Amsal 29:5

29:5 The one ¹  who flatters ²  his neighbor

spreads a net ³  for his steps. ⁴ 

Yesaya 51:7

51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right,

you people who are aware of my law! ⁵ 

Don’t be afraid of the insults of men;

don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!

Yesaya 51:12-13

51:12 “I, I am the one who consoles you. ⁶ 

Why are you afraid of mortal men,

of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? ⁷ 

51:13 Why do you forget ⁸  the Lord, who made you,

who stretched out the sky ⁹ 

and founded the earth?

Why do you constantly tremble all day long ¹⁰ 

at the anger of the oppressor,

when he makes plans to destroy?

Where is the anger of the oppressor? ¹¹ 

Yesaya 57:11

57:11 Whom are you worried about?

Whom do you fear, that you would act so deceitfully

and not remember me

or think about me? ¹² 

Because I have been silent for so long, ¹³ 

you are not afraid of me. ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 1:17

1:17 “But you, Jeremiah, ¹⁵  get yourself ready! ¹⁶  Go and tell these people everything I instruct you to say. Do not be terrified of them, or I will give you good reason to be terrified of them. ¹⁷ 

Yehezkiel 2:6

2:6 But you, son of man, do not fear them, and do not fear their words – even though briers ¹⁸  and thorns ¹⁹  surround you and you live among scorpions – do not fear their words and do not be terrified of the looks they give you, ²⁰  for they are a rebellious house!

Yehezkiel 13:17-23

13:17 “As for you, son of man, turn toward ²¹  the daughters of your people who are prophesying from their imagination. ²²  Prophesy against them 13:18 and say ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to those who sew bands ²³  on all their wrists ²⁴  and make headbands ²⁵  for heads of every size to entrap people’s lives! ²⁶  Will you entrap my people’s lives, yet preserve your own lives? 13:19 You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. You have put to death people ²⁷  who should not die and kept alive those who should not live by your lies to my people, who listen to lies!

13:20 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note ²⁸  that I am against your wristbands with which you entrap people’s lives ²⁹  like birds. I will tear them from your arms and will release the people’s lives, which you hunt like birds. 13:21 I will tear off your headbands and rescue my people from your power; ³⁰  they will no longer be prey in your hands. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 13:22 This is because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies (although I have not grieved him), and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct and preserve his life. 13:23 Therefore you will no longer see false visions and practice divination. I will rescue my people from your power, and you ³¹  will know that I am the Lord.’”

Matius 10:28

10:28 Do ³²  not be afraid of those who kill the body ³³  but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ³⁴ 

Matius 10:2

10:2 Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: ³⁵  first, Simon ³⁶  (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother;

Titus 1:7

1:7 For the overseer ³⁷  must be blameless as one entrusted with God’s work, ³⁸  not arrogant, not prone to anger, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for gain.

Wahyu 21:8

21:8 But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, ³⁹  idol worshipers, ⁴⁰  and all those who lie, their place ⁴¹  will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. ⁴²  That ⁴³  is the second death.”

[29:5]  ¹ tn Heb “a man,” but the context here does not suggest that the proverb refers to males only.

[29:5]  ² tn The form is the Hiphil participle, literally “deals smoothly,” i.e., smoothing over things that should be brought to one’s attention.

[29:5]  sn The flatterer is too smooth; his words are intended to gratify. In this proverb some malice is attached to the flattery, for the words prove to be destructive.

[29:5]  ³ sn The image of “spreading a net” for someone’s steps is an implied comparison (a figure of speech known as hypocatastasis): As one would literally spread a net, this individual’s flattery will come back to destroy him. A net would be spread to catch the prey, and so the idea is one of being caught and destroyed.

[29:5]  ⁴ tn There is some ambiguity concerning the referent of “his steps.” The net could be spread for the one flattered (cf. NRSV, “a net for the neighbor’s feet”; NLT, “their feet,” referring to others), or for the flatterer himself (cf. TEV “you set a trap for yourself”). The latter idea would make the verse more powerful: In flattering someone the flatterer is getting himself into a trap (e.g., 2:16; 7:5; 26:28; 28:23).

