32:37 He will say, “Where are their gods,
the rock in whom they sought security,
1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, 1 even prophesied of them, 2 saying, “Look! The Lord is coming 3 with thousands and thousands 4 of his holy ones,
45:20 Gather together and come!
Approach together, you refugees from the nations!
Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,
those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images; 11
they themselves 12 head off into captivity. 13
46:7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;
they put it in its place and it just stands there;
it does not 14 move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;
it does not deliver him from his distress.
1 tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”
2 tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).
3 tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.
4 tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.
5 tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”
6 tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”
7 tn Grk “foaming, causing to foam.” The verb form is intensive and causative. BDAG 360 s.v. ἐπαφρίζω suggests the meaning “to cause to splash up like froth, cause to foam,” or, in this context, “waves casting up their own shameless deeds like (dirty) foam.”
8 tn Grk “shames, shameful things.” It is uncertain whether shameful deeds or shameful words are in view. Either way, the picture has taken a decided turn: Though waterless clouds and fruitless trees may promise good things, but deliver nothing, wild sea-waves are portents of filth spewed forth from the belly of the sea.
9 sn The imagery of a star seems to fit the nautical theme that Jude is developing. Stars were of course the guides to sailors at night, just as teachers are responsible to lead the flock through a benighted world. But false teachers, as wayward stars, are not fixed and hence offer unreliable, even disastrous guidance. They are thus both the dangerous reefs on which the ships could be destroyed and the false guides, leading them into these rocks. There is a special irony that these lights will be snuffed out, reserved for the darkest depths of eternal darkness.
10 tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.
11 tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.
12 tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).
13 sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.
14 tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.