Numbers 16:3

16:3 And they assembled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, ¹  seeing that the whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the community of the Lord?”

Isaiah 48:1-2

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ² 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ³ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁴  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁵ 

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ⁶ 

they trust in ⁷  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Jeremiah 7:3-4

7:3 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁸  says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. ⁹  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land. ¹⁰  7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ¹¹  “We are safe! ¹²  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ¹³ 

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ¹⁴  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ¹⁵ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ¹⁶  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ¹⁷ 

Disaster will not overtake ¹⁸  us!”

¹ tn The meaning of רַב־לָכֶם (rab-lakhem) is something like “you have assumed far too much authority.” It simply means “much to you,” perhaps “you have gone to far,” or “you are overreaching yourselves” (M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 123). He is objecting to the exclusiveness of the system that Moses has been introducing.

² tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

⁴ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

⁵ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

⁶ tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

⁷ tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

⁸ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God Israel.”

⁹ tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” J. Bright’s translation (“Reform the whole pattern of your conduct”; Jeremiah [AB], 52) is excellent.

¹⁰ tn Heb “place” but this might be misunderstood to refer to the temple.

¹¹ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

¹² tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹³ tn Heb “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these (i.e., these buildings).” Elsewhere triple repetition seems to mark a kind of emphasis (cf. Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29; Ezek 21:27 [32 HT]). The triple repetition that follows seems to be Jeremiah’s way of mocking the (false) sense of security that people had in the invincibility of Jerusalem because God dwelt in the temple. They appeared to be treating the temple as some kind of magical charm. A similar feeling had grown up around the ark in the time of the judges (cf. 1 Sam 3:3) and the temple and city of Jerusalem in Micah’s day (cf. Mic 3:11). It is reflected also in some of the Psalms (cf., e.g., Ps 46, especially v. 5).

¹⁴ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

¹⁵ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

¹⁸ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”