Mazmur 31:18

31:18 May lying lips be silenced –

lips ¹  that speak defiantly against the innocent ² 

with arrogance and contempt!

Mazmur 59:7

59:7 Look, they hurl insults at me

and openly threaten to kill me, ³ 

for they say, ⁴ 

“Who hears?”

Mazmur 59:12

59:12 They speak sinful words. ⁵ 

So let them be trapped by their own pride

and by the curses and lies they speak!

Mazmur 64:3-4

64:3 They ⁶  sharpen their tongues like a sword;

they aim their arrow, a slanderous charge, ⁷ 

64:4 in order to shoot down the innocent ⁸  in secluded places.

They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. ⁹ 

Mazmur 73:8-9

73:8 They mock ¹⁰  and say evil things; ¹¹ 

they proudly threaten violence. ¹² 

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

and lay claim to the earth. ¹³ 

Mazmur 140:3

140:3 Their tongues wound like a serpent; ¹⁴ 

a viper’s ¹⁵  venom is behind ¹⁶  their lips. (Selah)

Amsal 30:14

30:14 There is a generation whose teeth are like ¹⁷  swords ¹⁸ 

and whose molars ¹⁹  are like knives

to devour ²⁰  the poor from the earth

and the needy from among the human race.

Yeremia 18:18

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

18:18 Then some people ²¹  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ²²  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ²³  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ²⁴  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

Matius 12:24

12:24 But when the Pharisees ²⁵  heard this they said, “He does not cast out demons except by the power of Beelzebul, ²⁶  the ruler ²⁷  of demons!”

Matius 12:34

12:34 Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.

Yudas 1:14-15

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ²⁸  even prophesied of them, ²⁹  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ³⁰  with thousands and thousands ³¹  of his holy ones, 1:15 to execute judgment on ³²  all, and to convict every person ³³  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ³⁴  that they have committed, ³⁵  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ³⁶ 

[31:18]  ¹ tn Heb “the [ones which].”

[31:18]  ² tn Or “godly.”

[59:7]  ³ tn Heb “look, they gush forth with their mouth, swords [are] in their lips.”

[59:7]  ⁴ tn The words “for they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The following question (“Who hears?”) is spoken by the psalmist’s enemies, who are confident that no one else can hear their threats against the psalmist. They are aggressive because they feel the psalmist is vulnerable and has no one to help him.

[59:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “the sin of their mouth [is] the word of their lips.”

[64:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[64:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “a bitter word.”

[64:4]  ⁸ tn The psalmist uses the singular because he is referring to himself here as representative of a larger group.

[64:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and are unafraid.” The words “of retaliation” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[73:8]  ¹⁰ tn The verb מוּק (muq, “mock”) occurs only here in the OT.

[73:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and speak with evil.”

[73:8]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.

[140:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they sharpen their tongue like a serpent.” Ps 64:3 reads, “they sharpen their tongues like sword.” Perhaps Ps 140:3 uses a mixed metaphor, the point being that “they sharpen their tongues [like a sword],” as it were, so that when they speak, their words wound like a serpent’s bite. Another option is that the language refers to the pointed or forked nature of a serpent’s tongue, which is viewed metaphorically as “sharpened.”

[140:3]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term is used only here in the OT.

[140:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “under.”

[30:14]  ¹⁷ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[30:14]  ¹⁸ sn There are two figures used in each of these lines: teeth/great teeth and “swords/knives.” The term “teeth” is a metonymy for the process of chewing and eating. This goes with the figure of the second half of the verse that speaks about “devouring” the poor – so the whole image of eating and chewing refers to destroying the poor (an implied comparison). The figures of “swords/knives” are metaphors within this image. Comparing teeth to swords means that they are sharp and powerful. The imagery captures the rapacity of their power.

[30:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “teeth” (so NRSV) or “jaw teeth” (so KJV, ASV, NASB) or perhaps “jawbone.” This is a different Hebrew word for “teeth” than the one in the previous line; if it refers to “jaw teeth” then a translation like “molars” would be appropriate, although this image might not fit with the metaphor (“like knives”) unless the other teeth, the incisors or front teeth, are pictured as being even longer (“like swords”).

[30:14]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew form לֶאֱכֹל (le’ekhol) is the Qal infinitive construct; it indicates the purpose of this generation’s ruthless power – it is destructive. The figure is an implied comparison (known as hypocatastasis) between “devouring” and “destroying.”

[18:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.

[18:18]  ²² tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.

[18:18]  ²³ tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”

[18:18]  sn These are the three channels through whom God spoke to his people in the OT. See Jer 8:8-10 and Ezek 7:26.

[18:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.

[12:24]  ²⁵ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[12:24]  ²⁶ tn Grk “except by Beelzebul.”

[12:24]  sn Beelzebul is another name for Satan. So some people recognized Jesus’ work as supernatural, but called it diabolical.

[12:24]  ²⁷ tn Or “prince.”

[1:14]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

[1:14]  sn The genealogical count is inclusive, counting Adam as the first, for Enoch is really the sixth in descent from Adam (Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch). In this way, the picture of perfection/completion was retained (for the number seven is often used for perfection or completion in the Bible) starting with Adam and concluding with Enoch.

[1:14]  ²⁹ tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ³⁰ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ³¹ tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

[1:15]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Or “soul.”

[1:15]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ 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.