Jeremiah 3:10-11

3:10 In spite of all this, ¹  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ²  says the Lord. 3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ³ 

Isaiah 29:13

29:13 The sovereign master ⁴  says,

“These people say they are loyal to me; ⁵ 

they say wonderful things about me, ⁶ 

but they are not really loyal to me. ⁷ 

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual. ⁸ 

Mark 6:20

6:20 because Herod stood in awe of ⁹  John and protected him, since he knew that John ¹⁰  was a righteous and holy man. When Herod ¹¹  heard him, he was thoroughly baffled, ¹²  and yet ¹³  he liked to listen to John. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “And even in all this.”

² tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”

³ tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

⁵ tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”

⁶ tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”

⁷ tn Heb “but their heart is far from me.” The heart is viewed here as the seat of the will, from which genuine loyalty derives.

⁸ tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”

⁹ tn Grk “was fearing,” “was respecting”; the imperfect tense connotes an ongoing fear or respect for John.

¹⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹² tc In place of ἠπόρει (hporei, “he was baffled”) the majority of mss (A C D ˹ 33 Ï lat sy) have ἐποίει (epoiei, “he did”; cf. KJV’s “he did many things.”) The best mss (א B L [W] Θ 2427 co) support the reading followed in the translation. The variation may be no more than a simple case of confusion of letters, since the two readings look very much alike. The verb ποιέω (poiew, “I do”) certainly occurs more frequently than ἀπορέω (aporew, “I am at a loss”), so a scribe would be more likely to write a more familiar word. Further, even though the reading ἐποίει is the harder reading in terms of the sense, it is virtually nonsensical here, rendering it most likely an unintentional corruption.

¹³ tn Grk “and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “and yet” to indicate the concessive nature of the final clause.

¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (John) has been specified in the translation for clarity.