Yeremia 3:8

3:8 She also saw ¹  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ²  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ³  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ⁴ 

Yeremia 3:11-14

3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ⁵ 

The Lord Calls on Israel and Judah to Repent

3:12 “Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north. ⁶  Tell them,

‘Come back to me, wayward Israel,’ says the Lord.

‘I will not continue to look on you with displeasure. ⁷ 

For I am merciful,’ says the Lord.

‘I will not be angry with you forever.

3:13 However, you must confess that you have done wrong, ⁸ 

and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.

You must confess ⁹  that you have given yourself to ¹⁰  foreign gods under every green tree,

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

3:14 “Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. ¹¹  If you do, ¹²  I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

Yeremia 2:19

2:19 Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment.

Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. ¹³ 

Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful ¹⁴ 

it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, ¹⁵ 

to show no respect for me,” ¹⁶ 

says the Lord God who rules over all. ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 7:24

7:24 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. ¹⁸ 

Yeremia 7:2

7:2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim ¹⁹  this message: ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the Lord. ²⁰  Hear what the Lord has to say.

Kisah Para Rasul 17:7-17

17:7 and ²¹  Jason has welcomed them as guests! They ²²  are all acting against Caesar’s ²³  decrees, saying there is another king named ²⁴  Jesus!” ²⁵  17:8 They caused confusion among ²⁶  the crowd and the city officials ²⁷  who heard these things. 17:9 After ²⁸  the city officials ²⁹  had received bail ³⁰  from Jason and the others, they released them.

Paul and Silas at Berea

17:10 The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea ³¹  at once, during the night. When they arrived, ³²  they went to the Jewish synagogue. ³³  17:11 These Jews ³⁴  were more open-minded ³⁵  than those in Thessalonica, ³⁶  for they eagerly ³⁷  received ³⁸  the message, examining ³⁹  the scriptures carefully every day ⁴⁰  to see if these things were so. 17:12 Therefore many of them believed, along with quite a few ⁴¹  prominent ⁴²  Greek women and men. 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica ⁴³  heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God ⁴⁴  in Berea, ⁴⁵  they came there too, inciting ⁴⁶  and disturbing ⁴⁷  the crowds. 17:14 Then the brothers sent Paul away to the coast ⁴⁸  at once, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. ⁴⁹  17:15 Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, ⁵⁰  and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. ⁵¹ 

Paul at Athens

17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, ⁵²  his spirit was greatly upset ⁵³  because he saw ⁵⁴  the city was full of idols. 17:17 So he was addressing ⁵⁵  the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles ⁵⁶  in the synagogue, ⁵⁷  and in the marketplace every day ⁵⁸  those who happened to be there.

Yehezkiel 23:11

23:11 “Her sister Oholibah watched this, ⁵⁹  but she became more corrupt in her lust than her sister had been, and her acts of prostitution were more numerous than those of her sister.

[3:8]  ¹ tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.

[3:8]  ² tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

[3:8]  ³ tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.

[3:8]  ⁴ 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.

[3:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”

[3:11]  sn A comparison is drawn here between the greater culpability of Judah, who has had the advantage of seeing how God disciplined her sister nation for having sinned and yet ignored the warning and committed the same sin, and the culpability of Israel who had no such advantage.

[3:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Go and proclaim these words to the north.” The translation assumes that the message is directed toward the exiles of northern Israel who have been scattered in the provinces of Assyria to the north.

[3:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will not cause my face to fall on you.”

[3:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”

[3:13]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.”

[3:14]  ¹¹ tn Or “I am your true husband.”

[3:14]  sn There is a wordplay between the term “true master” and the name of the pagan god Baal. The pronoun “I” is emphatic, creating a contrast between the Lord as Israel’s true master/husband versus Baal as Israel’s illegitimate lover/master. See 2:23-25.

[3:14]  ¹² tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.

[2:19]  ¹³ tn Or “teach you a lesson”; Heb “rebuke/chide you.”

[2:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “how evil and bitter.” The reference is to the consequences of their acts. This is a figure of speech (hendiadys) where two nouns or adjectives joined by “and” introduce a main concept modified by the other noun or adjective.

[2:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to leave the Lord your God.” The change in person is intended to ease the problem of the rapid transition, which is common in Hebrew style but not in English, from third to first person between this line and the next.

[2:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and no fear of me was on you.”

