2 Chronicles 21:11

21:11 He also built high places on the hills of Judah; he encouraged the residents of Jerusalem to be unfaithful to the Lord ¹  and led Judah away from the Lord. ² 

Jeremiah 3:8

3:8 She also saw ³  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ⁴  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ⁵  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ⁶ 

Ezekiel 16:8

16:8 “‘Then I passed by you and watched you, noticing ⁷  that you had reached the age for love. ⁸  I spread my cloak ⁹  over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

Ezekiel 16:15

16:15 “‘But you trusted in your beauty and capitalized on your fame by becoming a prostitute. You offered your sexual favors to every man who passed by so that your beauty ¹⁰  became his.

Ezekiel 16:29

16:29 Then you multiplied your promiscuity to the land of merchants, Babylonia, ¹¹  but you were not satisfied there either.

Ezekiel 16:1

God’s Unfaithful Bride

16:1 The word of the Lord came to me:

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹²  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

¹ tn Heb “and he caused the residents of Jerusalem to commit adultery.” In this context spiritual unfaithfulness to the Lord is in view rather than physical adultery.

² tn Heb “and drove Judah away.”

³ tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.

⁴ tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

⁵ tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.

⁶ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

⁷ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a participle.

⁸ tn See similar use of this term in Ezek 23:17; Prov 7:16; Song of Songs 4:10; 7:13.

⁹ tn Heb “wing” or “skirt.” The gesture symbolized acquiring a woman in early Arabia (similarly, see Deut 22:30; Ruth 3:9).

¹⁰ tn Heb “it” (so KJV, ASV); the referent (the beauty in which the prostitute trusted, see the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “Chaldea.” The name of the tribal group ruling Babylon (“Chaldeans”) and the territory from which they originated (“Chaldea”) is used as metonymy for the whole empire of Babylon.

¹² tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.