Ezekiel 3:20

3:20 “When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle ¹  before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death.

Ezekiel 7:19

7:19 They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth. ²  Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury. ³  They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth ⁴  was the obstacle leading to their iniquity. ⁵ 

Ezekiel 44:12

44:12 Because they used to minister to them before their idols, and became a sinful obstacle ⁶  to the house of Israel, consequently I have made a vow ⁷  concerning them, declares the sovereign Lord, that they will be responsible ⁸  for their sin.

Jeremiah 44:16-18

44:16 “We will not listen to what you claim the Lord has spoken to us! ⁹  44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ¹⁰  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ¹¹  just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. ¹²  44:18 But ever since we stopped sacrificing and pouring out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in great need. Our people have died in wars or of starvation.” ¹³ 

Zephaniah 1:3

1:3 “I will destroy people and animals;

I will destroy the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea.

(The idolatrous images of these creatures will be destroyed along with evil people.) ¹⁴ 

I will remove ¹⁵  humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

Zephaniah 1:1

Introduction

1:1 This is the prophetic message that the Lord gave to ¹⁶  Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah. Zephaniah delivered this message during the reign of ¹⁷  King Josiah son of Amon of Judah:

Zephaniah 2:8

2:8 “I have heard Moab’s taunts

and the Ammonites’ insults.

They ¹⁸  taunted my people

and verbally harassed those living in Judah. ¹⁹ 

Revelation 2:14

2:14 But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, ²⁰  who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block ²¹  before the people ²²  of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality. ²³ 

¹ tn Or “stumbling block.” The Hebrew term refers to an obstacle in the road in Lev 19:14.

² tn The Hebrew term can refer to menstrual impurity. The term also occurs at the end of v. 20.

³ sn Compare Zeph 1:18.

⁴ tn Heb “it.” Apparently the subject is the silver and gold mentioned earlier (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:102).

⁵ tn The “stumbling block of their iniquity” is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30; 44:12).

⁶ tn Heb “a stumbling block of iniquity.” This is a unique phrase of the prophet Ezekiel (cf. also Ezek 7:19; 14:3, 4, 7; 18:30).

⁷ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

⁸ tn Heb “will bear.”

⁹ tn Heb “the word [or message] you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord.” For an explanation of the rendering of “in the name of the Lord” see the study notes on 10:25 and 23:27.

¹⁰ tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.

¹¹ tn Heb “sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” The expressions have been combined to simplify and shorten the sentence. The same combination also occurs in vv. 18, 19.

¹² tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”

¹³ tn Heb “we have been consumed/destroyed by sword or by starvation.” The “we” cannot be taken literally here since they are still alive.

¹⁴ tn Heb “And the stumbling blocks [or, “ruins”] with the evil”; or “the things that make the evil stumble.” The line does not appear in the original form of the LXX; it may be a later scribal addition. The present translation assumes the “stumbling blocks” are idolatrous images of animals, birds, and fish. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 167, and Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB), 73-74.

¹⁵ tn Heb “cut off.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “The word of the Lord which came to.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “in the days of.” The words “Zephaniah delivered this message” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁸ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁹ tn Heb “and they made great [their mouth?] against their territory.” Other possible translation options include (1) “they enlarged their own territory” (cf. NEB) and (2) “they bragged about [the size] of their own territory.”

²⁰ sn See Num 22-24; 31:16.

²¹ tn That is, a cause for sinning. An alternate translation is “who instructed Balak to cause the people of Israel to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols…”

²² tn Grk “sons,” but the expression υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ (Juioi Israhl) is an idiom for the people of Israel as an ethnic entity (see L&N 11.58).

²³ tn Due to the actual events in the OT (Num 22-24; 31:16), πορνεῦσαι (porneusai) is taken to mean “sexual immorality.” BDAG 854 s.v. πορνεύω 1 states, “engage in illicit sex, to fornicate, to whore…W. φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα ‘eat meat offered to idols’ Rv 2:14, 20.”