Jeremiah 16:18

16:18 Before I restore them ¹  I will punish them in full ²  for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own ³  with their detestable idols.” ⁴ 

Ezekiel 8:10

8:10 So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure ⁵  of creeping thing and beast – detestable images ⁶  – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 16:36

16:36 This is what the sovereign Lord says: Because your lust ⁸  was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children you have given to them,

Ezekiel 16:47

16:47 Have you not copied their behavior ⁹  and practiced their abominable deeds? In a short time ¹⁰  you became even more depraved in all your conduct than they were!

Ezekiel 16:1

God’s Unfaithful Bride

16:1 The word of the Lord came to me:

Ezekiel 4:3

4:3 Then for your part take an iron frying pan ¹¹  and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign ¹²  for the house of Israel.

Revelation 17:4-5

17:4 Now ¹³  the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet clothing, ¹⁴  and adorned with gold, ¹⁵  precious stones, and pearls. She held ¹⁶  in her hand a golden cup filled with detestable things and unclean things from her sexual immorality. ¹⁷  17:5 On ¹⁸  her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ¹⁹  “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”

¹ tn Heb “First.” Many English versions and commentaries delete this word because it is missing from the Greek version and is considered a gloss added by a postexilic editor who is said to be responsible also for vv. 14-16. This is not the place to resolve issues of authorship and date. It is the task of the translator to translate the “original” which in this case is the MT supported by the other versions. The word here refers to order in rank or order of events. Compare Gen 38:28; 1 Kgs 18:25. Here allusion is made to the restoration previously mentioned. First in order of events is the punishment of destruction and exile, then restoration.

² tn Heb “double.” However, usage in Deut 15:18 and probably Isa 40:2 argues for “full compensation.” This is supported also by usage in a tablet from Alalakh in Syria. See P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, J. F. Drinkard, Jeremiah 1-25 (WBC), 218, for bibliography.

³ tn Heb “my inheritance.”

⁴ tn Many of the English versions take “lifeless statues of their detestable idols” with “filled” as a compound object. This follows the Masoretic punctuation but violates usage. The verb “fill” never takes an object preceded by the preposition בְּ (bet).

⁵ tn Or “pattern.”

⁶ tn Heb “detestable.” The word is often used to describe the figures of foreign gods.

⁷ sn These engravings were prohibited in the Mosaic law (Deut 4:16-18).

⁸ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

⁹ tn Heb “walked in their ways.”

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew expression has a temporal meaning as illustrated by the use of the phrase in 2 Chr 12:7.

¹¹ tn Or “a griddle,” that is, some sort of plate for cooking.

¹² tn That is, a symbolic object lesson.

¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the detailed description of the woman, which is somewhat parenthetical in nature.

¹⁴ tn The word “clothing” is supplied to clarify that the words “purple” and “scarlet” refer to cloth or garments rather than colors.

¹⁵ tn Grk “gilded with gold” (an instance of semantic reinforcement, see L&N 49.29).

¹⁶ tn Grk “pearls, having in her hand.” Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

¹⁷ tc Several mss (including 1611 1854 2053 Ï^K pc) read “sexual immorality on/of the earth” (πορνείας τῆς γῆς, porneia" th" gh") instead of “her sexual immorality.” Other mss (א sy^h** [co]) read “her sexual immorality and the earth’s” (πορνείας αὐτῆς καὶ τῆς γῆς, porneia" aujth" kai th" gh"). The translation is a rendering of πορνείας αὐτῆς, found in {A 1006 2344 al}. It seems that the first reading “sexuality immorality on/of the earth” was a scribal mistake in which letters may have been confused (auths would have been read as thsghs), or was perhaps influenced by the presence of “of the world” (τῆς γῆς) at the end of v. 5. The original wording seems to be “her sexual immorality”; codex א has conflated the two readings.

¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹⁹ tn Some translations consider the word μυστήριον (musthrion, “mystery”) a part of the name written (“Mystery Babylon the Great,” so KJV, NIV), but the gender of both ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) and μυστήριον are neuter, while the gender of “Babylon” is feminine. This strongly suggests that μυστήριον should be understood as an appositive to ὄνομα (“a name, i.e., a mystery”).