Luke 13:34

13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ¹  you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! ²  How often I have longed ³  to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ⁴  you would have none of it! ⁵ 

Jeremiah 8:8

8:8 How can you say, “We are wise!

We have the law of the Lord”?

The truth is, ⁶  those who teach it ⁷  have used their writings

to make it say what it does not really mean. ⁸ 

Romans 10:21

10:21 But about Israel he says, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!” ⁹ 

Romans 10:2

10:2 For I can testify that they are zealous for God, ¹⁰  but their zeal is not in line with the truth. ¹¹ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹²  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Galatians 2:21

2:21 I do not set aside ¹³  God’s grace, because if righteousness ¹⁴  could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing! ¹⁵ 

¹ sn The double use of the city’s name betrays intense emotion.

² tn Although the opening address (“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”) is direct (second person), the remainder of this sentence in the Greek text is third person (“who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”). The following sentences then revert to second person (“your… you”), so to keep all this consistent in English, the third person pronouns in the present verse were translated as second person (“you who kill… sent to you”).

³ sn How often I have longed to gather your children. Jesus, like a lamenting prophet, speaks for God here, who longed to care tenderly for Israel and protect her.

⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

⁵ tn Grk “you were not willing.”

⁶ tn Heb “Surely, behold!”

⁷ tn Heb “the scribes.”

⁸ tn Heb “The lying pen of the scribes have made [it] into a lie.” The translation is an attempt to make the most common interpretation of this passage understandable for the average reader. This is, however, a difficult passage whose interpretation is greatly debated and whose syntax is capable of other interpretations. The interpretation of the NJPS, “Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored, for naught the scribes,” surely deserves consideration within the context; i.e. it hasn’t done any good for the scribes to produce a reliable copy of the law, which the people have refused to follow. That interpretation has the advantage of explaining the absence of an object for the verb “make” or “labored” but creates a very unbalanced poetic couplet.

⁹ sn A quotation from Isa 65:2.

¹⁰ tn Grk “they have a zeal for God.”

¹¹ tn Grk “in accord with knowledge.”

¹² tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

¹³ tn Or “I do not declare invalid,” “I do not nullify.”

¹⁴ tn Or “justification.”

¹⁵ tn Or “without cause,” “for no purpose.”