Ezekiel 4:8

4:8 Look here, I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege. ¹ 

Mark 3:21

3:21 When his family ²  heard this they went out to restrain him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

John 21:18

21:18 I tell you the solemn truth, ³  when you were young, you tied your clothes around you ⁴  and went wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will tie you up ⁵  and bring you where you do not want to go.”

Acts 9:16

9:16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ⁶ 

Acts 20:23

20:23 except ⁷  that the Holy Spirit warns ⁸  me in town after town ⁹  that ¹⁰  imprisonment ¹¹  and persecutions ¹²  are waiting for me.

Acts 21:11-13

21:11 He came ¹³  to us, took ¹⁴  Paul’s belt, ¹⁵  tied ¹⁶  his own hands and feet with it, ¹⁷  and said, “The Holy Spirit says this: ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over ¹⁸  to the Gentiles.’” 21:12 When we heard this, both we and the local people ¹⁹  begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 21:13 Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking ²⁰  my heart? For I am ready not only to be tied up, ²¹  but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

¹ sn The action surely refers to a series of daily acts rather than to a continuous period.

² tc Western witnesses D W it, instead of reading οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ (Joi par’ aujtou, here translated “family”), have περὶ αὐτοῦ οἱ γραμματεῖς καὶ οἱ λοιποί (peri autou Joi grammatei" kai Joi loipoi, “[when] the scribes and others [heard] about him”). But this reading is obviously motivated, for it removes the embarrassing statement about Jesus’ family’s opinion of him as “out of his mind” and transfers this view to the Lord’s opponents. The fact that virtually all other witnesses have οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ here, coupled with the strong internal evidence for the shorter reading, shows this Western reading to be secondary.

³ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

⁴ tn Or “you girded yourself.”

⁵ tn Grk “others will gird you.”

⁶ tn Or “because of my name.” BDAG 1031 s.v. ὑπέρ 2 lists Acts 9:16 as an example of ὑπέρ (Juper) used to indicate “the moving cause or reason, because of, for the sake of, for.”

⁷ tn BDAG 826 s.v. πλήν 1.d has “πλὴν ὅτι except that…Ac 20:23.”

⁸ tn The verb διαμαρτύρομαι (diamarturomai) can mean “warn” (BDAG 233 s.v. διαμαρτύρομαι 2 has “solemnly urge, exhort, warn…w. dat. of pers. addressed”), and this meaning better fits the context here, although BDAG categorizes Acts 20:23 under the meaning “testify of, bear witness to” (s.v. 1).

⁹ tn The Greek text here reads κατὰ πόλιν (kata polin).

¹⁰ tn Grk “saying that,” but the participle λέγον (legon) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

¹¹ tn Grk “bonds.”

¹² tn Or “troubles,” “suffering.” See Acts 19:21; 21:4, 11.

¹³ tn Grk “And coming.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here. The participle ἐλθών (elqwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

¹⁴ tn Grk “and taking.” This καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. The participle ἄρας (aras) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

¹⁵ sn The belt was a band or sash used to keep money as well as to gird up the tunic (BDAG 431 s.v. ζώνη).

¹⁶ tn The participle δήσας (dhsas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

¹⁷ tn The words “with it” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

¹⁸ tn Grk “and will deliver him over into the hands of” (a Semitic idiom).

¹⁹ tn Or “the people there.”

²⁰ tn The term translated “breaking” as used by Josephus (Ant. 10.10.4 [10.207]) means to break something into pieces, but in its only NT use (it is a hapax legomenon) it is used figuratively (BDAG 972 s.v. συνθρύπτω).

²¹ tn L&N 18.13 has “to tie objects together – ‘to tie, to tie together, to tie up.’” The verb δέω (dew) is sometimes figurative for imprisonment (L&N 37.114), but it is preferable to translate it literally here in light of v. 11 where Agabus tied himself up with Paul’s belt.