Jeremiah 6:13

6:13 “That is because, from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all of them practice deceit.

Psalms 2:2-3

2:2 The kings of the earth ¹  form a united front; ² 

the rulers collaborate ³ 

against the Lord and his anointed king. ⁴ 

2:3 They say, ⁵  “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! ⁶ 

Let’s free ourselves from ⁷  their ropes!”

Ezekiel 22:6-8

22:6 “‘See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood. ⁸  22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt ⁹  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ¹⁰  within you. 22:8 You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths!

Ezekiel 22:25-29

22:25 Her princes ¹¹  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ¹²  within it. 22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ¹³  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ¹⁴  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst. 22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ¹⁵  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ¹⁶ 

Micah 3:1-4

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ¹⁷  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ¹⁸  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ¹⁹ 

3:2 yet you ²⁰  hate what is good, ²¹ 

and love what is evil. ²² 

You flay my people’s skin ²³ 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ²⁴ 

3:3 You ²⁵  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ²⁶  –

like meat in a kettle.

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ²⁷ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ²⁸  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ²⁹ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ³⁰  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ³¹ 

Disaster will not overtake ³²  us!”

Micah 7:3-4

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ³³ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ³⁴ 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ³⁵ 

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ³⁶ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ³⁷ 

and then you will experience confusion. ³⁸ 

Zephaniah 3:3-5

3:3 Her princes ³⁹  are as fierce as roaring lions; ⁴⁰ 

her rulers ⁴¹  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ⁴² 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ⁴³ 

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ⁴⁴ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ⁴⁵ 

they break God’s laws. ⁴⁶ 

3:5 The just Lord resides ⁴⁷  within her;

he commits no unjust acts. ⁴⁸ 

Every morning he reveals ⁴⁹  his justice.

At dawn he appears without fail. ⁵⁰ 

Yet the unjust know no shame.

Matthew 19:23-26

19:23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, ⁵¹  it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! 19:24 Again I say, ⁵²  it is easier for a camel ⁵³  to go through the eye of a needle ⁵⁴  than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.” 19:25 The ⁵⁵  disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?” ⁵⁶  19:26 Jesus ⁵⁷  looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, ⁵⁸  but for God all things are possible.”

Luke 18:24

18:24 When Jesus noticed this, ⁵⁹  he said, “How hard ⁶⁰  it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ⁶¹ 

Luke 19:14

19:14 But his citizens ⁶²  hated ⁶³  him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man ⁶⁴  to be king ⁶⁵  over us!’

Acts 4:26-27

4:26 The kings of the earth stood together, ⁶⁶ 

and the rulers assembled together,

against the Lord and against his ⁶⁷  Christ.’ ⁶⁸ 

4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against ⁶⁹  your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ⁷⁰ 

James 2:5-7

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ⁷¹  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor! ⁷²  Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? 2:7 Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to? ⁷³ 

[2:2]  ¹ sn The expression kings of the earth refers somewhat hyperbolically to the kings who had been conquered by and were subject to the Davidic king.

[2:2]  ² tn Or “take their stand.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes their action as underway.

[2:2]  ³ tn Or “conspire together.” The verbal form is a Niphal from יָסַד (yasad). BDB 413-14 s.v. יָסַד defines the verb as “establish, found,” but HALOT 417 s.v. II יסד proposes a homonym meaning “get together, conspire” (an alternate form of סוּד, sud).

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and against his anointed one.” The Davidic king is the referent (see vv. 6-7).

[2:3]  ⁵ tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The quotation represents the words of the rebellious kings.

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “their (i.e., the Lord’s and the king’s) shackles.” The kings compare the rule of the Lord and his vice-regent to being imprisoned.

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “throw off from us.”

[22:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “Look! The princes of Israel, each according to his arm, were in you in order to shed blood.”

[22:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”

[22:7]  ¹⁰ tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.

[22:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ¹² tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[22:26]  ¹³ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

[22:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[22:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

[3:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ²¹ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ²² tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ²³ tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ²⁶ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

[3:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:11]  ²⁸ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ³² tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[7:3]  ³³ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ³⁵ tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.

