50:17 For you hate instruction
and reject my words. 1
50:18 When you see a thief, you join him; 2
you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives. 3
1:23 Your officials are rebels, 4
they associate with 5 thieves.
All of them love bribery,
and look for 6 payoffs. 7
They do not take up the cause of the orphan, 8
or defend the rights of the widow. 9
22:13 “‘See, I strike my hands together 13 at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed 14 they have done among you.
4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, 22 urge you to live 23 worthily of the calling with which you have been called, 24
4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, 25 urge you to live 26 worthily of the calling with which you have been called, 27
1 tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”
2 tn Heb “you run with him.”
3 tn Heb “and with adulterers [is] your portion.”
4 tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”
5 tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”
6 tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”
7 sn Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts (שַׁלְמוֹנִים, shalmonim; a hapax legomena here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness (שָׁלוֹם, shalom), they sought after payoffs (שַׁלְמוֹנִים).
8 sn See the note at v. 17.
9 sn The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.
10 tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.
11 tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”
12 tn Heb “Behold!”
13 sn This gesture apparently expresses mourning and/or anger (see 6:11; 21:14, 17).
14 tn Heb “the blood which was in you.”
15 tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”
16 tn Grk “one fig tree.”
17 tc The most important
18 tn Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.”
19 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Judas) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 tn Grk “a thief, and having the money box.” Dividing the single Greek sentence improves the English style.
21 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. This is one of the indications in the gospels that Judas was of bad character before the betrayal of Jesus. John states that he was a thief and had responsibility for the finances of the group. More than being simply a derogatory note about Judas’ character, the inclusion of the note at this particular point in the narrative may be intended to link the frustrated greed of Judas here with his subsequent decision to betray Jesus for money. The parallel accounts in Matthew and Mark seem to indicate that after this incident Judas went away immediately and made his deal with the Jewish authorities to deliver up Jesus. Losing out on one source of sordid gain, he immediately went out and set up another.
22 tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”
23 tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.
24 sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.
25 tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”
26 tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.
27 sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.
28 tn The meaning of the participle ἀληθεύοντες (alhqeuonte"; from the verb ἀληθεύω [alhqeuw]) is debated. In classical times the verb could mean “to speak the truth,” or “to be true, to prove true.” In the LXX it appears five times (Gen 20:16; 42:16; Prov 21:3; Isa 44:26; Sir 34:4) and translates four different Hebrew words; there it is an ethical term used of proving or being true, not with the idea of speaking the truth. In the NT the only other place the verb appears is in Gal 4:16 where it means “to speak the truth.” However, in Ephesians the concept of “being truthful” is the best sense of the word. In contrast to the preceding verse, where there are three prepositional phrases to denote falsehood and deceit, the present word speaks of being real or truthful in both conduct and speech. Their deceit was not only in their words but also in their conduct. In other words, the believers’ conduct should be transparent, revealing the real state of affairs, as opposed to hiding or suppressing the truth through cunning and deceit. See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 564-65, and R. Bultmann, TDNT 1:251.