2:5 “You know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me – how he murdered two commanders of the Israelite armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. 4 During peacetime he struck them down like he would in battle; 5 when he shed their blood as if in battle, he stained his own belt and the sandals on his feet. 6
64:11 Our holy temple, our pride and joy, 14
the place where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned with fire;
all our prized possessions have been destroyed. 15
21:5 Now 20 while some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned 21 with beautiful stones and offerings, 22 Jesus 23 said,
1 tn Heb “and this house will be high [or elevated].” The statement makes little sense in this context, which predicts the desolation that judgment will bring. Some treat the clause as concessive, “Even though this temple is lofty [now].” Others, following the lead of several ancient versions, emend the text to, “this temple will become a heap of ruins.”
2 tn Heb “hiss,” or perhaps “whistle.” This refers to a derisive sound one would make when taunting an object of ridicule.
3 sn In the same way he had appeared to him at Gibeon. See 1 Kgs 3:5.
4 tn Heb “what he did to the two commanders…and he killed them.”
5 tn Heb “he shed the blood of battle in peace.”
6 tn Heb “and he shed the blood of battle when he killed which is on his waist and on his sandal[s] which are on his feet.” That is, he covered himself with guilt and his guilt was obvious to all who saw him.
7 tn Or “south.”
8 sn The name Jakin appears to be a verbal form and probably means, “he establishes.”
9 tn Or “north.”
10 sn The meaning of the name Boaz is uncertain. For various proposals, see BDB 126-27 s.v. בעז. One attractive option is to revocalize the name as בְּעֹז (be’oz, “in strength”) and to understand it as completing the verbal form on the first pillar. Taking the words together and reading from right to left, one can translate the sentence, “he establishes [it] in strength.”
11 tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”
12 sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586
13 tn Heb “with a great voice.”
14 tn Heb “our source of pride.”
15 tn Or “all that we valued has become a ruin.”
16 tc The MT reads “he set up the beauty of his ornament as pride.” The verb may be repointed as plural without changing the consonantal text. The Syriac reads “their ornaments” (plural), implying עֶדְיָם (’edyam) rather than עֶדְיוֹ (’edyo) and meaning “they were proud of their beautiful ornaments.” This understands “ornaments” in the common sense of women’s jewelry, which then were used to make idols. The singular suffix “his ornaments” would refer to using items from the temple treasury to make idols. D. I. Block points out the foreshadowing of Ezek 16:17 which, with Rashi and the Targum, supports the understanding that this is a reference to temple items. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:265.
17 tn Heb “this house in its earlier splendor”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “in its former glory.”
18 tn Heb “greater will be the latter splendor of this house than the former”; NAB “greater will be the future glory.”
19 tn In the Hebrew text there is an implicit play on words in the clause “in this place [i.e., Jerusalem] I will give peace”: in יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (yÿrushalayim) there will be שָׁלוֹם (shalom).
20 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
21 sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 (15.380-425); J. W. 5.5 (5.184-227) and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.
22 tn For the translation of ἀνάθημα (anaqhma) as “offering” see L&N 53.18.
23 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.