1:3 They said to me, “The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable 2 adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!” 3
4:1 Seven women will grab hold of
one man at that time. 4
They will say, “We will provide 5 our own food,
we will provide 6 our own clothes;
but let us belong to you 7 –
take away our shame!” 8
1 tn Heb “and her rival wife grieved her, even [with] grief so as to worry her.”
2 tn Heb “great.”
3 tn Heb “have been burned with fire” (so also in Neh 2:17). The expression “burned with fire” is redundant in contemporary English; the translation uses “burned down” for stylistic reasons.
4 tn Or “in that day” (ASV).
5 tn Heb “eat” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “buy.”
6 tn Heb “wear” (so NASB, NRSV); NCV “make.”
7 tn Heb “only let your name be called over us.” The Hebrew idiom “call the name over” indicates ownership. See 2 Sam 12:28, and BDB 896 s.v. I ָקרָא Niph. 2.d.(4). The language reflects the cultural reality of ancient Israel, where women were legally the property of their husbands.
8 sn This refers to the humiliation of being unmarried and childless. The women’s words reflect the cultural standards of ancient Israel, where a woman’s primary duties were to be a wife and mother.
9 tn Grk “Thus.”
10 tn Grk “in the days.”
11 tn Grk “has looked on me” (an idiom for taking favorable notice of someone).
12 sn Barrenness was often seen as a reproach or disgrace (Lev 20:20-21; Jer 22:30), but now at her late age (the exact age is never given in Luke’s account), God had miraculously removed it (see also Luke 1:7).
13 tn Grk “among men”; but the context clearly indicates a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") here.
14 tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
15 sn Jesus did not want his hearers to think that tragedy was necessarily a judgment on these people because they were worse sinners.
16 sn Jesus was stressing that all stand at risk of death, if they do not repent and receive life.
17 tn Or “you will all likewise perish,” but this could be misunderstood to mean that they would perish by the same means as the Galileans. Jesus’ point is that apart from repentance all will perish.
18 tn Grk “on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them.” This relative clause embedded in a prepositional phrase is complex in English and has been simplified to an adjectival and a temporal clause in the translation.
19 sn Unlike the previous event, when the tower in Siloam fell on them, it was an accident of fate. It raised the question, however, “Was this a judgment?”
20 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
21 tn Grk “asked him, saying.”
22 tn Grk “this one.”
23 tn Grk “in order that he should be born blind.”
24 tn Grk “They answered and said to him.” This has been simplified in the translation to “They replied.”
25 tn Or “From birth you have been evil.” The implication of this insult, in the context of John 9, is that the man whom Jesus caused to see had not previously adhered rigorously to all the conventional requirements of the OT law as interpreted by the Pharisees. Thus he had no right to instruct them about who Jesus was.
26 tn Grk “and are you teaching us?”