59:3 For your hands are stained with blood
and your fingers with sin;
your lips speak lies,
your tongue utters malicious words.
9:3 The Lord says, 5
“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.
Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. 6
They have become powerful in the land,
but they have not done so by honest means. 7
Indeed, they do one evil thing after another 8
and do not pay attention to me. 9
9:5 One friend deceives another
and no one tells the truth.
These people have trained themselves 10 to tell lies.
They do wrong and are unable to repent.
1 tn Heb “and he said to him.”
2 tn Heb “by the word of the
3 tn Heb “eat food and drink water.”
4 tn Or “deceiving him.”
5 tn The words “The
6 tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”
7 tn Heb “but not through honesty.”
8 tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”
9 tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” But “knowing” in Hebrew thought often involves more than intellectual knowledge; it involves emotional and volitional commitment as well. For יָדַע meaning “acknowledge” see 1 Chr 28:9; Isa 29:21; Hos 2:20; Prov 3:6. This word is also found in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts where it has the idea of a vassal king acknowledging the sovereignty of a greater king (cf. H. Huffmon, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew yada,” BASOR 181 [1966]: 31-37).
10 tn Heb “their tongues.” However, this is probably not a natural idiom in contemporary English and the tongue may stand as a part for the whole anyway.
11 tn The word “people” is supplied in the translation to clarify that the Greek pronoun and verb are plural.
12 tn Many translations read “You are of your father the devil” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB) or “You belong to your father, the devil” (NIV), but the Greek preposition ἐκ (ek) emphasizes the idea of source or origin. Jesus said his opponents were the devil’s very offspring (a statement which would certainly infuriate them).
13 tn Grk “the desires of your father you want to do.”
14 tn Grk “That one” (referring to the devil).
15 tn Grk “he does not stand in the truth” (in the sense of maintaining, upholding, or accepting the validity of it).
16 tn Grk “Whenever he speaks the lie.”
17 tn Grk “he speaks from his own.”
18 tn Grk “because he is a liar and the father of it.”
19 sn This is a good example of the Greek verb fill (πληρόω, plhrow) meaning “to exercise control over someone’s thought and action” (cf. Eph 5:18).
20 tn The words “from the sale of” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the meaning, since the phrase “proceeds from the land” could possibly be understood as crops rather than money from the sale.
21 tn Grk “Remaining to you.”
22 tn The negative interrogative particle οὐχί (ouci) expects a positive reply to this question and the following one (“And when it was sold, was it not at your disposal?”).
23 tn Grk “it”; the referent of the pronoun (the money generated from the sale of the land) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
24 tn Grk “How is it that you have [or Why have you] placed this deed in your heart?” Both of these literal translations differ from the normal way of expressing the thought in English.
25 tn Grk “to men.” If Peter’s remark refers only to the apostles, the translation “to men” would be appropriate. But if (as is likely) the action was taken to impress the entire congregation (who would presumably have witnessed the donation or been aware of it) then the more general “to people” is more appropriate, since the audience would have included both men and women.
26 tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”
27 tn Grk “idolaters.”
28 tn Grk “their share.”
29 tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”
30 tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”