Isaiah 57:9-10

57:9 You take olive oil as tribute to your king,

along with many perfumes.

You send your messengers to a distant place;

you go all the way to Sheol.

57:10 Because of the long distance you must travel, you get tired,

but you do not say, ‘I give up.’

You get renewed energy,

so you don’t collapse.

Jude 1:14

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, even prophesied of them, 10  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming 11  with thousands and thousands 12  of his holy ones,

Jude 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! 13 

Jude 1:13

1:13 wild sea waves, 14  spewing out the foam of 15  their shame; 16  wayward stars 17  for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness 18  have been reserved.

Jeremiah 22:22

22:22 My judgment will carry off all your leaders like a storm wind! 19 

Your allies will go into captivity.

Then you will certainly 20  be disgraced and put to shame

because of all the wickedness you have done.

Zechariah 7:13

7:13 “‘It then came about that just as I 21  cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord Lord who rules over all had said.


tn Heb “you journey with oil.”

tn Heb “the king.” Since the context refers to idolatry and child sacrifice (see v. 5), some emend מֶלֶך (melekh, “king”) to “Molech.” Perhaps Israel’s devotion to her idols is likened here to a subject taking tribute to a ruler.

tn Heb “and you multiply your perfumes.”

sn Israel’s devotion to her idols is inordinate, irrational, and self-destructive.

tn Heb “by the greatness [i.e., “length,” see BDB 914 s.v. רֹב 2] of your way you get tired.”

tn Heb “it is hopeless” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NRSV “It is useless.”

tn Heb “the life of your hand you find.” The term חַיָּה (khayyah, “life”) is here used in the sense of “renewal” (see BDB 312 s.v.) while יָד (yad) is used of “strength.”

tn Heb “you do not grow weak.”

tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

10 tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

11 tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

12 tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

13 tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

14 tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”

15 tn Grk “foaming, causing to foam.” The verb form is intensive and causative. BDAG 360 s.v. ἐπαφρίζω suggests the meaning “to cause to splash up like froth, cause to foam,” or, in this context, “waves casting up their own shameless deeds like (dirty) foam.”

16 tn Grk “shames, shameful things.” It is uncertain whether shameful deeds or shameful words are in view. Either way, the picture has taken a decided turn: Though waterless clouds and fruitless trees may promise good things, but deliver nothing, wild sea-waves are portents of filth spewed forth from the belly of the sea.

17 sn The imagery of a star seems to fit the nautical theme that Jude is developing. Stars were of course the guides to sailors at night, just as teachers are responsible to lead the flock through a benighted world. But false teachers, as wayward stars, are not fixed and hence offer unreliable, even disastrous guidance. They are thus both the dangerous reefs on which the ships could be destroyed and the false guides, leading them into these rocks. There is a special irony that these lights will be snuffed out, reserved for the darkest depths of eternal darkness.

18 tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.

19 tn Heb “A wind will shepherd away all your shepherds.” The figures have all been interpreted in the translation for the sake of clarity. For the use of the word “wind” as a metaphor or simile for God’s judgment (using the enemy forces) see 4:11-12; 13:24; 18:17. For the use of the word “shepherd” to refer to rulers/leaders 2:8; 10:21; and 23:1-4. For the use of the word “shepherd away” in the sense of carry off/drive away see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.d and compare Job 20:26. There is an obvious wordplay involved in two different senses of the word “shepherd,” one referring to their leaders and one referring to the loss of those leaders by the wind driving them off. There may even be a further play involving the word “wickedness” which comes from a word having the same consonants. If the oracles in this section are chronologically ordered this threat was fulfilled in 597 b.c. when many of the royal officials and nobles were carried away captive with Jehoiachin (see 2 Kgs 24:15) who is the subject of the next oracle.

20 tn The use of the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is intensive here and probably also at the beginning of the last line of v. 21. (See BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e.)

21 tn Heb “he.” Since the third person pronoun refers to the Lord, it has been translated as a first person pronoun (“I”) to accommodate English style, which typically does not exhibit switches between persons of pronouns in the same immediate context as Hebrew does.