Genesis 16:4-5

16:4 He had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. 16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you, but when she realized that she was pregnant, she despised me. May the Lord judge between you and me!”

Numbers 16:3

16:3 And they assembled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, seeing that the whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the community of the Lord?”

Matthew 6:24

6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate 10  the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise 11  the other. You cannot serve God and money. 12 

Matthew 6:2

6:2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, 13  do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues 14  and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, 15  they have their reward.

Matthew 2:10

2:10 When they saw the star they shouted joyfully. 16 

Jude 1:8

1:8 Yet these men, 17  as a result of their dreams, 18  defile the flesh, reject authority, 19  and insult 20  the glorious ones. 21 


tn Heb “entered to.” See the note on the same expression in v. 2.

tn Or “she conceived” (also in v. 5)

tn Heb “and she saw that she was pregnant and her mistress was despised in her eyes.” The Hebrew verb קָלַל (qalal) means “to despise, to treat lightly, to treat with contempt.” In Hagar’s opinion Sarai had been demoted.

tn Heb “my wrong is because of you.”

tn Heb “I placed my female servant in your bosom.”

tn Heb “saw.”

tn Heb “I was despised in her eyes.” The passive verb has been translated as active for stylistic reasons. Sarai was made to feel supplanted and worthless by Hagar the servant girl.

tn Heb “me and you.”

tn The meaning of רַב־לָכֶם (rab-lakhem) is something like “you have assumed far too much authority.” It simply means “much to you,” perhaps “you have gone to far,” or “you are overreaching yourselves” (M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 123). He is objecting to the exclusiveness of the system that Moses has been introducing.

10 sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.

11 tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”

12 tn Grk “God and mammon.”

13 tn Grk “give alms,” but this term is not in common use today. The giving of alms was highly regarded in the ancient world (Deut 15:7-11).

14 sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

15 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

16 tn Grk “they rejoiced with very great joy.”

17 tn The reference is now to the false teachers.

18 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.

19 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.”

20 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.”

21 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).