Yesaya 3:8

3:8 Jerusalem certainly stumbles,

Judah falls,

for their words and their actions offend the Lord; ¹ 

they rebel against his royal authority. ² 

Ulangan 32:16-19

32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, ³ 

they enraged him with abhorrent idols. ⁴ 

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ⁵  had not known about.

32:18 You have forgotten ⁶  the Rock who fathered you,

and put out of mind the God who gave you birth.

A Word of Judgment

32:19 But the Lord took note and despised them

because his sons and daughters enraged him.

Ulangan 32:21

32:21 They have made me jealous ⁷  with false gods, ⁸ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ⁹ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ¹⁰ 

with a nation slow to learn ¹¹  I will enrage them.

Ulangan 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ¹² 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Kisah Para Rasul 17:14-17

17:14 Then the brothers sent Paul away to the coast ¹³  at once, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. ¹⁴  17:15 Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, ¹⁵  and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. ¹⁶ 

Paul at Athens

17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, ¹⁷  his spirit was greatly upset ¹⁸  because he saw ¹⁹  the city was full of idols. 17:17 So he was addressing ²⁰  the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles ²¹  in the synagogue, ²²  and in the marketplace every day ²³  those who happened to be there.

Kisah Para Rasul 22:17

22:17 When ²⁴  I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance ²⁵ 

Mazmur 78:40

78:40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,

and insulted him ²⁶  in the desert!

Mazmur 78:58

78:58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, ²⁷ 

and made him jealous with their idols.

Yeremia 32:30-35

32:30 This will happen because the people of Israel and Judah have repeatedly done what displeases me ²⁸  from their earliest history until now ²⁹  and because they ³⁰  have repeatedly made me angry by the things they have done. ³¹  I, the Lord, affirm it! ³²  32:31 This will happen because ³³  the people of this city have aroused my anger and my wrath since the time they built it until now. ³⁴  They have made me so angry that I am determined to remove ³⁵  it from my sight. 32:32 I am determined to do so because the people of Israel and Judah have made me angry with all their wickedness – they, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, and especially the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem ³⁶  have done this wickedness. ³⁷  32:33 They have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ³⁸  I tried over and over again ³⁹  to instruct them, but they did not listen and respond to correction. ⁴⁰  32:34 They set up their disgusting idols in the temple which I have claimed for my own ⁴¹  and defiled it. 32:35 They built places of worship for the god Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they could sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. ⁴²  Such a disgusting practice was not something I commanded them to do! It never even entered my mind to command them to do such a thing! So Judah is certainly liable for punishment.’ ⁴³ 

Yehezkiel 8:17-18

8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! ⁴⁴  8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare ⁴⁵  them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

Matius 23:32-36

23:32 Fill up then the measure of your ancestors! 23:33 You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ⁴⁶ 

23:34 “For this reason I ⁴⁷  am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, ⁴⁸  some of whom you will kill and crucify, ⁴⁹  and some you will flog ⁵⁰  in your synagogues ⁵¹  and pursue from town to town, 23:35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ⁵²  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 23:36 I tell you the truth, ⁵³  this generation will be held responsible for all these things! ⁵⁴ 

[3:8]  ¹ tn Heb “for their tongue and their deeds [are] to the Lord.”

[3:8]  ² tn Heb “to rebel [against] the eyes of his majesty.” The word כָּבוֹד (kavod) frequently refers to the Lord’s royal splendor that is an outward manifestation of his authority as king.

[32:16]  ³ tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).

[32:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”

[32:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[32:18]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew text is corrupt here; the translation follows the suggestion offered in HALOT 1477 s.v. שׁיה. Cf. NASB, NLT “You neglected”; NIV “You deserted”; NRSV “You were unmindful of.”

[32:21]  ⁷ sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.

[32:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).

[32:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).

[32:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”

[32:2]  ¹² tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

[17:14]  ¹³ tn Grk “to the sea.” Here ἕως ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν ({ew" epi thn qalassan) must mean “to the edge of the sea,” that is, “to the coast.” Since there is no mention of Paul taking a ship to Athens, he presumably traveled overland. The journey would have been about 340 mi (550 km).

[17:14]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “remained there”; the referent (Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

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

[17:15]  ¹⁶ sn They left. See 1 Thess 3:1-2, which shows they went from here to Thessalonica.

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

[17:16]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:17]  ²³ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[22:17]  ²⁴ tn Grk “It happened to me that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[22:17]  ²⁵ tn BDAG 309 s.v. ἔκστασις 2 has “γενέσθαι ἐν ἐκστάσει fall into a trance Ac 22:17.”

[78:40]  ²⁶ tn Or “caused him pain.”

[78:58]  ²⁷ tn Traditionally, “high places.”

[32:30]  ²⁸ tn Heb “that which is evil in my eyes.” For this idiom see BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.c and compare usage in 18:10.

[32:30]  ²⁹ tn Heb “from their youth.”

[32:30]  sn Compare Jer 3:24-25; 11:21. The nation is being personified and reference is made to her history from the time she left Egypt onward (cf. 2:2).

[32:30]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the people of Israel.” However, since “people of Israel” has been used in the preceding line for the northern kingdom as opposed to the kingdom of Judah, it might lead to confusion to translate literally. Moreover, the pronoun “they” accomplishes the same purpose.

