22:28 “You must not blaspheme 1 God 2 or curse the ruler of your people.
10:20 Do not curse a king even in your thoughts,
and do not curse the rich 3 while in your bedroom; 4
for a bird 5 might report what you are thinking, 6
or some winged creature 7 might repeat your 8 words. 9
10:2 A wise person’s good sense protects him, 10
but a fool’s lack of sense leaves him vulnerable. 11
2:10 I did not restrain myself from getting whatever I wanted; 12
I did not deny myself anything that would bring me pleasure. 13
So all my accomplishments gave me joy; 14
this was my reward for all my effort. 15
1:8 Yet these men, 16 as a result of their dreams, 17 defile the flesh, reject authority, 18 and insult 19 the glorious ones. 20 1:9 But even 21 when Michael the archangel 22 was arguing with the devil and debating with him 23 concerning Moses’ body, he did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”
1 tn The two verbs in this verse are synonyms: קָלַל (qalal) means “to treat lightly, curse,” and אָרַר (’arar) means “to curse.”
2 tn The word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is “gods” or “God.” If taken as the simple plural, it could refer to the human judges, as it has in the section of laws; this would match the parallelism in the verse. If it was taken to refer to God, then the idea of cursing God would be more along the line of blasphemy. B. Jacob says that the word refers to functioning judges, and that would indirectly mean God, for they represented the religious authority, and the prince the civil authority (Exodus, 708).
3 tn Perhaps the referent is people who are in authority because of their wealth.
4 tn Heb “in chambers of your bedroom.”
5 tn Heb “a bird of the air.”
6 tn Heb “might carry the voice.” The article is used here with the force of a possessive pronoun.
7 tn The Hebrew phrase בַּעַל הַכְּנָפַיִם (ba’al hakkÿnafayim, “possessor of wings”) is an idiom for a winged creature, that is, a bird (e.g., Prov 1:17; see HALOT 143 s.v. בַּעַל A.6; BDB 127 s.v. בַּעַל 5.a). The term בַּעַל (“master; possessor”) is the construct governing the attributive genitive הַכְּנָפַיִם (“wings”); see IBHS 149-51 §9.5.3b.
8 tn The term “your” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.
9 tn Heb “tell the matter.”
10 tn Heb “a wise man’s heart is at his right hand.” The phrase “right hand” is a Hebrew idiom for the place of protection (e.g., Pss 16:8; 110:5; 121:5). In ancient warfare, the shield of the warrior on one’s right-hand side protected one’s right hand. Qoheleth’s point is that wisdom provides protection (e.g., Eccl 7:12).
11 tn Heb “and the heart of a fool is at his left hand.” The fool lacks the protection of wisdom which is at the right-hand side of the wise man (see note on “right hand” in the previous line). The wise man’s heart (i.e., good sense) protects him, but the fool is always getting into trouble.
12 tn Heb “all which my eyes asked for, I did not withhold from them.”
13 tn Heb “I did not refuse my heart any pleasure.” The term לִבִּי (libbi, “my heart”) is a synecdoche of part (i.e., heart) for the whole (i.e., whole person); see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 648. The term is repeated twice in 2:10 for emphasis.
14 tn Heb “So my heart was joyful from all my toil.”
15 tn Heb “and this was my portion from all my toil.”
16 tn The reference is now to the false teachers.
17 tn Grk “dreaming.” The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι (enupniazomenoi, “dreaming”) is adverbial to the pronoun οὗτοι (|outoi, “these”), though the particular relationship is not clear. It could mean, “while dreaming,” “by dreaming,” or “because of dreaming.” This translation has adopted the last option as Jude’s meaning, partially for syntactical reasons (the causal participle usually precedes the main verb) and partially for contextual reasons (these false teachers must derive their authority from some source, and the dreams provide the most obvious base). The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι was sometimes used of apocalyptic visions, both of true and false prophets. This seems to be the meaning here.
18 tn Most likely, the authority of the Lord is in view. This verse, then, echoes the indictment of v. 4: “they deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
19 tn The construction with the three verbs (“defile, “reject,” and “insult”) involves the particles μέν, δέ, δέ (men, de, de). A more literal (and pedantic) translation would be: “on the one hand, they defile the flesh, on the other hand, they reject authority, and on another hand, they insult the glorious ones.”
20 sn The glorious ones refers to angelic beings rather than mere human beings, just as in 2 Pet 2:10 (on which this passage apparently depends). Whether the angelic beings are good or evil, however, is difficult to tell (hence, the translation is left ambiguous). However, both in 2 Pet 2:11 and here, in Jude 9, the wicked angels seem to be in view (for not even Michael insults them).
21 tn The word “even” is not in Greek; it is implied by the height of the contrast.
22 sn According to Jewish intertestamental literature (such as 1 En. 20), Michael was one of seven archangels.
23 tn The sentence structure is a bit different in Greek. Literally it reads: “But Michael the archangel, when arguing with the devil and disputing.”