Jeremiah 19:13

19:13 The houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled by dead bodies ¹  just like this place, Topheth. For they offered sacrifice to the stars ²  and poured out drink offerings to other gods on the roofs of those houses.’”

Jeremiah 44:17-19

44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ³  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ⁴  just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. ⁵  44:18 But ever since we stopped sacrificing and pouring out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in great need. Our people have died in wars or of starvation.” ⁶  44:19 The women added, ⁷  “We did indeed sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven. But it was with the full knowledge and approval of our husbands that we made cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her.” ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 4:19

4:19 When you look up ⁹  to the sky ¹⁰  and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation ¹¹  – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, ¹²  for the Lord your God has assigned ¹³  them to all the people ¹⁴  of the world. ¹⁵ 

Deuteronomy 17:3

17:3 by serving other gods and worshiping them – the sun, ¹⁶  moon, or any other heavenly bodies which I have not permitted you to worship. ¹⁷ 

Deuteronomy 17:2

17:2 Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you – in one of your villages ¹⁸  that the Lord your God is giving you – who sins before the Lord your God ¹⁹  and breaks his covenant

Deuteronomy 17:16

17:16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, ²⁰  for the Lord has said you must never again return that way.

Deuteronomy 21:3

21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ²¹  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke –

Deuteronomy 21:5

21:5 Then the Levitical priests ²²  will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, ²³  and to decide ²⁴  every judicial verdict ²⁵ )

Deuteronomy 23:5

23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed ²⁶  the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves ²⁷  you.

Deuteronomy 23:2

23:2 A person of illegitimate birth ²⁸  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so. ²⁹ 

Deuteronomy 33:3-5

33:3 Surely he loves the people; ³⁰ 

all your holy ones ³¹  are in your power. ³² 

And they sit ³³  at your feet,

each receiving ³⁴  your words.

33:4 Moses delivered to us a law, ³⁵ 

an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.

33:5 The Lord ³⁶  was king over Jeshurun, ³⁷ 

when the leaders of the people assembled,

the tribes of Israel together. ³⁸ 

Ezekiel 8:16

8:16 Then he brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house. Right there ³⁹  at the entrance to the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, ⁴⁰  were about twenty-five ⁴¹  men with their backs to the Lord’s temple, ⁴²  facing east – they were worshiping the sun ⁴³  toward the east!

Zephaniah 1:5

1:5 I will remove ⁴⁴  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ⁴⁵ 

those who swear allegiance to the Lord ⁴⁶  while taking oaths in the name of ⁴⁷  their ‘king,’ ⁴⁸ 

Acts 7:42

7:42 But God turned away from them and gave them over ⁴⁹  to worship the host ⁵⁰  of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices ⁵¹  forty years in the wilderness, was it, ⁵²  house of Israel?

[19:13]  ¹ tn The words “by dead bodies” is not in the text but is implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:13]  ² tn Heb “the host of heaven.”

[44:17]  ³ tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.

[44:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” The expressions have been combined to simplify and shorten the sentence. The same combination also occurs in vv. 18, 19.

[44:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”

[44:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “we have been consumed/destroyed by sword or by starvation.” The “we” cannot be taken literally here since they are still alive.

[44:19]  ⁷ tc The words “And the women added” are not in the Hebrew text. They are, however, implicit in what is said. They are found in the Syriac version and in one recension of the Greek version. W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:279, n. 19a) suggests that these words are missing from the Hebrew text because of haplography, i.e., that the scribe left out וַהַנָּשִׁים אָמְרוּ כִי (vahannashim ’omru khi) because his eye jumped from the ו at the beginning to the כִּי (ki) that introduced the temporal clause and left out everything in between. It is, however, just as likely, given the fact that there are several other examples of quotes which have not been formally introduced in the book of Jeremiah, that the words were not there and are supplied by these two ancient versions as a translator’s clarification.

[44:19]  ⁸ tn Or “When we sacrificed and poured out drink offering to the Queen of Heaven and made cakes in her image, wasn’t it with the knowledge and approval of our husbands?” Heb “When we sacrificed to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings [for the use of לְ (lamed) + the infinitive construct to carry on the tense of the preceding verb see BDB 518 s.v. לְ 7.b(h)] to her, did we make cakes to make an image of her and pour out drink offerings apart from [i.e., “without the knowledge and consent of,” so BDB 116 s.v. בִּלְעֲדֵי b(a)] our husbands?” The question expects a positive answer and has been rendered as an affirmation in the translation. The long, complex Hebrew sentence has again been broken in two and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.

[4:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “lest you lift up your eyes.” In the Hebrew text vv. 16-19 are subordinated to “Be careful” in v. 15, but this makes for an unduly long sentence in English.

[4:19]  ¹⁰ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[4:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all the host of heaven.”

[4:19]  ¹² tn In the Hebrew text the verbal sequence in v. 19 is “lest you look up…and see…and be seduced…and worship them…and serve them.” However, the first two actions are not prohibited in and of themselves. The prohibition pertains to the final three actions. The first two verbs describe actions that are logically subordinate to the following actions and can be treated as temporal or circumstantial: “lest, looking up…and seeing…, you are seduced.” See Joüon 2:635 §168.h.