[51:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “people (who have) my law in their heart.”

[51:12]  ⁶ tc The plural suffix should probably be emended to the second masculine singular (which is used in v. 13). The final mem (ם) is probably dittographic; note the mem at the beginning of the next word.

[51:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the son of man who [as] grass is given up?” The feminine singular forms should probably be emended to the masculine singular (see v. 13). They have probably been influenced by the construction אַתְּ־הִיא (’at-hi’) in vv. 9-10.

[51:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and that you forget.”

[51:13]  ⁹ tn Or “the heavens” (also in v. 16). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[51:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and that you tremble constantly all the day.”

[51:13]  ¹¹ tn The question anticipates the answer, “Ready to disappear!” See v. 14.

[57:11]  ¹² tn Heb “you do not place [it] on your heart.”

[57:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “Is it not [because] I have been silent, and from long ago?”

[57:11]  ¹⁴ sn God’s patience with sinful Israel has caused them to think that they can sin with impunity and suffer no consequences.

[1:17]  ¹⁵ tn The name “Jeremiah” is not in the text. The use of the personal pronoun followed by the proper name is an attempt to reflect the correlative emphasis between Jeremiah’s responsibility noted here and the Lord’s promise noted in the next verse. The emphasis in the Hebrew text is marked by the presence of the subject pronouns at the beginning of each of the two verses.

[1:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “gird up your loins.” For the literal use of this idiom to refer to preparation for action see 2 Kgs 4:29; 9:1. For the idiomatic use to refer to spiritual and emotional preparation as here, see Job 38:3, 40:7, and 1 Pet 1:13 in the NT.

[1:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I will make you terrified in front of them.” There is a play on words here involving two different forms of the same Hebrew verb and two different but related prepositional phrases, “from before/of,” a preposition introducing the object of a verb of fearing, and “before, in front of,” a preposition introducing a spatial location.

[2:6]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

[2:6]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew term is found elsewhere in the OT only in Ezek 28:24.

[2:6]  sn Here thorns may be a figure for hostility (Ezek 28:24; Mic 7:4).

[2:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “of their faces.”

[13:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “set your face against.”

[13:17]  ²² tn Heb “from their heart.”

[13:18]  ²³ sn The wristbands mentioned here probably represented magic bands or charms. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:413.

[13:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “joints of the hands.” This may include the elbow and shoulder joints.

[13:18]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew term occurs in the Bible only here and in v. 21. It has also been understood as a veil or type of head covering. D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:414) suggests that given the context of magical devices, the expected parallel to the magical arm bands, and the meaning of this Hebrew root (סָפַח [safakh, “to attach” or “join”]), it may refer to headbands or necklaces on which magical amulets were worn.

[13:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “human lives” or “souls” (three times in v. 18 and twice in v. 19).

[13:19]  ²⁷ tn Heb “human lives” or “souls.”

[13:20]  ²⁸ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[13:20]  ²⁹ tn Heb “human lives” or “souls.”

[13:21]  ³⁰ tn Heb “from your hand(s).” This refers to their power over the people.

[13:23]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew verb is feminine plural, indicating that it is the false prophetesses who are addressed here.

[10:28]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[10:28]  ³³ sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.

[10:28]  ³⁴ sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.

[10:2]  ³⁵ sn The term apostles is rare in the gospels, found only here, Mark 3:14, and six more times in Luke (6:13; 9:10; 11:49; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10).

[10:2]  ³⁶ sn In the various lists of the twelve, Simon (that is, Peter) is always mentioned first (see also Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13) and the first four are always the same, though not in the same order after Peter.

[1:7]  ³⁷ sn The overseer is another term for the same official position of leadership as the “elder.” This is seen in the interchange of the two terms in this passage and in Acts 20:17, 28, as well as in the parallels between these verses and 1 Tim 3:1-7.

[1:7]  ³⁸ tn Grk “as God’s steward.”

[21:8]  ³⁹ tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”

[21:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “idolaters.”

[21:8]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “their share.”

[21:8]  ⁴² tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[21:8]  ⁴³ tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”