1 Samuel 8:7

8:7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Do everything the people request of you. ¹  For it is not you that they have rejected, but it is me that they have rejected as their king.

1 Samuel 10:19

10:19 But today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your trouble and distress. You have said, “No! ²  Appoint a king over us.” Now take your positions before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.’”

Isaiah 53:3

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ³ 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ⁴ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ⁵ 

Matthew 21:42

21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ⁶ 

This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ⁷ 

Mark 12:10

12:10 Have you not read this scripture:

‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ⁸ 

John 1:11

1:11 He came to what was his own, ⁹  but ¹⁰  his own people ¹¹  did not receive him. ¹² 

John 12:38

12:38 so that the word ¹³  of Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled. He said, ¹⁴  “Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord ¹⁵  been revealed?” ¹⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “Listen to the voice of the people, to all which they say to you.”

² tc The translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate in reading לֹא (lo’, “not”) rather than the MT לוֹ (lo; “to him”). Some witnesses combine the variants, resulting in a conflated text. For example, a few medieval Hebrew mss have לֹא לוֹ (lo lo’; “to him, ‘No.’”). A few others have לֹא לִי (li lo’; “to me, ‘No.’”).

³ tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

⁴ tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

⁵ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

⁶ tn Or “capstone,” “keystone.” Although these meanings are lexically possible, the imagery in Eph 2:20-22 and 1 Cor 3:11 indicates that the term κεφαλὴ γωνίας (kefalh gwnia") refers to a cornerstone, not a capstone.

⁷ sn A quotation from Ps 118:22-23.

⁸ tn Or “capstone,” “keystone.” Although these meanings are lexically possible, the imagery in Eph 2:20-22 and 1 Cor 3:11 indicates that the term κεφαλὴ γωνίας (kefalh gwnia") refers to a cornerstone, not a capstone.

⁹ tn Grk “to his own things.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “and,” but in context this is an adversative use of καί (kai) and is thus translated “but.”

¹¹ tn “People” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

¹² sn His own people did not receive him. There is a subtle irony here: When the λόγος (logos) came into the world, he came to his own (τὰ ἴδια, ta idia, literally “his own things”) and his own people (οἱ ἴδιοι, Joi idioi), who should have known and received him, but they did not. This time John does not say that “his own” did not know him, but that they did not receive him (παρέλαβον, parelabon). The idea is one not of mere recognition, but of acceptance and welcome.

¹³ tn Or “message.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “who said.”

¹⁵ 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).

¹⁶ sn A quotation from Isa 53:1.