[7:4]  ³⁶ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[3:3]  ³⁹ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ⁴¹ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ⁴³ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

[3:4]  ⁴⁴ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”

[3:5]  ⁴⁷ tn The word “resides” is supplied for clarification.

[3:5]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “he does no injustice.”

[3:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “gives”; or “dispenses.”

[3:5]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “at the light he is not missing.” Note that NASB (which capitalizes pronouns referring to Deity) has divided the lines differently: “Every morning He brings His justice to light; // He does not fail.”

[19:23]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[19:24]  ⁵² tn Grk “I say to you.”

[19:24]  ⁵³ tc A few late witnesses (579 1424 pc) read κάμιλον (kamilon, “rope”) for κάμηλον (kamhlon, “camel”), either through accidental misreading of the text or intentionally so as to soften Jesus’ words.

[19:24]  ⁵⁴ sn The eye of a needle refers to a sewing needle. (The gate in Jerusalem known as “The Needle’s Eye” was built during the middle ages and was not in existence in Jesus’ day.) Jesus was saying rhetorically that it is impossible for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom, unless God (v. 26) intervenes.

[19:25]  ⁵⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[19:25]  ⁵⁶ sn The assumption is that the rich are blessed, so if they risk exclusion, who is left to be saved?

[19:26]  ⁵⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[19:26]  ⁵⁸ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποις (anqrwpois) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NASB 1995 update, “people”). Because of the contrast here between mere mortals and God (“impossible for men, but for God all things are possible”) the phrase “mere humans” has been used in the translation. There may also be a slight wordplay with “the Son of Man” in v. 28.

[18:24]  ⁵⁹ tc ‡ The phrase περίλυπον γενόμενον (perilupon genomenon, “[When Jesus saw him] becoming sad”) is found in the majority of mss (A [D] W Θ Ψ 078 ˹³ 33^vid Ï latt sy), and it is not unknown in Lukan style to repeat a word or phrase in adjacent passages (TCGNT 143). However, the phrase is lacking in some significant mss (א B L ˹ 579 1241 2542 co). The shorter reading is nevertheless difficult to explain if it is not original: It is possible that these witnesses omitted this phrase out of perceived redundancy from the preceding verse, although intentional omissions, especially by several and varied witnesses, are generally unlikely. NA²⁷ places the words in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity.

[18:24]  ⁶⁰ sn For the rich it is hard for wealth not to be the point of focus, as the contrast in vv. 28-30 will show, and for rich people to trust God. Wealth was not an automatic sign of blessing as far as Jesus was concerned.

[18:24]  ⁶¹ sn The kingdom of God is a major theme of Jesus. It is a realm in which Jesus rules and to which those who trust him belong. See Luke 6:20; 11:20; 17:20-21.

[19:14]  ⁶² tn Or “subjects.” Technically these people were not his subjects yet, but would be upon his return. They were citizens of his country who opposed his appointment as their king; later the newly-appointed king will refer to them as his “enemies” (v. 27).

[19:14]  ⁶³ tn The imperfect is intense in this context, suggesting an ongoing attitude.

[19:14]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “this one” (somewhat derogatory in this context).

[19:14]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “to rule.”

[4:26]  ⁶⁶ tn Traditionally, “The kings of the earth took their stand.”

[4:26]  ⁶⁷ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[4:26]  ⁶⁸ sn A quotation from Ps 2:1-2.

[4:27]  ⁶⁹ sn The application of Ps 2:1-2 is that Jews and Gentiles are opposing Jesus. The surprise of the application is that Jews are now found among the enemies of God’s plan.

[4:27]  ⁷⁰ sn A wordplay on “Christ,” v. 26, which means “one who has been anointed.”

[2:5]  ⁷¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:6]  ⁷² tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.

[2:7]  ⁷³ tn Grk “that was invoked over you,” referring to their baptism in which they confessed their faith in Christ and were pronounced to be his own. To have the Lord’s name “named over them” is OT imagery for the Lord’s ownership of his people (cf. 2 Chr 7:14; Amos 9:12; Isa 63:19; Jer 14:9; 15:16; Dan 9:19; Acts 15:17).