2:30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I really did say 1 that your house and your ancestor’s house would serve 2 me forever.’ But now the Lord says, ‘May it never be! 3 For I will honor those who honor me, but those who despise me will be cursed! 2:31 In fact, days are coming when I will remove your strength 4 and the strength 5 of your father’s house. There will not be an old man in your house! 2:32 You will see trouble in my dwelling place! 6 Israel will experience blessings, 7 but there will not be an old man in your 8 house for all time. 9 2:33 Any one of you that I do not cut off from my altar, I will cause your 10 eyes to fail 11 and will cause you grief. 12 All of those born to your family 13 will die in the prime of life. 14 2:34 This will be a confirming sign for you that will be fulfilled through your two sons, 15 Hophni and Phinehas: in a single day they both will die! 2:35 Then I will raise up for myself a faithful priest. He will do what is in my heart and soul. I will build for him a secure dynasty 16 and he will serve my chosen one for all time. 17 2:36 Everyone who remains in your house will come to bow before him for a little money 18 and for a scrap of bread. Each will say, ‘Assign me to a priestly task so I can eat a scrap of bread.’”
19:28 After this Jesus, realizing that by this time 32 everything was completed, 33 said (in order to fulfill the scripture), 34 “I am thirsty!” 35
1 tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.
2 tn Heb “walk about before.”
3 tn Heb “may it be far removed from me.”
4 tn Heb “chop off your arm.” The arm here symbolizes strength and activity.
5 tn Heb “arm.”
6 tn Heb “you will see [the] trouble of [the] dwelling place.” Since God’s dwelling place/sanctuary is in view, the pronoun is supplied in the translation (see v. 29).
7 tn Heb “in all which he does good with Israel.”
8 tc The LXX and a Qumran manuscript have the first person pronoun “my” here.
9 tn Heb “all the days.”
10 tc The LXX, a Qumran
11 tn Heb “to cause your eyes to fail.” Elsewhere this verb, when used of eyes, refers to bloodshot eyes resulting from weeping, prolonged staring, or illness (see Lev 26:16; Pss 69:3; 119:82; Lam 2:11; 4:17).
12 tn Heb “and to cause your soul grief.”
13 tn Heb “and all the increase of your house.”
14 tc The text is difficult. The MT literally says “they will die [as] men.” Apparently the meaning is that they will be cut off in the prime of their life without reaching old age. The LXX and a Qumran
15 tn Heb “and this to you [is] the sign which will come to both of your sons.”
16 tn Heb “house.”
17 tn Heb “and he will walk about before my anointed one all the days.”
18 tn Heb “a piece of silver” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
19 tn Or “fulfill.”
20 tc The MT has וְהִגַּדְתִּי לוֹ (vÿhiggadti lo). The verb is Hiphil perfect 1st person common singular, and apparently the conjunction should be understood as vav consecutive (“I will say to him”). But the future reference makes more sense if Samuel is the subject. This would require dropping the final י (yod) and reading the 2nd person masculine singular וְהִגַּדְתָּ (vÿhiggadta). Although there is no external evidence to support it, this reading has been adopted in the present translation. The alternative is to understand the MT to mean “I said to him,” but for this we would expect the preterite with vav consecutive.
21 tn The translation understands the preposition to have a causal sense. However, the preposition could also be understood as the beth pretii, indicating in a broad sense the price attached to this action. So GKC 380 §119.p.
22 tc The translation follows the LXX θεόν (qeon, “God”) rather than the MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”). The MT seems to mean “they were bringing a curse on themselves” (cf. ASV, NASB). But this meaning is problematic in part because the verb qll means “to curse,” not “to bring a curse on,” and in part because it takes an accusative object rather than the equivalent of a dative. This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” Why would the ancient copyists alter the original statement about Eli’s sons cursing God to the less objectionable statement that they brought a curse on themselves? Some argue that the scribes were concerned that such a direct and blasphemous affront against God could occur without an immediate response of judgment from God. Therefore they changed the text by deleting two letters א and י (alef and yod) from the word for “God,” with the result that the text then read “to them.” If this ancient scribal claim is accepted as accurate, it implies that the MT here is secondary. The present translation follows the LXX (κακολογοῦντες θεόν, kakologounte" qeon) and a few
23 tn Grk “But so that”; the verb “has happened” is implied.
24 tn Or “message.”
25 tn Grk “who said.”
26 tn “The arm of the Lord” is an idiom for “God’s great power” (as exemplified through Jesus’ miraculous signs). This response of unbelief is interpreted by the author as a fulfillment of the prophetic words of Isaiah (Isa 53:1). The phrase ὁ βραχίων κυρίου (Jo braciwn kuriou) is a figurative reference to God’s activity and power which has been revealed in the sign-miracles which Jesus has performed (compare the previous verse).
27 sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.
28 tn Grk “but choose by lot” (probably by using marked pebbles or broken pieces of pottery). A modern equivalent, “throw dice,” was chosen here because of its association with gambling.
29 tn Grk “to see whose it will be.”
30 tn The words “This took place” are not in the Greek text but are implied.
31 tn Grk “cast lots.” See the note on “throw dice” earlier in the verse.
32 tn Or “that already.”
33 tn Or “finished,” “accomplished”; Grk “fulfilled.”
34 sn A reference to Ps 69:21 or Ps 22:15.
35 sn In order to fulfill (τελειωθῇ [teleiwqh], a wordplay on the previous statement that everything was completed [τετέλεσται, tetelestai]) the scripture, he said, “I am thirsty.” The scripture referred to is probably Ps 69:21, “They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Also suggested, however, is Ps 22:15, “My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth, and you [God] lay me in the dust of death.” Ps 22:1 reads “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?,” a statement Jesus makes from the cross in both Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34. In light of the connection in the Fourth Gospel between thirst and the living water which Jesus offers, it is highly ironic that here Jesus himself, the source of that living water, expresses his thirst. And since 7:39 associates the living water with the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ statement here in 19:28 amounts to an admission that at this point he has been forsaken by God (cf. Ps 22:1, Matt 27:46, and Mark 15:34).
36 sn A quotation from Exod 12:46, Num 9:12, and Ps 34:20. A number of different OT passages lie behind this quotation: Exod 12:10 LXX, Exod 12:46, Num 9:12, or Ps 34:20. Of these, the first is the closest in form to the quotation here. The first three are all more likely candidates than the last, since the first three all deal with descriptions of the Passover lamb.
37 sn A quotation from Zech 12:10. Here a single phrase is quoted from Zech 12, but the entire context is associated with the events surrounding the crucifixion. The “Spirit of grace and of supplication” is poured out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the first part of v. 10. A few verses later in 13:1 Yahweh (typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT) says “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” The blood which flowed from Jesus’ pierced side may well be what the author saw as the connection here, since as the shedding of the blood of the sacrificial victim it represents cleansing from sin. Although the Jewish authorities and Roman soldiers certainly “looked on the one whom they have pierced” as he hung on the cross, the author may also have in mind the parousia (second coming) here. The context in Zech 12-14 is certainly the second coming, so that these who crucified Jesus will look upon him in another sense when he returns in judgment.