1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,
a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; 1
but Israel does not recognize me, 2
my people do not understand.”
27:11 When its branches get brittle, 3 they break;
women come and use them for kindling. 4
For these people lack understanding, 5
therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;
the one who formed them has no mercy on them.
8:7 Even the stork knows
when it is time to move on. 6
The turtledove, swallow, and crane 7
recognize 8 the normal times for their migration.
But my people pay no attention
to 9 what I, the Lord, require of them. 10
4:6 You have destroyed 11 my people
by failing to acknowledge me!
Because you refuse to acknowledge me, 12
I will reject you as my priests.
Because you reject 13 the law of your God,
I will reject 14 your descendants.
23:16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple is bound by nothing. 15 But whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by the oath.’ 23:17 Blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 23:18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing. 16 But if anyone swears by the gift on it he is bound by the oath.’ 23:19 You are blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 23:20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 23:21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and the one who dwells in it. 23:22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and the one who sits on it.
23:23 “Woe to you, experts in the law 17 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth 18 of mint, dill, and cumin, 19 yet you neglect what is more important in the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness! You 20 should have done these things without neglecting the others. 23:24 Blind guides! You strain out a gnat yet swallow a camel! 21
23:25 “Woe to you, experts in the law 22 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, 23 so that the outside may become clean too!
23:27 “Woe to you, experts in the law 24 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. 25
1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, 33 God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 34
3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates 36 the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? 37 (I am speaking in human terms.) 38
1 tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.
2 tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).
3 tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
4 tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.
5 tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”
6 tn Heb “its appointed time.” The translation is contextually motivated to avoid lack of clarity.
7 tn There is debate in the commentaries and lexicons about the identification of some of these birds, particularly regarding the identification of the “swallow” which is more likely the “swift” and the “crane” which some identify with the “thrush.” For a discussion see the Bible encyclopedias and the UBS handbook Fauna and Flora of the Bible. The identity of the individual birds makes little difference to the point being made and “swallow” is more easily identifiable to the average reader than the “swift.”
8 tn Heb “keep.” Ironically birds, which do not think, obey the laws of nature, but Israel does not obey the laws of God.
9 tn Heb “do not know.” But here as elsewhere the word “know” is more than an intellectual matter. It is intended here to summarize both “know” and “follow” (Heb “observe”) in the preceding lines.
10 tn Heb “the ordinance/requirement of the
11 tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).
12 tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”
13 tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”
14 tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”
15 tn Grk “Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing.”
16 tn Grk “Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing.”
17 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
18 tn Or “you tithe mint.”
19 sn Cumin (alternately spelled cummin) was an aromatic herb native to the Mediterranean region. Its seeds were used for seasoning.
20 tc ‡ Many witnesses (B C K L W Δ 0102 33 565 892 pm) have δέ (de, “but”) after ταῦτα (tauta, “these things”), while many others lack it (א D Γ Θ Ë1,13 579 700 1241 1424 pm). Since asyndeton was relatively rare in Koine Greek, the conjunction may be an intentional alteration, and is thus omitted from the present translation. NA27 includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
21 tn Grk “Blind guides who strain out a gnat yet who swallow a camel!”
22 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
23 tc A very difficult textual problem is found here. The most important Alexandrian and Byzantine, as well as significant Western, witnesses (א B C L W 0102 0281 Ë13 33 Ï lat co) have “and the dish” (καὶ τῆς παροψίδος, kai th" paroyido") after “cup,” while few important witnesses (D Θ Ë1 700 and some versional and patristic authorities) omit the phrase. On the one hand, scribes sometimes tended to eliminate redundancy; since “and the dish” is already present in v. 25, it may have been deleted in v. 26 by well-meaning scribes. On the other hand, as B. M. Metzger notes, the singular pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou, “its”) with τὸ ἐκτός (to ekto", “the outside”) in some of the same witnesses that have the longer reading (viz., B* Ë13 al) hints that their archetype lacked the words (TCGNT 50). Further, scribes would be motivated both to add the phrase from v. 25 and to change αὐτοῦ to the plural pronoun αὐτῶν (aujtwn, “their”). Although the external evidence for the shorter reading is not compelling in itself, combined with these two prongs of internal evidence, it is to be slightly preferred.
24 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
25 sn This was an idiom for hypocrisy – just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (for discussion of a similar metaphor, see L&N 88.234; BDAG 1010 s.v. τοῖχος). See Deut 28:22; Ezek 13:10-16; Acts 23:3.
26 tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”
27 tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.
28 sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.
29 tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”
30 tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.
31 tn Or “this is the reason for God judging,” or “this is how judgment works.”
32 tn Grk “and men,” but in a generic sense, referring to people of both genders (as “everyone” in v. 20 makes clear).
33 tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”
34 tn Grk “the things that are improper.”
35 tn Grk “the gospel of God, which he promised.” Because of the length and complexity of this sentence in Greek, it was divided into shorter English sentences in keeping with contemporary English style. To indicate the referent of the relative pronoun (“which”), the word “gospel” was repeated at the beginning of v. 2.
36 tn Or “shows clearly.”
37 tn Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is he?”
38 sn The same expression occurs in Gal 3:15, and similar phrases in Rom 6:19 and 1 Cor 9:8.