[32:30]  ³¹ tn Heb “by the work of their hands.” See the translator’s note on 25:6 and the parallelism in 25:14 for this rendering rather than referring it to the making of idols as in 1:16; 10:3.

[32:30]  ³² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[32:31]  ³³ tn The statements in vv. 28-29 regarding the certain destruction of the city are motivated by three parallel causal clauses in vv. 30a, b, 31, the last of which extends through subordinate and coordinate clauses until the end of v. 35. An attempt has been made to bring out this structure by repeating the idea “This/it will happen” in front of each of these causal clauses in the English translation.

[32:31]  ³⁴ tn Heb “from the day they built it until this day.”

[32:31]  sn The Israelites did not in fact “build” Jerusalem. They captured it from the Jebusites in the time of David. This refers perhaps to the enlarging and fortifying of the city after it came into the hands of the Israelites (2 Sam 5:6-10).

[32:31]  ³⁵ tn Heb “For this city has been to me for a source of my anger and my wrath from the day they built it until this day so as remove it.” The preposition ְל (lamed) with the infinitive (Heb “so as to remove it”; לַהֲסִירָהּ, lahasirah) expresses degree (cf. R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 37, §199, and compare usage in 2 Sam 13:2).

[32:32]  ³⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[32:32]  ³⁷ tn Heb “remove it from my sight 32:33 because of all the wickedness of the children of Israel and the children of Judah which they have done to make me angry, they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” The sentence has been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style and an attempt has been made to preserve the causal connections.

[32:33]  ³⁸ tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.” Compare the same idiom in 2:27.

[32:33]  ³⁹ tn For the idiom involved here see the translator’s note on 7:13. The verb that introduces this clause is a Piel infinitive absolute which is functioning in place of the finite verb (see, e.g., GKC 346 §113.ff and compare usage in Jer 8:15; 14:19. This grammatical point means that the versions cited in BHS fn a may not be reading a different text after all, but may merely be interpreting the form as syntactically equivalent to a finite verb as the present translation has done.).

[32:33]  sn This refers to God teaching them through the prophets whom he has sent as indicated by the repeated use of this idiom elsewhere in 7:13, 25; 11:7; 25:3, 4; 26:5, 19.

[32:33]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “But they were not listening so as to accept correction.”

[32:34]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the house which is called by my name.” Cf. 7:10, 11, 14 and see the translator’s note on 7:10 for the explanation for this rendering.

[32:35]  ⁴² sn Compare Jer 7:30-31; 19:5 and the study notes on 7:30. The god Molech is especially associated with the practice of child sacrifice (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10). In 1 Kgs 11:7 this god is identified as the god of the Ammonites who is also called Milcom in 1 Kgs 11:5; 2 Kgs 23:13. Child sacrifice, however, was not confined to this god; it was also made to the god Baal (Jer 19:5) and to other idols that the Israelites had set up (Ezek 16:20-21). This practice was, however, strictly prohibited in Israel (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; Deut 12:31; 18:10). It was this practice as well as other pagan rites that Manasseh had instituted in Judah that ultimately led to Judah’s demise (2 Kgs 24:3-4). Though Josiah tried to root these pagan practices (2 Kgs 23:4-14) out of Judah he could not do so. The people had only made a pretense of following his reforms; their hearts were still far from God (Jer 3:10; 12:2).

[32:35]  ⁴³ tn Heb “They built high places to Baal which are in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to cause their sons and daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech [a thing] which I did not command them and [which] did not go up into my heart [= “mind” in modern psychology] to do this abomination so as to make Judah liable for punishment.” For the use of the Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) to refer to the liability for punishment see BDB s.v. חָטָא Hiph.3 and compare the usage in Deut 24:8. Coming at the end as this does, this nuance is much more likely than “cause Judah to sin” which is the normal translation assigned to the verb here. The particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) that precedes it is here once again introducing a result and not a purpose (compare other clear examples in 27:10, 15). The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style and an attempt has been made to make clear that what is detestable and not commanded is not merely child sacrifice to Molech but child sacrifice in general.

[8:17]  ⁴⁴ tn It is not clear what the practice of “holding a branch to the nose” indicates. A possible parallel is the Syrian relief of a king holding a flower to his nose as he worships the stars (ANEP 281). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:145-46. The LXX glosses the expression as “Behold, they are like mockers.”

[8:18]  ⁴⁵ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[23:33]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.”

[23:33]  sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.

[23:34]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “behold I am sending.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[23:34]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:34]  ⁴⁹ sn See the note on crucified in 20:19.

[23:34]  ⁵⁰ tn BDAG 620 s.v. μαστιγόω 1.a states, “of flogging as a punishment decreed by the synagogue (Dt 25:2f; s. the Mishna Tractate Sanhedrin-Makkoth, edited w. notes by SKrauss ’33) w. acc. of pers. Mt 10:17; 23:34.”

[23:34]  ⁵¹ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

[23:35]  ⁵² sn Spelling of this name (Βαραχίου, Baraciou) varies among the English versions: “Barachiah” (RSV, NRSV); “Berechiah” (NASB); “Berachiah” (NIV).

[23:36]  ⁵³ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[23:36]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “all these things will come on this generation.”