2 Kings 22:17

22:17 This will happen because they have abandoned me and offered sacrifices ¹  to other gods, angering me with all the idols they have made. ²  My anger will ignite against this place and will not be extinguished!’”

Jeremiah 4:4

4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin

as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,

you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord

and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ³ 

people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

If you do not, ⁴  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you

that no one will be able to extinguish.

That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

Jeremiah 7:20

7:20 So,” the Lord God ⁵  says, “my raging fury will be poured out on this land. ⁶  It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. ⁷  And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished.”

Ezekiel 20:48

20:48 And everyone ⁸  will see that I, the Lord, have burned it; it will not be extinguished.’”

Mark 9:43-48

9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have ⁹  two hands and go into hell, ¹⁰  to the unquenchable fire. 9:44 [[EMPTY]] ¹¹  9:45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have ¹²  two feet and be thrown into hell. 9:46 [[EMPTY]] ¹³  9:47 If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! ¹⁴  It is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have ¹⁵  two eyes and be thrown into hell, 9:48 where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.

¹ tn Or “burned incense.”

² tn Heb “angering me with all the work of their hands.” The translation assumes that this refers to idols they have manufactured (note the preceding reference to “other gods,” as well as 19:18). However, it is possible that this is a general reference to their sinful practices, in which case one might translate, “angering me by all the things they do.”

³ tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your heart.” The translation is again an attempt to bring out the meaning of a metaphor. The mention of the “foreskin of the heart” shows that the passage is obviously metaphorical and involves heart attitude, not an external rite.

⁴ tn Heb “lest.”

⁵ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

⁶ tn Heb “this place.” Some see this as a reference to the temple but the context has been talking about what goes on in the towns of Judah and Jerusalem and the words that follow, meant as a further explanation, are applied to the whole land.

⁷ tn Heb “the trees of/in the field and the fruit of/in the ground.”

⁸ tn Heb “all flesh.”

⁹ tn Grk “than having.”

¹⁰ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36). This Greek term also occurs in vv. 45, 47.

¹¹ tc Most later mss have 9:44 here and 9:46 after v. 45: “where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched” (identical with v. 48). Verses 44 and 46 are present in A D Θ Ë¹³ Ï lat sy^p,h, but lacking in important Alexandrian mss and several others (א B C L W Δ Ψ 0274 ˹ 28 565 892 2427 pc co). This appears to be a scribal addition from v. 48 and is almost certainly not an original part of the Greek text of Mark. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

¹² tn Grk “than having.”

¹³ tc See tc note at the end of v. 43.

¹⁴ tn Grk “throw it out.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “than having.”