17]  ³⁰ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:17]  ³¹ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[17:18]  ³² sn An Epicurean was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300 b.c. Although the Epicureans saw the aim of life as pleasure, they were not strictly hedonists, because they defined pleasure as the absence of pain. Along with this, they desired the avoidance of trouble and freedom from annoyances. They saw organized religion as evil, especially the belief that the gods punished evildoers in an afterlife. In keeping with this, they were unable to accept Paul’s teaching about the resurrection.

[17:18]  ³³ sn A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270 b.c.), a Phoenician who came to Athens and modified the philosophical system of the Cynics he found there. The Stoics rejected the Epicurean ideal of pleasure, stressing virtue instead. The Stoics emphasized responsibility for voluntary actions and believed risks were worth taking, but thought the actual attainment of virtue was difficult. They also believed in providence.

[17:18]  ³⁴ tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβάλλω 1 has “converse, confer” here.

[17:18]  ³⁵ tn Grk “saying.”

[17:18]  ³⁶ tn Or “ignorant show-off.” The traditional English translation of σπερμολόγος (spermologo") is given in L&N 33.381 as “foolish babbler.” However, an alternate view is presented in L&N 27.19, “(a figurative extension of meaning of a term based on the practice of birds in picking up seeds) one who acquires bits and pieces of relatively extraneous information and proceeds to pass them off with pretense and show – ‘ignorant show-off, charlatan.’” A similar view is given in BDAG 937 s.v. σπερμολόγος: “in pejorative imagery of persons whose communication lacks sophistication and seems to pick up scraps of information here and there scrapmonger, scavenger…Engl. synonyms include ‘gossip’, ‘babbler’, chatterer’; but these terms miss the imagery of unsystematic gathering.”

[17:18]  ³⁷ tn The meaning of this phrase is not clear. Literally it reads “strange deities” (see BDAG 210 s.v. δαιμόνιον 1). The note of not being customary is important. In the ancient world what was new was suspicious. The plural δαιμονίων (daimoniwn, “deities”) shows the audience grappling with Paul’s teaching that God was working through Jesus.

[17:18]  ³⁸ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[78:10]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the covenant of God.”

[78:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “walk in.”

[78:11]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “his deeds.”

[78:57]  ⁴² tn Heb “they turned back.”

[78:57]  ⁴³ tn Or “acted treacherously like.”

[78:57]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “they turned aside like a deceitful bow.”

[24:5]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”

[24:5]  ⁴⁶ sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.

[24:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”

[24:5]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”

[24:5]  sn For a lengthy discussion of the identity of this covenant/treaty, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In this context, where judgment comes upon both the pagan nations and God’s covenant community, the phrase “permanent treaty” is intentionally ambiguous. For the nations this treaty is the Noahic mandate of Gen 9:1-7 with its specific stipulations and central regulation (Gen 9:7). By shedding blood, the warlike nations violated this treaty, which promotes population growth and prohibits murder. For Israel, which was also guilty of bloodshed (see Isa 1:15, 21; 4:4), this “permanent treaty” would refer more specifically to the Mosaic Law and its regulations prohibiting murder (Exod 20:13; Num 35:6-34), which are an extension of the Noahic mandate.

[24:6]  ⁴⁹ sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.

[24:6]  ⁵⁰ tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).

[24:6]  ⁵¹ tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).

[24:6]  ⁵² tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”

[11:7]  ⁵³ tn Heb “warned them…saying, ‘Obey me.’” However, it allows the long sentence to be broken up easier if the indirect quote is used.

[11:7]  ⁵⁴ tn For the explanation for this rendering see the note on 7:13.

[11:8]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “So I brought on them all the terms of this covenant which I commanded to do and they did not do.” There is an interesting polarity that is being exploited by two different nuances implicit in the use of the word “terms” (דִּבְרֵי [divre], literally “words”), i.e., what the Lord “brings on” them, namely, the curses that are the penalty for disobedience and the stipulations that they are “to do,” that is, to carry out. The sentence is broken up this way in keeping with contemporary English style to avoid the long and complicated style of the original.

[31:32]  ⁵⁶ tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

[31:32]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[31:32]  sn This refers to the Mosaic covenant which the nation entered into with God at Sinai and renewed on the plains of Moab. The primary biblical passages explicating this covenant are Exod 19–24 and the book of Deuteronomy; see as well the study note on Jer 11:2 for the form this covenant took and its relation to the warnings of the prophets. The renewed document of Deuteronomy was written down and provisions made for periodic public reading and renewal of commitment to it (Deut 31:9-13). Josiah had done this after the discovery of the book of the law (which was either Deuteronomy or a synopsis of it) early in the ministry of Jeremiah (2 Kgs 23:1-4; the date would be near 622 b.c. shortly after Jeremiah began prophesying in 627 [see the note on Jer 1:2]). But it is apparent from Jeremiah’s confrontation with Judah after that time that the commitment of the people was only superficial (cf. Jer 3:10). The prior history of the nations of Israel and Judah and Judah’s current practice had been one of persistent violation of this covenant despite repeated warnings of the prophets that God would punish them for that (see especially Jer 7, 11). Because of that, Israel had been exiled (cf., e.g., Jer 3:8), and now Judah was threatened with the same (cf., e.g., Jer 7:15). Jer 30–31 look forward to a time when both Israel and Judah will be regathered, reunited, and under a new covenant which includes the same stipulations but with a different relationship (v. 32).

[31:32]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

[31:32]  ⁵⁹ tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

[31:32]  sn The metaphor of Yahweh as husband and Israel as wife has been used already in Jer 3 and is implicit in the repeated allusions to idolatry as spiritual adultery or prostitution. The best commentary on the faithfulness of God to his “husband-like” relation is seen in the book of Hosea, especially in Hos 1-3.

[31:32]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[16:8]  ⁶¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a participle.

[16:8]  ⁶² tn See similar use of this term in Ezek 23:17; Prov 7:16; Song of Songs 4:10; 7:13.

[16:8]  ⁶³ tn Heb “wing” or “skirt.” The gesture symbolized acquiring a woman in early Arabia (similarly, see Deut 22:30; Ruth 3:9).

[20:37]  ⁶⁴ tn This is the same Hebrew verb used to describe the passing of the children through the fire.

[20:37]  ⁶⁵ sn The metaphor may be based in Lev 27:32 (see also Jer 33:13; Matt 25:32-33). A shepherd would count his sheep as they passed beneath his staff.

[20:38]  ⁶⁶ tn See the note at 2:3.