Mazmur 94:8-9

94:8 Take notice of this, ¹  you ignorant people! ² 

You fools, when will you ever understand?

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see? ³ 

Yesaya 5:13

5:13 Therefore my ⁴  people will be deported ⁵ 

because of their lack of understanding.

Their ⁶  leaders will have nothing to eat, ⁷ 

their ⁸  masses will have nothing to drink. ⁹ 

Yesaya 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ¹⁰  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ¹¹ 

For these people lack understanding, ¹² 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Yesaya 29:14

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed. ¹³ 

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.” ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 44:19-20

44:19 No one thinks to himself,

nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:

‘I burned half of it in the fire –

yes, I baked bread over the coals;

I roasted meat and ate it.

With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?

Should I bow down to dry wood?’ ¹⁵ 

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ¹⁶ 

his deceived mind misleads him.

He cannot rescue himself,

nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 45:20

45:20 Gather together and come!

Approach together, you refugees from the nations!

Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,

those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.

Roma 1:21-22

1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ¹⁸  were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed ¹⁹  to be wise, they became fools

Roma 1:28

1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ²⁰  God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. ²¹ 

Roma 1:2

1:2 This gospel ²²  he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

Kolose 4:3-4

4:3 At the same time pray ²³  for us too, that ²⁴  God may open a door for the message ²⁵  so that we may proclaim ²⁶  the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ²⁷  4:4 Pray that I may make it known as I should. ²⁸ 

Efesus 4:17-18

Live in Holiness

4:17 So I say this, and insist ²⁹  in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility ³⁰  of their thinking. ³¹  4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, ³²  being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

[94:8]  ¹ tn Heb “understand.” The verb used in v. 7 is repeated here for rhetorical effect. The people referred to here claim God is ignorant of their actions, but the psalmist corrects their faulty viewpoint.

[94:8]  ² tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”

[94:9]  ³ tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”

[5:13]  ⁴ sn It is not certain if the prophet or the Lord is speaking at this point.

[5:13]  ⁵ tn The suffixed (perfect) form of the verb is used; in this way the coming event is described for rhetorical effect as occurring or as already completed.

[5:13]  ⁶ tn The third masculine singular suffix refers back to “my people.”

[5:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “Their glory will be men of hunger.” כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) is in opposition to הָמוֹן (hamon, “masses”) and refers here to the rich and prominent members of the nation. Some prefer to repoint מְתֵי (mÿtey, “men of”) as מִתֵי (mitey, “dead ones of”).

[5:13]  ⁸ tn The third masculine singular suffix refers back to “my people.”

[5:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and their masses will be parched [by] thirst.”

[27:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ¹² tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[29:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.

[29:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”

[44:19]  ¹⁵ tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.

[44:20]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[1:21]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “heart.”

[1:22]  ¹⁹ tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.

[1:28]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”

[1:28]  ²¹ tn Grk “the things that are improper.”

[1:2]  ²² tn Grk “the gospel of God, which he promised.” Because of the length and complexity of this sentence in Greek, it was divided into shorter English sentences in keeping with contemporary English style. To indicate the referent of the relative pronoun (“which”), the word “gospel” was repeated at the beginning of v. 2.

[4:3]  ²³ tn Though προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi) is an adverbial participle related to the previous imperative, προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite), it is here translated as an independent clause due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[4:3]  ²⁴ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been rendered as substantival here, indicating the content of the prayer rather than the purpose for it. These two ideas are very similar and difficult to differentiate in this passage, but the conjunction ἵνα following a verb of praying is generally regarded as giving the content of the prayer.

[4:3]  ²⁵ tn Grk “that God may open for us a door of the word to speak the mystery of Christ.” The construction in Greek is somewhat awkward in this clause. The translation attempts to simplify this structure somewhat and yet communicate exactly what Paul is asking for.

[4:3]  ²⁶ tn Or “so that we may speak.”

[4:3]  ²⁷ tn Or “in prison.”

[4:4]  ²⁸ tn The phrase begins with the ἵνα (Jina) clause and is subordinate to the imperative προσκαρτερεῖτε (proskartereite) in v. 2. The reference to the idea that Paul must make it known indicates that this clause is probably best viewed as purpose and not content, like the ἵνα of v. 3. It is the second purpose stated in the context; the first is expressed through the infinitive λαλῆσαι (lalhsai) in v. 3. The term “pray” at the beginning of the sentence is intended to pick up the imperative of v. 3.

[4:17]  ²⁹ tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.

[4:17]  ³⁰ tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.

[4:17]  ³¹ tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”

[4:18]  ³² tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.