Yesaya 59:3-4

59:3 For your hands are stained with blood

and your fingers with sin;

your lips speak lies,

your tongue utters malicious words.

59:4 No one is concerned about justice; ¹ 

no one sets forth his case truthfully.

They depend on false words ²  and tell lies;

they conceive of oppression ³ 

and give birth to sin.

Yesaya 59:1

Injustice Brings Alienation from God

59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak ⁴  to deliver you;

his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ⁵ 

Kisah Para Rasul 21:10-14

21:10 While we remained there for a number of days, ⁶  a prophet named Agabus ⁷  came down from Judea. 21:11 He came ⁸  to us, took ⁹  Paul’s belt, ¹⁰  tied ¹¹  his own hands and feet with it, ¹²  and said, “The Holy Spirit says this: ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over ¹³  to the Gentiles.’” 21:12 When we heard this, both we and the local people ¹⁴  begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 21:13 Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking ¹⁵  my heart? For I am ready not only to be tied up, ¹⁶  but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 21:14 Because he could not be persuaded, ¹⁷  we said no more except, ¹⁸  “The Lord’s will be done.” ¹⁹ 

Kisah Para Rasul 6:11-13

6:11 Then they secretly instigated ²⁰  some men to say, “We have heard this man ²¹  speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 6:12 They incited the people, the ²²  elders, and the experts in the law; ²³  then they approached Stephen, ²⁴  seized him, and brought him before the council. ²⁵  6:13 They brought forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop saying things against this holy place ²⁶  and the law. ²⁷ 

[59:4]  ¹ tn Heb “no one pleads with justice.”

[59:4]  ² tn Heb “nothing”; NAB “emptiness.”

[59:4]  ³ tn Or “trouble” (NIV), or “harm.”

[59:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[59:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”

[21:10]  ⁶ tn BDAG 848 s.v. πολύς 1.b.α has “ἐπὶ ἡμέρας πλείους for a (large) number of days, for many days…Ac 13:31. – 21:10…24:17; 25:14; 27:20.”

[21:10]  ⁷ sn Agabus also appeared in Acts 11:28. He was from Jerusalem, so the two churches were still in contact with one another.

[21:11]  ⁸ tn Grk “And coming.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here. The participle ἐλθών (elqwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:11]  ⁹ tn Grk “and taking.” This καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. The participle ἄρας (aras) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:11]  ¹⁰ sn The belt was a band or sash used to keep money as well as to gird up the tunic (BDAG 431 s.v. ζώνη).

[21:11]  ¹¹ tn The participle δήσας (dhsas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:11]  ¹² tn The words “with it” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[21:11]  ¹³ tn Grk “and will deliver him over into the hands of” (a Semitic idiom).

[21:11]  sn The Jews…will tie up…and will hand him over. As later events will show, the Jews in Jerusalem did not personally tie Paul up and hand him over to the Gentiles, but their reaction to him was the cause of his arrest (Acts 21:27-36).

[21:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the people there.”

[21:13]  ¹⁵ tn The term translated “breaking” as used by Josephus (Ant. 10.10.4 [10.207]) means to break something into pieces, but in its only NT use (it is a hapax legomenon) it is used figuratively (BDAG 972 s.v. συνθρύπτω).

[21:13]  ¹⁶ tn L&N 18.13 has “to tie objects together – ‘to tie, to tie together, to tie up.’” The verb δέω (dew) is sometimes figurative for imprisonment (L&N 37.114), but it is preferable to translate it literally here in light of v. 11 where Agabus tied himself up with Paul’s belt.

[21:14]  ¹⁷ tn The participle πειθομένου (peiqomenou) in this genitive absolute construction has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

[21:14]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “we became silent, saying.”

[21:14]  ¹⁹ sn “The Lord’s will be done.” Since no one knew exactly what would happen, the matter was left in the Lord’s hands.

[6:11]  ²⁰ tn Another translation would be “they suborned” (but this term is not in common usage). “Instigate (secretly), suborn” is given by BDAG 1036 s.v. ὑποβάλλω.

[6:11]  ²¹ tn Grk “heard him”; but since this is direct discourse, it is more natural (and clearer) to specify the referent (Stephen) as “this man.”

[6:12]  ²² tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[6:12]  ²³ tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 4:5.

[6:12]  ²⁴ tn Grk “approaching, they seized him”; the referent (Stephen) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:12]  ²⁵ tn Or “the Sanhedrin” (the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews). Stephen suffers just as Peter and John did.

[6:13]  ²⁶ sn This holy place is a reference to the temple.

[6:13]  ²⁷ sn The law refers to the law of Moses. It elaborates the nature of the blasphemy in v. 11. To speak against God’s law in Torah was to blaspheme God (Deut 28:15-19). On the Jewish view of false witnesses, see Exod 19:16-18; 20:16; m. Sanhedrin 3.6; 5.1-5. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 may indicate why the temple was mentioned.