Mazmur 73:8-9

73:8 They mock ¹  and say evil things; ² 

they proudly threaten violence. ³ 

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

and lay claim to the earth. ⁴ 

Mazmur 74:18

74:18 Remember how ⁵  the enemy hurls insults, O Lord, ⁶ 

and how a foolish nation blasphemes your name!

Mazmur 74:22-23

74:22 Rise up, O God! Defend your honor! ⁷ 

Remember how fools insult you all day long! ⁸ 

74:23 Do not disregard ⁹  what your enemies say, ¹⁰ 

or the unceasing shouts of those who defy you. ¹¹ 

Ayub 21:14-15

21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!

We do not want to ¹²  know your ways. ¹³ 

21:15 Who is the Almighty, that ¹⁴  we should serve him?

What would we gain

if we were to pray ¹⁵  to him?’ ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 37:23

37:23 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?

At whom have you shouted

and looked so arrogantly? ¹⁷ 

At the Holy One of Israel! ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 37:28-29

37:28 I know where you live

and everything you do

and how you rage against me. ¹⁹ 

37:29 Because you rage against me

and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ²⁰ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ²¹ 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back

the way you came.”

Yudas 1:15

1:15 to execute judgment on ²²  all, and to convict every person ²³  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ²⁴  that they have committed, ²⁵  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ²⁶ 

Wahyu 13:6

13:6 So ²⁷  the beast ²⁸  opened his mouth to blaspheme against God – to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place, ²⁹  that is, those who dwell in heaven.

[73:8]  ¹ tn The verb מוּק (muq, “mock”) occurs only here in the OT.

[73:8]  ² tn Heb “and speak with evil.”

[73:8]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[74:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “remember this.”

[74:18]  ⁶ tn Or “[how] the enemy insults the Lord.”

[74:22]  ⁷ tn Or “defend your cause.”

[74:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “remember your reproach from a fool all the day.”

[74:23]  ⁹ tn Or “forget.”

[74:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the voice of your enemies.”

[74:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the roar of those who rise up against you, which ascends continually.”

[21:14]  ¹² tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”

[21:14]  ¹³ sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.

[21:15]  ¹⁴ tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”

[21:15]  ¹⁵ tn The verb פָּגַע (paga’) means “to encounter; to meet,” but also “to meet with request; to intercede; to interpose.” The latter meaning is a derived meaning by usage.

[21:15]  ¹⁶ tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.

[37:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?” Cf. NIV “lifted your eyes in pride”; NRSV “haughtily lifted your eyes.”

[37:23]  ¹⁸ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[37:28]  ¹⁹ tc Heb “your going out and your coming in and how you have raged against me.” Several scholars have suggested that this line is probably dittographic (note the beginning of the next line). However, most English translations include the statement in question at the end of v. 28 and the beginning of v. 29. Interestingly, the LXX does not have this clause at the end of v. 28 and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not have it at the beginning of v. 29. In light of this ambiguous manuscript evidence, it appears best to retain the clause in both verses.

[37:29]  ²⁰ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (sha’anankha, “your complacency”) is emended to שְׁאוֹנְךָ (shÿ’onÿkha, “your uproar”). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38. However, the LXX seems to support the MT and Sennacherib’s cavalier dismissal of Yahweh depicts an arrogant complacency (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:658, n. 10).

[37:29]  ²¹ sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

[1:15]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Or “soul.”

[1:15]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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.

[13:6]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the permission granted to the beast.

[13:6]  ²⁸ tn Grk “he” (or “it”); the referent (the beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:6]  ²⁹ tc The reading “and his dwelling place” does not occur in codex C, but its omission is probably due to scribal oversight since the phrase has the same ending as the phrase before it, i.e., they both end in “his” (αὐτοῦ, autou). This is similar to the mistake this scribe made in 12:14 with the omission of the reading “and half a time” (καὶ ἥμισυ καιροῦ, kai {hmisu kairou).