Yesaya 5:18-19

5:18 Those who pull evil along using cords of emptiness are as good as dead, ¹ 

who pull sin as with cart ropes. ² 

5:19 They say, “Let him hurry, let him act quickly, ³ 

so we can see;

let the plan of the Holy One of Israel ⁴  take shape ⁵  and come to pass,

then we will know it!”

Yesaya 57:4

57:4 At whom are you laughing?

At whom are you opening your mouth

and sticking out your tongue?

You are the children of rebels,

the offspring of liars, ⁶ 

Mazmur 73:8-9

73:8 They mock ⁷  and say evil things; ⁸ 

they proudly threaten violence. ⁹ 

73:9 They speak as if they rule in heaven,

and lay claim to the earth. ¹⁰ 

Yehezkiel 8:12

8:12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? ¹¹  For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’”

Yehezkiel 9:9

9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, ¹²  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ¹³ 

Hosea 7:16

7:16 They turn to Baal; ¹⁴ 

they are like an unreliable bow.

Their leaders will fall by the sword

because their prayers to Baal ¹⁵  have made me angry.

So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt. ¹⁶ 

Maleakhi 3:13-15

Resistance to the Lord through Self-sufficiency

3:13 “You have criticized me sharply,” ¹⁷  says the Lord, “but you ask, ‘How have we criticized you?’ 3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ¹⁸  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ¹⁹  3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. ²⁰  In fact, those who challenge ²¹  God escape!’”

Matius 12:36-37

12:36 I ²²  tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 12:37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Yudas 1:15

1:15 to execute judgment on ²³  all, and to convict every person ²⁴  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ²⁵  that they have committed, ²⁶  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ²⁷ 

[5:18]  ¹ sn See the note at v. 8.

[5:18]  ² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “Woe to those who pull evil with the ropes of emptiness, and, as [with] ropes of a cart, sin.” Though several textual details are unclear, the basic idea is apparent. The sinners are so attached to their sinful ways (compared here to a heavy load) that they strain to drag them along behind them. If שָׁוְא (shavÿ’, “emptiness”) is retained, it makes a further comment on their lifestyle, denouncing it as one that is devoid of what is right and destined to lead to nothing but destruction. Because “emptiness” does not form a very tight parallel with “cart” in the next line, some emend שָׁוְא to שֶׂה (she, “sheep”) and עֲגָלָה (’agalah, “cart”) to עֵגֶל (’egel, “calf”): “Those who pull evil along with a sheep halter are as good as dead who pull sin with a calf rope” (following the lead of the LXX and improving the internal parallelism of the verse). In this case, the verse pictures the sinners pulling sin along behind them as one pulls an animal with a halter. For a discussion of this view, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:163, n. 1. Nevertheless, this emendation is unnecessary. The above translation emphasizes the folly of the Israelites who hold on to their sin (and its punishment) even while they hope for divine intervention.

[5:19]  ³ tn Heb “let his work hurry, let it hasten.” The pronoun “his” refers to God, as the parallel line makes clear. The reference to his “work” alludes back to v. 12, which refers to his ‘work” of judgment. With these words the people challenged the prophet’s warning of approaching judgment. They were in essence saying that they saw no evidence that God was about to work in such a way.

[5:19]  ⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[5:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “draw near” (so NASB); NRSV “hasten to fulfillment.”

[57:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “Are you not children of rebellion, offspring of a lie?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course you are!”

[73:8]  ⁷ tn The verb מוּק (muq, “mock”) occurs only here in the OT.

[73:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “and speak with evil.”

[73:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “oppression from an elevated place they speak.” The traditional accentuation of the MT places “oppression” with the preceding line. In this case, one might translate, “they mock and speak with evil [of] oppression, from an elevated place [i.e., “proudly”] they speak.” By placing “oppression” with what follows, one achieves better poetic balance in the parallelism.

[73:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they set in heaven their mouth, and their tongue walks through the earth.” The meaning of the text is uncertain. Perhaps the idea is that they lay claim to heaven (i.e., speak as if they were ruling in heaven) and move through the earth declaring their superiority and exerting their influence. Some take the preposition -בְּ (bet) the first line as adversative and translate, “they set their mouth against heaven,” that is, they defy God.

[8:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the room of his images.” The adjective “idolatrous” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:12]  sn This type of image is explicitly prohibited in the Mosaic law (Lev 26:1).

[9:9]  ¹² tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”

[9:9]  ¹³ sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.

[7:16]  ¹⁴ tc The MT reads the enigmatic יָשׁוּבוּ לֹא עָל (yashuvu lo’ ’al) which is taken variously: “they turn, but not upward” (NASB); “they do not turn to the Most High” (NIV); “they return, but not to the most High” (KJV). The BHS editors suggest יָשׁוּבוּ לַבַּעַל (yashuvu labba’al, “they turn to Baal”; so RSV) or יָשׁוּבוּ לַבְּלִיַּעַל (yashuvu labbÿliyya’al, “they turn to Belial”) which is reflected by the LXX.

[7:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “because their tongue.” The term “tongue” is used figuratively, as a metonymy of cause (tongue) for the effect (prayers to Baal).

[7:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “this [will] be for scorn in the land of Egypt”; NIV “they will be ridiculed (NAB shall be mocked) in the land of Egypt.”

[3:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “your words are hard [or “strong”] against me”; cf. NIV “said harsh things against me”; TEV, NLT “said terrible things about me.”

[3:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “built up” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “prosper”; NLT “get rich.”

[3:15]  ²¹ tn Or “test”; NRSV, CEV “put God to the test.”

[12:36]  ²² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[1:15]  ²³ tn Grk “against” (κατά [kata] + genitive). English usage is satisfied with “on” at this point, but the parallel is lost in the translation to some degree, for the end of v. 15 says that this judgment is meted out on these sinners because they spoke against him (κατά + genitive).

[1:15]  ²⁴ tn Or “soul.”

[1:15]  ²⁵ tn Grk “of all their works of ungodliness.” The adverb “thoroughly” is part of the following verb “have committed.” See note on verb “committed” later in this verse.

[1:15]  ²⁶ tn The verb in Greek does not simply mean “have committed,” but “have committed in an ungodly way.” The verb ἀσεβέω (asebew) is cognate to the noun ἀσέβεια (asebeia, “ungodliness”). There is no easy way to express this in English, since English does not have a single word that means the same thing. Nevertheless, the tenor of v. 15 is plainly seen, regardless of the translation.

[1:15]  ²⁷ sn An apparent quotation from 1 En. 1:9. There is some doubt as to whether Jude is actually quoting from the text of 1 Enoch; the text here in Jude differs in some respects from the extant text of this pseudepigraphic book. It is sometimes suggested that Jude may instead have been quoting from oral tradition which had roots older than the written text.