Matthew 13:13-15

13:13 For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand. 13:14 And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

‘You will listen carefully ¹  yet will never understand,

you will look closely ²  yet will never comprehend.

13:15 For the heart of this people has become dull;

they are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes,

so that they would not see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’ ³ 

Jude 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Jude, ⁴  a slave ⁵  of Jesus Christ and brother of James, ⁶  to those who are called, wrapped in the love of ⁷  God the Father and kept for ⁸  Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 23:35

23:35 You will say, ⁹  “They have struck me, but I am not harmed!

They beat me, but I did not know it! ¹⁰ 

When will I awake? I will look for another drink.” ¹¹ 

Proverbs 24:12

24:12 If you say, “But we did not know about this,”

does not the one who evaluates ¹²  hearts consider?

Does not the one who guards your life know?

Will he not repay each person according to his deeds? ¹³ 

Proverbs 29:7

29:7 The righteous person cares for ¹⁴  the legal rights ¹⁵  of the poor;

the wicked does not understand such ¹⁶  knowledge.

Isaiah 42:25

42:25 So he poured out his fierce anger on them,

along with the devastation ¹⁷  of war.

Its flames encircled them, but they did not realize it; ¹⁸ 

it burned against them, but they did notice. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 44:18-19

44:18 They do not comprehend or understand,

for their eyes are blind and cannot see;

their minds do not discern. ²⁰ 

44:19 No one thinks to himself,

nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:

‘I burned half of it in the fire –

yes, I baked bread over the coals;

I roasted meat and ate it.

With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?

Should I bow down to dry wood?’ ²¹ 

Luke 19:44

19:44 They will demolish you ²²  – you and your children within your walls ²³  – and they will not leave within you one stone ²⁴  on top of another, ²⁵  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ²⁶ 

John 3:20

3:20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

Acts 13:41

13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! ²⁷ 

For I am doing a work in your days,

a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” ²⁸ 

Romans 1:28

1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ²⁹  God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. ³⁰ 

Romans 1:2

1:2 This gospel ³¹  he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

Romans 3:5

3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ³²  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ³³  (I am speaking in human terms.) ³⁴ 

[13:14]  ¹ tn Grk “with hearing,” a cognate dative that intensifies the action of the main verb “you will listen” (ExSyn 168-69).

[13:14]  ² tn Grk “look by looking.” The participle is redundant, functioning to intensify the force of the main verb.

[13:15]  ³ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.

[1:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “Judas,” traditionally “Jude” in English versions to distinguish him from the one who betrayed Jesus. The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ⁵ tn Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). At the same time, perhaps “servant” is apt in that the δοῦλος of Jesus Christ took on that role voluntarily, unlike a slave. The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ⁶ sn Although Jude was half-brother of Jesus, he humbly associates himself with James, his full brother. By first calling himself a slave of Jesus Christ, it is evident that he wants no one to place stock in his physical connections. At the same time, he must identify himself further: Since Jude was a common name in the 1st century (two of Jesus’ disciples were so named, including his betrayer), more information was needed, that is to say, brother of James.

[1:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “loved in.” The perfect passive participle suggests that the audience’s relationship to God is not recent; the preposition ἐν (en) before πατρί (patri) could be taken as sphere or instrument (agency is unlikely, however). Another possible translation would be “dear to God.”

[1:1]  ⁸ tn Or “by.” Datives of agency are quite rare in the NT (and other ancient Greek), almost always found with a perfect verb. Although this text qualifies, in light of the well-worn idiom of τηρέω (threw) in eschatological contexts, in which God or Christ keeps the believer safe until the parousia (cf. 1 Thess 5:23; 1 Pet 1:4; Rev 3:10; other terms meaning “to guard,” “to keep” are also found in similar eschatological contexts [cf. 2 Thess 3:3; 2 Tim 1:12; 1 Pet 1:5; Jude 24]), it is probably better to understand this verse as having such an eschatological tinge. It is at the same time possible that Jude’s language was intentionally ambiguous, implying both ideas (“kept by Jesus Christ [so that they might be] kept for Jesus Christ”). Elsewhere he displays a certain fondness for wordplays; this may be a hint of things to come.

[23:35]  ⁹ tn The phrase “You will say” is supplied in the translation to make it clear that the drunkard is now speaking.

[23:35]  ¹⁰ sn The line describes how one who is intoxicated does not feel the pain, even though beaten by others. He does not even remember it.

[23:35]  ¹¹ tn The last line has only “I will add I will seek it again.” The use of אוֹסִיף (’osif) signals a verbal hendiadys with the next verb: “I will again seek it.” In this context the suffix on the verb refers to the wine – the drunkard wants to go and get another drink.

[24:12]  ¹² tn Heb “weighs” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV) meaning “tests” or “evaluates.”

[24:12]  ¹³ sn The verse completes the saying by affirming that people will be judged responsible for helping those in mortal danger. The verse uses a series of rhetorical questions to affirm that God knows our hearts and we cannot plead ignorance.

[29:7]  ¹⁴ tn The form is an active participle, יֹדֵעַ (yodea’); it describes the righteous as “knowing, caring for, having sympathetic knowledge for, or considering favorably” the legal needs of the poor. Cf. NAB “has a care for”; NASB “is concerned for.”

[29:7]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew word used here is דִּין (din), which typically means “judgment,” but can also mean “strife” and “cause.” Here it refers to the “cause” of the poor (so KJV, ASV), their plea, their case, their legal rights. A righteous person is sympathetic to this.

[29:7]  ¹⁶ tn The term “such” is supplied in the translation for clarification. It is not simply any knowledge that the wicked do not understand, but the knowledge mentioned in the first colon. They do not understand the “sympathetic knowledge” or “concern” for the cause of the poor.

[42:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “strength” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “fury”; NASB “fierceness”; NIV “violence.”

[42:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and it blazed against him all around, but he did not know.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb “blazed” is the divine חֵמָה (khemah, “anger”) mentioned in the previous line.

[42:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and it burned against him, but he did not set [it] upon [the] heart.”

[44:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[44:19]  ²¹ tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.

[19:44]  ²² tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  ²³ tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

[19:44]  ²⁴ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ²⁵ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.

[13:41]  ²⁷ tn Or “and die!”

[13:41]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Hab 1:5. The irony in the phrase even if someone tells you, of course, is that Paul has now told them. So the call in the warning is to believe or else face the peril of being scoffers whom God will judge. The parallel from Habakkuk is that the nation failed to see how Babylon’s rising to power meant perilous judgment for Israel.

[1:28]  ²⁹ tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”

[1:28]  ³⁰ tn Grk “the things that are improper.”

[1:2]  ³¹ tn Grk “the gospel of God, which he promised.” Because of the length and complexity of this sentence in Greek, it was divided into shorter English sentences in keeping with contemporary English style. To indicate the referent of the relative pronoun (“which”), the word “gospel” was repeated at the beginning of v. 2.

[3:5]  ³² tn Or “shows clearly.”

[3:5]  ³³ tn Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is he?”

[3:5]  ³⁴ sn The same expression occurs in Gal 3:15, and similar phrases in Rom 6:19 and 1 Cor 9:8.