2 Chronicles 36:16

36:16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his warnings, ¹  and ridiculed his prophets. ²  Finally the Lord got very angry at his people and there was no one who could prevent his judgment. ³ 

Matthew 21:35-38

21:35 But the tenants seized his slaves, beat one, ⁴  killed another, and stoned another. 21:36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them the same way. 21:37 Finally he sent his son to them, ⁵  saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’

Hebrews 11:35-38

11:35 and women received back their dead raised to life. ⁶  But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. ⁷  11:36 And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 11:37 They were stoned, sawed apart, ⁸  murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 11:38 (the world was not worthy of them); they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and openings in the earth.

James 5:10

5:10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, ⁹  take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name.

¹ tn Heb “his words.”

² tn All three verbal forms (“mocked,” “despised,” and “ridiculed”) are active participles in the Hebrew text, indicating continual or repeated action. They made a habit of rejecting God’s prophetic messengers.

³ tn Heb “until the anger of the Lord went up against his people until there was no healer.”

⁴ sn The image of the tenants mistreating the owner’s slaves pictures the nation’s rejection of the prophets and their message.

⁵ sn The owner’s decision to send his son represents God sending Jesus.

⁶ tn Grk “received back their dead from resurrection.”

⁷ tn Grk “to obtain a better resurrection.”

⁸ tc The reading ἐπρίσθησαν (ejprisqhsan, “they were sawed apart”) is found in some important witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ [D* twice reads ἐπίρσθησαν, “they were burned”?] pc sy^p sa Or^pt Eus). Other mss have ἐπειράσθησαν (ejpeirasqhsan, “they were tempted”), either before “sawed apart” ([א] L P [048] 33 81 326 1505 pc sy^h), after “sawed apart” (Ì^13vid A D¹ Ψ 1739 1881 Ï lat bo Or^pt), or altogether in place of “sawed apart” (0150 vg^mss Cl). Since the two words ἐπρίσθησαν and ἐπειράσθησαν are so much alike in sight and sound, and since the position of “they were tempted” varies in the mss, it seems best to say that ἐπειράσθησαν is an accidental corruption of ἐπρίσθησαν or an intentional change to a more common word (the root of ἐπρίσθησαν [πρίζω, prizw] occurs only here in the NT, while the root of ἐπειράσθησαν [πειράζω, peirazw] occurs 38 times). The best reading here seems to be “sawed apart” without any addition before or after. (See TCGNT 603-4, for a discussion of emendations that scholars have proposed for this difficult problem.)

⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.