Isaiah 65:4

65:4 They sit among the tombs ¹ 

and keep watch all night long. ² 

They eat pork, ³ 

and broth ⁴  from unclean sacrificial meat is in their pans.

Isaiah 66:3

66:3 The one who slaughters a bull also strikes down a man; ⁵ 

the one who sacrifices a lamb also breaks a dog’s neck; ⁶ 

the one who presents an offering includes pig’s blood with it; ⁷ 

the one who offers incense also praises an idol. ⁸ 

They have decided to behave this way; ⁹ 

they enjoy these disgusting practices. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 66:17

66:17 “As for those who consecrate and ritually purify themselves so they can follow their leader and worship in the sacred orchards, ¹¹  those who eat the flesh of pigs and other disgusting creatures, like mice ¹²  – they will all be destroyed together,” ¹³  says the Lord.

Luke 15:15-16

15:15 So he went and worked for ¹⁴  one of the citizens of that country, who ¹⁵  sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶  15:16 He ¹⁷  was longing to eat ¹⁸  the carob pods ¹⁹  the pigs were eating, but ²⁰  no one gave him anything.

Luke 15:2

15:2 But ²¹  the Pharisees ²²  and the experts in the law ²³  were complaining, ²⁴  “This man welcomes ²⁵  sinners and eats with them.”

Luke 2:22

Jesus’ Presentation at the Temple

2:22 Now ²⁶  when the time came for their ²⁷  purification according to the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary ²⁸  brought Jesus ²⁹  up to Jerusalem ³⁰  to present him to the Lord

¹ sn Perhaps the worship of underworld deities or dead spirits is in view.

² tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and in the watches they spend the night.” Some understand נְּצוּרִים (nÿtsurim) as referring to “secret places” or “caves,” while others emend the text to וּבֵין צוּרִים (uven tsurim, “between the rocky cliffs”).

³ tn Heb “the flesh of the pig”; KJV, NAB, NASB “swine’s flesh.”

⁴ tc The marginal reading (Qere), supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, reads מְרַק (mÿraq, “broth”), while the consonantal text (Kethib) has פְרַק (feraq, “fragment”).

⁵ tn Heb “one who slaughters a bull, one who strikes down a man.” Some understand a comparison here and in the following lines. In God’s sight the one who sacrifices is like (i.e., regarded as) a murderer or one whose worship is ritually defiled or idolatrous. The translation above assumes that the language is not metaphorical, but descriptive of the sinners’ hypocritical behavior. (Note the last two lines of the verse, which suggests they are guilty of abominable practices.) On the one hand, they act pious and offer sacrifices; but at the same time they commit violent crimes against men, defile their sacrifices, and worship other gods.

⁶ tn Heb “one who sacrifices a lamb, one who breaks a dog’s neck.” Some understand a comparison, but see the previous note.

⁷ tn Heb “one who offers an offering, pig’s blood.” Some understand a comparison, but see the note at the end of the first line.

⁸ tn Heb “one who offers incense as a memorial offering, one who blesses something false.” Some understand a comparison, but see the note at the end of the first line. אָוֶן (’aven), which has a wide variety of attested nuances, here refers metonymically to an idol. See HALOT 22 s.v. and BDB 20 s.v. 2.

⁹ tn Heb “also they have chosen their ways.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “their being [or “soul”] takes delight in their disgusting [things].”

¹¹ tn Heb “the ones who consecrate themselves and the ones who purify themselves toward the orchards [or “gardens”] after the one in the midst.” The precise meaning of the statement is unclear, though it is obvious that some form of idolatry is in view.

¹² tn Heb “ones who eat the flesh of the pig and the disgusting thing and the mouse.”

¹³ tn Heb “together they will come to an end.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “joined himself to” (in this case an idiom for beginning to work for someone).

¹⁵ tn Grk “and he.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) and the personal pronoun have been translated by a relative pronoun to improve the English style.

¹⁶ sn To a Jew, being sent to the field to feed pigs would be an insult, since pigs were considered unclean animals (Lev 11:7).

¹⁷ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹⁸ tn Or “would gladly have eaten”; Grk “was longing to be filled with.”

¹⁹ tn This term refers to the edible pods from a carob tree (BDAG 540 s.v. κεράτιον). They were bean-like in nature and were commonly used for fattening pigs, although they were also used for food by poor people (L&N 3.46).

²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

²² sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

²³ tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

²⁴ tn Or “grumbling”; Grk “were complaining, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

²⁵ tn Or “accepts,” “receives.” This is not the first time this issue has been raised: Luke 5:27-32; 7:37-50.

²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

²⁷ tc The translation follows most mss, including early and important ones ({א A B L}). Some copyists, aware that the purification law applied to women only, produced mss ({76 it^pt vg} [though the Latin word eius could be either masculine or feminine]) that read “her purification.” But the extant evidence for an unambiguous “her” is shut up to one late minuscule ({codex 76}) and a couple of patristic citations of dubious worth ({Pseudo-Athanasius} whose date is unknown, and the {Catenae in euangelia Lucae et Joannis}, edited by J. A. Cramer. The Catenae is a work of collected patristic sayings whose exact source is unknown [thus, it could come from a period covering hundreds of years]). A few other witnesses (D pc lat) read “his purification.” The KJV has “her purification,” following Beza’s Greek text (essentially a revision of Erasmus’). Erasmus did not have it in any of his five editions. Most likely Beza put in the feminine form αὐτῆς (auths) because, recognizing that the eius found in several Latin mss could be read either as a masculine or a feminine, he made the contextually more satisfying choice of the feminine. Perhaps it crept into one or two late Greek witnesses via this interpretive Latin back-translation. So the evidence for the feminine singular is virtually nonexistent, while the masculine singular αὐτοῦ (autou, “his”) was a clear scribal blunder. There can be no doubt that “their purification” is the authentic reading.

²⁸ tn Grk “they”; the referents (Joseph and Mary) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³⁰ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.