[4:19]  ¹³ tn Or “allotted.”

[4:19]  ¹⁴ tn Or “nations.”

[4:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “under all the heaven.”

[17:3]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads “and to the sun,” thus including the sun, the moon, and other heavenly spheres among the gods. However, Theodotion and Lucian read “or to the sun,” suggesting perhaps that the sun and the other heavenly bodies are not in the category of actual deities.

[17:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “which I have not commanded you.” The words “to worship” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[17:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the Lord your God.”

[17:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in order to multiply horses.” The translation uses “do so” in place of “multiply horses” to avoid redundancy (cf. NAB, NIV).

[21:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:5]  ²² tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”

[21:5]  ²³ tn Heb “in the name of the Lord.” See note on Deut 10:8. The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[21:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “by their mouth.”

[21:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”

[23:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God changed.” The phrase “the Lord your God” has not been included in the translation here for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy. Moreover, use of the pronoun “he” could create confusion regarding the referent (the Lord or Balaam).

[23:5]  ²⁷ tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

[23:2]  ²⁸ tn Or “a person born of an illegitimate marriage.”

[23:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[33:3]  ³⁰ tc Heb “peoples.” The apparent plural form is probably a misunderstood singular (perhaps with a pronominal suffix) with enclitic mem (ם). See HALOT 838 s.v. עַם B.2.

[33:3]  ³¹ tc Heb “his holy ones.” The third person masculine singular suffix of the Hebrew MT is problematic in light of the second person masculine singular suffix on בְּיָדֶךָ (bÿyadekha, “your hands”). The LXX versions by Lucian and Origen read, therefore, “the holy ones.” The LXX version by Theodotion and the Vulgate, however, presuppose third masculine singular suffix on בְּיָדָיו (bÿyadayv, “his hands”), and thus retain “his holy ones.” The efforts to bring pronominal harmony into the line is commendable but unnecessary given the Hebrew tendency to be untroubled by such grammatical inconsistencies. However, the translation harmonizes the first pronoun with the second so that the referent (the Lord) is clear.

[33:3]  ³² tn Heb “hands.” For the problem of the pronoun see note on the term “holy ones” earlier in this verse.

[33:3]  ³³ tn The Hebrew term תֻּכּוּ (tuku, probably Pual perfect of תָּכָה, takhah) is otherwise unknown. The present translation is based on the reference to feet and, apparently, receiving instruction in God’s words (cf. KJV, ASV). Other options are as follows: NIV “At your feet they all bow down” (cf. NCV, CEV); NLT “They follow in your steps” (cf. NAB, NASB); NRSV “they marched at your heels.”

[33:3]  ³⁴ tn The singular verbal form in the Hebrew text (lit. “he lifts up”) is understood in a distributive manner, focusing on the action of each individual within the group.

[33:4]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) here should be understood more broadly as instruction.

[33:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he was king.” The present translation avoids the sudden shift in person and the mistaken impression that Moses is the referent by specifying the referent as “the Lord.”

[33:5]  ³⁷ sn Jeshurun is a term of affection referring to Israel, derived from the Hebrew verb יָשַׁר (yashar, “be upright”). See note on the term in Deut 32:15.

[33:5]  ³⁸ sn The following blessing is given to the tribes in order, although the tribe of Simeon is curiously missing from the list.

[8:16]  ³⁹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something.

[8:16]  ⁴⁰ sn The priests prayed to God between the porch and the altar on fast days (Joel 2:17). This is the location where Zechariah was murdered (Matt 23:35).

[8:16]  ⁴¹ tc The LXX reads “twenty” instead of twenty-five, perhaps because of the association of the number twenty with the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash.

[8:16]  ⁴² sn The temple faced east.

[8:16]  ⁴³ tn Or “the sun god.”

[1:5]  ⁴⁴ tn The words “I will remove” are repeated from v. 4b for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 4b-6 contain a long list of objects for the verb “I will remove” in v. 4b. In the present translation a new sentence was begun at the beginning of v. 5 in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

[1:5]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “those who worship on their roofs the host of heaven.” The “host of heaven” included the sun, moon, planets, and stars, all of which were deified in the ancient Near East.

[1:5]  ⁴⁶ tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the Lord.” The original form of the LXX omits the phrase “those who worship”; it may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line. J. J. M. Roberts prefers to delete as secondary the phrase “those who swear allegiance” (J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 168).

[1:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “those who swear by.”

[1:5]  ⁴⁸ tn The referent of “their king” is unclear. It may refer sarcastically to a pagan god (perhaps Baal) worshiped by the people. Some English versions (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” the name of an Ammonite god (following some LXX mss, Syriac, and Vulgate) or “Molech,” a god to whom the Israelites offered their children (cf. NIV, NLT). For a discussion of the options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 75-77.

[7:42]  ⁴⁹ sn The expression and gave them over suggests similarities to the judgment on the nations described by Paul in Rom 1:18-32.

[7:42]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “stars.”

[7:42]  ⁵¹ tn The two terms for sacrifices “semantically reinforce one another and are here combined essentially for emphasis” (L&N 53.20).

[7:42]  ⁵² tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ question, “was it?”