[2:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh, [the God of] hosts.” For the title Lord God see the study note on 1:6. For the title “who rules over all” see the following study note. The title “the Lord who rules over all” is a way of rendering the title “Yahweh of armies.” It is an abbreviation of a longer title “Yahweh the God of armies” which occurs five times in Jeremiah (see, e.g., 44:7). The abbreviated title occurs seventy-seven times in the book of Jeremiah. On thirty-two occasions it is further qualified by the title “the God of Israel,” showing his special relation to Israel. On six occasions it is preceded by the title “Lord” (see, e.g., 46:10) and twice it is preceded by the title “the King” (see, e.g., 51:17). Both titles emphasize his sovereignty. Twice it is said that he is the maker of all things (10:16; 51:19), and once it is said that he made the earth and the people and animals on it and gives them into the control of whomever he wishes (27:4-5). On two occasions it is emphasized that he also made the heavenly elements and controls the natural elements of wind, rain, thunder, and hail (31:35; 51:14-16). All this is consistent with usage elsewhere where the “armies” over which he has charge are identified as (1) the angels which surround his throne (Isa 6:3, 5; 1 Kgs 22:19) and which he sends to protect his servants (2 Kgs 6:17), (2) the natural forces of thunder, rain, and hail (Isa 29:6; Josh 10:11; Judg 5:4, 5) through which he sends the enemy into panic and “gums” up their chariot wheels, (3) the armies of Israel (1 Sam 17:45) which he leads into battle (Num 10:34-35; Josh 5:14, 15) and for whom he fights as a mighty warrior (Exod 15:3; Isa 42:13; Ps 24:8), and even (4) the armies of the nations which he musters against his disobedient people (Isa 13:14). This title is most commonly found in the messenger formula “Thus says…” introducing both oracles of judgment (on Israel [e.g., 9:7, 15] and on the nations [e.g. 46:19; 50:18]; and see in general 25:29-32). It emphasizes his sovereignty as the king and creator, the lord of creation and of history, and the just judge who sees and knows all (11:20; 20:12) and judges each person and nation according to their actions (Jer 32:18-19). In the first instance (in the most dominant usage) this will involve the punishment of his own people through the agency of the Babylonians (cf., e.g., 25:8-9). But it will also include the punishment of all nations, including Babylon itself (cf. Jer 25:17-26, 32-38), and will ultimately result in the restoration of his people and a new relation with them (30:8; 31:35-37).

[7:24]  ¹⁸ tn Or “They went backward and not forward”; Heb “They were to the backward and not to the forward.” The two phrases used here appear nowhere else in the Bible and the latter preposition plus adverb elsewhere is used temporally meaning “formerly” or “previously.” The translation follows the proposal of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 57. Another option is “they turned their backs to me, not their faces,” understanding the line as a variant of a line in 2:27.

[7:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Proclaim there…” The adverb is unnecessary in English style.

[7:2]  ²⁰ sn That is, all those who have passed through the gates of the outer court and are standing in the courtyard of the temple.

[17:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “whom.” Because of the awkwardness in English of having two relative clauses follow one another (“who have stirred up trouble…whom Jason has welcomed”) the relative pronoun here (“whom”) has been replaced by the conjunction “and,” creating a clause that is grammatically coordinate but logically subordinate in the translation.

[17:7]  ²² tn Grk “and they.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

[17:7]  ²³ tn Or “the emperor’s” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).

[17:7]  ²⁴ tn The word “named” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for clarity.

[17:7]  ²⁵ sn Acting…saying…Jesus. The charges are serious, involving sedition (Luke 23:2). If the political charges were true, Rome would have to react.

[17:8]  ²⁶ tn Grk “They troubled the crowd and the city officials”; but this could be understood to mean “they bothered” or “they annoyed.” In reality the Jewish instigators managed to instill doubt and confusion into both the mob and the officials by their false charges of treason. Verse 8 suggests the charges raised again Paul, Silas, Jason, and the others were false.

[17:8]  ²⁷ tn L&N 37.93 defines πολιτάρχης (politarch") as “a public official responsible for administrative matters within a town or city and a member of the ruling council of such a political unit – ‘city official.’”

[17:9]  ²⁸ tn Grk “And after.” 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.

[17:9]  ²⁹ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the city officials) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:9]  ³⁰ tn That is, “a payment” or “a pledge of security” (BDAG 472 s.v. ἱκανός 1) for which “bail” is the most common contemporary English equivalent.

[17:10]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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]  ³³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:11]  ³⁴ tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:11]  ³⁵ tn Or “more willing to learn.” L&N 27.48 and BDAG 404 s.v. εὐγενής 2 both use the term “open-minded” here. The point is that they were more receptive to Paul’s message.

[17:11]  ³⁶ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

[17:11]  map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[17:11]  ³⁷ tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”

[17:11]  ³⁸ tn Grk “who received.” Here the relative pronoun (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“they”) preceded by a semicolon, which is less awkward in contemporary English than a relative clause at this point.

[17:11]  ³⁹ tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.

[17:11]  ⁴⁰ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[17:12]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “not a few”; this use of negation could be misleading to the modern English reader, however, and so has been translated as “quite a few” (which is the actual meaning of the expression).

[17:12]  ⁴² tn Or “respected.”

[17:13]  ⁴³ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

[17:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “that the word of God had also been proclaimed by Paul.” This passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:13]  ⁴⁵ 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) from Thessalonica.

[17:13]  ⁴⁶ tn BDAG 911 s.v. σαλεύω 2 has “incite” for σαλεύοντες (saleuonte") in Acts 17:13.

[17:13]  sn Inciting. Ironically, it was the Jews who were disturbing the peace, not the Christians.

[17:13]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “stirring up” (BDAG 990-91 s.v. ταράσσω 2). The point is the agitation of the crowds.

[17:14]  ⁴⁸ 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]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “remained there”; the referent (Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:15]  ⁵⁰ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[17:15]  ⁵¹ sn They left. See 1 Thess 3:1-2, which shows they went from here to Thessalonica.

[17:16]  ⁵² map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[17:16]  ⁵³ 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]  ⁵⁴ 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]  ⁵⁵ 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]  ⁵⁶ 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]  ⁵⁷ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:17]  ⁵⁸ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[23:11]  ⁵⁹ tn The word “this” is not in the original text.