29:21 those who bear false testimony against a person, 1
who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate 2
and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. 3
15:10 I said, 4
“Oh, mother, how I regret 5 that you ever gave birth to me!
I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land. 6
I have not lent money to anyone and I have not borrowed from anyone.
Yet all of these people are treating me with contempt.” 7
5:10 The Israelites 8 hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate; 9
they despise anyone who speaks honestly.
10:16 “The one who listens 24 to you listens to me, 25 and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects 26 the one who sent me.” 27
10:1 After this 28 the Lord appointed seventy-two 29 others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town 30 and place where he himself was about to go.
1 tn Heb “the ones who make a man a sinner with a word.” The Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) here has a delocutive sense: “declare a man sinful/guilty.”
2 sn Legal disputes were resolved at the city gate, where the town elders met. See Amos 5:10.
3 tn Heb “and deprive by emptiness the innocent.”
4 tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to mark a shift in the speaker.
5 tn Heb “Woe to me, my mother.” See the comments on 4:13 and 10:19.
6 tn Heb “A man of strife and a man of contention with all the land.” The “of” relationship (Hebrew and Greek genitive) can convey either subjective or objective relationships, i.e., he instigates strife and contention or he is the object of it. A study of usage elsewhere, e.g., Isa 41:11; Job 31:35; Prov 12:19; 25:24; 26:21; 27:15, is convincing that it is subjective. In his role as God’s covenant messenger charging people with wrong doing he has instigated counterarguments and stirred about strife and contention against him.
7 tc The translation follows the almost universally agreed upon correction of the MT. Instead of reading כֻּלֹּה מְקַלְלַונִי (kulloh mÿqallavni, “all of him is cursing me”) as the Masoretes proposed (Qere) one should read קִלְלוּנִי (qilluni) with the written text (Kethib) and redivide and repoint with the suggestion in BHS כֻּלְּהֶם (qullÿhem, “all of them are cursing me”).
8 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 sn In ancient Israelite culture, legal disputes were resolved in the city gate, where the town elders met.
10 sn To shake the dust off represented shaking off the uncleanness from one’s feet; see Luke 10:11; Acts 13:51; 18:6. It was a sign of rejection.
11 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
12 sn The allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah, the most wicked of OT cities from Gen 19:1-29, shows that to reject the current message is even more serious than the worst sins of the old era and will result in more severe punishment.
13 tn Grk “whatever town you enter,” but this is more often expressed in English as “whenever you enter a town.”
14 tn Or “city.”
15 tn Grk “and they”; the referent (the people who live in the town) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 sn More discussion takes place concerning rejection (the people do not welcome you), as these verses lead into the condemnation of certain towns for their rejection of God’s kingdom.
17 tn The term πλατεῖα (plateia) refers to the “broad street,” so this refers to the main roads of the town.
18 tn Or “city.”
19 sn See Luke 9:5, where the verb is different but the meaning is the same. This was a sign of rejection.
20 tn Here ὑμῖν (Jumin) has been translated as a dative of disadvantage.
21 tn Or “has come near.” As in v. 9 (see above), the combination of ἐγγίζω (engizw) with the preposition ἐπί (epi) is decisive in showing that the sense is “has come” (see BDAG 270 s.v. ἐγγίζω 2, and W. R. Hutton, “The Kingdom of God Has Come,” ExpTim 64 [Dec 1952]: 89-91).
22 sn The allusion to Sodom, the most wicked of OT cities from Gen 19:1-29, shows that to reject the current message is even more serious than the worst sins of the old era and will result in more severe punishment. The noun Sodom is in emphatic position in the Greek text.
23 tn Or “city.”
24 tn Grk “hears you”; but as the context of vv. 8-9 makes clear, it is response that is the point. In contemporary English, “listen to” is one way to express this function (L&N 31.56).
25 sn Jesus linked himself to the disciples’ message: Responding to the disciples (listens to you) counts as responding to him.
26 tn The double mention of rejection in this clause – ἀθετῶν ἀθετεῖ (aqetwn aqetei) in the Greek text – keeps up the emphasis of the section.
27 sn The one who sent me refers to God.
28 tn Grk “And after these things.” Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
29 tc There is a difficult textual problem here and in v. 17, where the number is either “seventy” (א A C L W Θ Ξ Ψ Ë1,13 Ï and several church fathers and early versions) or “seventy-two” (Ì75 B D 0181 pc lat as well as other versions and fathers). The more difficult reading is “seventy-two,” since scribes would be prone to assimilate this passage to several OT passages that refer to groups of seventy people (Num 11:13-17; Deut 10:22; Judg 8:30; 2 Kgs 10:1 et al.); this reading also has slightly better ms support. “Seventy” could be the preferred reading if scribes drew from the tradition of the number of translators of the LXX, which the Letter of Aristeas puts at seventy-two (TCGNT 127), although this is far less likely. All things considered, “seventy-two” is a much more difficult reading and accounts for the rise of the other. Only Luke notes a second larger mission like the one in 9:1-6.
30 tn Or “city.”
31 tn Grk “And Jesus.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
32 tc Most
33 tn Or “You will prostrate yourself in worship before…” The verb προσκυνέω (proskunew) can allude not only to the act of worship but the position of the worshiper. See L&N 53.56.
34 tc Most later
35 sn A quotation from Deut 6:13. The word “only” is an interpretive expansion not found in either the Hebrew or Greek (LXX) text of the OT.