Jeremiah 9:2

9:2 (9:1) I wish I had a lodging place in the desert

where I could spend some time like a weary traveler. ¹ 

Then I would desert my people

and walk away from them

because they are all unfaithful to God,

a congregation ²  of people that has been disloyal to him. ³ 

Jeremiah 13:27

13:27 People of Jerusalem, ⁴  I have seen your adulterous worship,

your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods. ⁵ 

I have seen your disgusting acts of worship ⁶ 

on the hills throughout the countryside.

You are doomed to destruction! ⁷ 

How long will you continue to be unclean?’”

Jeremiah 23:10

23:10 For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. ⁸ 

They live wicked lives and they misuse their power. ⁹ 

So the land is dried up ¹⁰  because it is under his curse. ¹¹ 

The pastures in the wilderness are withered.

Jeremiah 29:22-23

29:22 And all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use them as examples when they put a curse on anyone. They will say, “May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted to death in the fire!” ¹²  29:23 This will happen to them because they have done what is shameful ¹³  in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken lies while claiming my authority. ¹⁴  They have spoken words that I did not command them to speak. I know what they have done. I have been a witness to it,’ says the Lord.” ¹⁵ 

Leviticus 20:10

20:10 If a man ¹⁶  commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, ¹⁷  both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

Psalms 50:18

50:18 When you see a thief, you join him; ¹⁸ 

you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives. ¹⁹ 

Ezekiel 22:11

22:11 One ²⁰  commits an abominable act with his neighbor’s wife; another obscenely defiles his daughter-in-law; another violates ²¹  his sister – his father’s daughter ²²  – within you.

Hosea 4:2

4:2 There is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery.

They resort to violence and bloodshed. ²³ 

Hosea 4:13-14

4:13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops,

and burn offerings on the hills;

they sacrifice ²⁴  under oak, poplar, and terebinth,

because their shade is so pleasant.

As a result, your daughters have become cult prostitutes,

and your daughters-in-law commit adultery!

4:14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit prostitution,

nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery.

For the men consort with harlots,

they sacrifice with temple prostitutes.

It is true: ²⁵  “A people that lacks understanding will come to ruin!”

Hosea 7:4

7:4 They are all like bakers, ²⁶ 

they ²⁷  are like a smoldering oven;

they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire

until the kneaded dough is ready for baking.

Malachi 3:5

3:5 “I ²⁸  will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, ²⁹  and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, ³⁰  who refuse to help ³¹  the immigrant ³²  and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 3:1

3:1 “I am about to send my messenger, ³³  who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord ³⁴  you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger ³⁵  of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Colossians 1:9

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ³⁶  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ³⁷  to fill ³⁸  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Hebrews 13:4

13:4 Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers.

James 4:4

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ³⁹  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.

[9:2]  ¹ tn Heb “I wish I had in the desert a lodging place [inn, or place to spend the night] for travelers.”

[9:2]  ² tn Or “bunch,” but this loses the irony; the word is used for the solemn assemblies at the religious feasts.

[9:2]  ³ tn Heb “they are all adulterers, a congregation of unfaithful people.” However, spiritual adultery is, of course, meant, not literal adultery. So the literal translation would be misleading.

[13:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “Jerusalem.” This word has been pulled up from the end of the verse to help make the transition. The words “people of” have been supplied in the translation here to ease the difficulty mentioned earlier of sustaining the personification throughout.

[13:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “[I have seen] your adulteries, your neighings, and your shameless prostitution.” The meanings of the metaphorical references have been incorporated in the translation for the sake of clarity for readers of all backgrounds.

[13:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “your disgusting acts.” This word is almost always used of idolatry or of the idols themselves. See BDB 1055 s.v. שִׁקֻּוּץ and Deut 29:17 and Jer 4:1; 7:30.

[13:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “Woe to you!”

[23:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “adulterers.” But spiritual adultery is clearly meant as also in 3:8-9; 9:2, and probably also 5:7.

[23:10]  ⁹ tn For the word translated “They live…lives” see usage in Jer 8:6. For the idea of “misusing” their power (Heb “their power is not right” i.e., used in the wrong way) see 2 Kgs 7:9; 17:9. In the original text this line (really two lines in the Hebrew poetry) are at the end of the verse. However, this places the antecedent too far away and could lead to confusion. The lines have been rearranged to avoid such confusion.

[23:10]  ¹⁰ tn For the use of this verb see 12:4 and the note there.

[23:10]  ¹¹ tc The translation follows the majority of Hebrew mss (מֵאָלָה, me’alah) rather than the Greek and Syriac version and a few Hebrew mss which read “because of these” (מֵאֵלֶּה [me’elleh], referring to the people unfaithful to him).

[29:22]  ¹² sn Being roasted to death in the fire appears to have been a common method of execution in Babylon. See Dan 3:6, 19-21. The famous law code of the Babylonian king Hammurabi also mandated this method of execution for various crimes a thousand years earlier. There is a satirical play on words involving their fate, “roasted them to death” (קָלָם, qalam), and the fact that that fate would become a common topic of curse (קְלָלָה, qÿlalah) pronounced on others in Babylon.

[29:23]  ¹³ tn It is commonly assumed that this word is explained by the two verbal actions that follow. The word (נְבָלָה, nÿvalah) is rather commonly used of sins of unchastity (cf., e.g., Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23; 2 Sam 13:12) which would fit the reference to adultery. However, the word is singular and not likely to cover both actions that follow. The word is also used of the greedy act of Achan (Josh 7:15) which threatened Israel with destruction and the churlish behavior of Nabal (1 Sam 25:25) which threatened him and his household with destruction. The word is also used of foolish talk in Isa 9:17 (9:16 HT) and Isa 32:6. It is possible that this refers to a separate act, one that would have brought the death penalty from Nebuchadnezzar, i.e., the preaching of rebellion in conformity with the message of the false prophets in Jerusalem and other nations (cf. 27:9, 13). Hence it is possible that the translation should read: “This will happen because of their vile conduct. They have propagated rebellion. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives. They have spoken words that I did not command them to speak. They have spoken lies while claiming my authority.”

[29:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “prophesying lies in my name.” For an explanation of this idiom see the study notes on 14:14 and 23:27.

[29:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[20:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And a man who.” The syntax here and at the beginning of the following verses elliptically mirrors that of v. 9, which justifies the rendering as a conditional clause.

[20:10]  ¹⁷ tc The reading of the LXX minuscule mss has been followed here (see the BHS footnote a-a). The MT has a dittography, repeating “a man who commits adultery with the wife of” (see the explanation in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328). The duplication found in the MT is reflected in some English versions, e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV.

[50:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you run with him.”

[50:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and with adulterers [is] your portion.”

[22:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a man.”

[22:11]  ²¹ tn The verb is the same one used in verse 10b and suggests forcible sexual violation of the woman.

[22:11]  ²² sn Sexual relations with one’s half-sister may be primarily in view here. See Lev 18:9; 20:17.

[4:2]  ²³ tn Heb “they break out and bloodshed touches bloodshed.” The Hebrew term פָּרַץ (parats, “to break out”) refers to violent and wicked actions (BDB 829 s.v. פָּרַץ 7; HALOT 972 s.v. פרץ 6.c). It is used elsewhere in a concrete sense to describe breaking through physical barriers. Here it is used figuratively to describe breaking moral barriers and restraints (cf. TEV “Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another”).

[4:13]  ²⁴ tn The phrase “they sacrifice” is not repeated in the Hebrew text here but is implied by parallelism; it is provided in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[4:14]  ²⁵ tn The words “it is true” are supplied in the translation to indicate that this is a conclusion drawn on the preceding behavior. Cf. NAB “So must a people”; NRSV “thus a people”; TEV “As the proverb says, ‘A people.’”

[7:4]  ²⁶ tc The MT reads מְנָאֲפִים (mÿna’afim, “adulterers”; Piel participle masculine plural from נָאַף, na’af, “to commit adultery”), which does not seem to fit the context. The original reading was probably אוֹפִים (’ofim, “bakers”; Qal participle masculine plural from אָפַה, ’afah, “to bake”), which harmonizes well with the baker/oven/fire motif in 7:4-7. The textual deviation was caused by: (1) confusion of נ (nun) and ו (vav), (2) metathesis of נ/ו (nun/vav) and א (alef), and (3) dittography of מ (mem) from the preceding word. Original כֻּלָּם אוֹפִים (kullam ’ofim, “all of them are bakers”) was confused for כֻּלָּם מְנָאֲפִים (“all of them are adulterers”). In spite of this most English versions follow the reading of the MT here.

[7:4]  ²⁷ tc The MT preserves the enigmatic כְּמוֹ תַנּוּר בֹּעֵרָה מֵ (kÿmo tannur bo’erah me, “Like a burning oven, from…?”). The adjectival participle בֹּעֵרָה (“burning”) is feminine while the noun תַנּוּר (tannur, “oven”) that it modifies is masculine. The BHS editors solve this problem by simply redividing the words: כְּמוֹ תַנּוּר בֹּעֵר הֵם (cÿmo tannur bo’er hem, “they are like a burning oven”). This solution is followed by many English versions (e.g., NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[3:5]  ²⁸ tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the Lord) indicates that the Lord himself now speaks (see also v. 1). The prophet speaks in vv. 2-4 (see also 2:17).

[3:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”

[3:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”

[3:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “those who turn aside.”

[3:5]  ³² tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”

[3:1]  ³³ tn In Hebrew the phrase “my messenger” is מַלְאָכִי (mal’akhi), the same form as the prophet’s name (see note on the name “Malachi” in 1:1). However, here the messenger appears to be an eschatological figure who is about to appear, as the following context suggests. According to 4:5, this messenger is “Elijah the prophet,” whom the NT identifies as John the Baptist (Matt 11:10; Mark 1:2) because he came in the “spirit and power” of Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:11-12; Lk 1:17).

[3:1]  ³⁴ tn Here the Hebrew term הָאָדוֹן (ha’adon) is used, not יְהוָה (yÿhvah, typically rendered Lord). Thus the focus is not on the Lord as the covenant God, but on his role as master.

[3:1]  ³⁵ sn This messenger of the covenant may be equated with my messenger (that is, Elijah) mentioned earlier in the verse, or with the Lord himself. In either case the messenger functions as an enforcer of the covenant. Note the following verses, which depict purifying judgment on a people that has violated the Lord’s covenant.

[1:9]  ³⁶ tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ³⁷ tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ³⁸ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[4:4]  ³⁹ tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”