1 Kings 18:17

18:17 When Ahab saw Elijah, he ¹  said to him, “Is it really you, the one who brings disaster ²  on Israel?”

1 Kings 19:2

19:2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning, ³  “May the gods judge me severely ⁴  if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs!” ⁵ 

1 Kings 22:8

22:8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we can seek the Lord’s will. ⁶  But I despise ⁷  him because he does not prophesy prosperity for me, but disaster. His name is Micaiah son of Imlah. ⁸  Jehoshaphat said, “The king should not say such things.”

Jeremiah 37:15-16

37:15 The officials were very angry ⁹  at Jeremiah. They had him flogged and put in prison in the house of Jonathan, the royal secretary, which they had converted into a place for confining prisoners. ¹⁰ 

37:16 So ¹¹  Jeremiah was put in prison in a cell in the dungeon in Jonathan’s house. ¹²  He ¹³  was kept there for a long time.

Jeremiah 38:4

38:4 So these officials said to the king, “This man must be put to death. For he is demoralizing ¹⁴  the soldiers who are left in the city as well as all the other people there by these things he is saying. ¹⁵  This ¹⁶  man is not seeking to help these people but is trying to harm them.” ¹⁷ 

John 11:50

11:50 You do not realize ¹⁸  that it is more to your advantage to have one man ¹⁹  die for the people than for the whole nation to perish.” ²⁰ 

Acts 23:12-13

The Plot to Kill Paul

23:12 When morning came, ²¹  the Jews formed ²²  a conspiracy ²³  and bound themselves with an oath ²⁴  not to eat or drink anything ²⁵  until they had killed Paul. 23:13 There were more than forty of them who formed this conspiracy. ²⁶ 

[18:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Ahab.”

[18:17]  ² tn Or “trouble.”

[19:2]  ³ tn Heb “saying.”

[19:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add.”

[19:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “I do not make your life like the life of one of them.”

[22:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “to seek the Lord from him.”

[22:8]  ⁷ tn Or “hate.”

[22:8]  ⁸ tn The words “his name is” are supplied for stylistic reasons.

[37:15]  ⁹ sn The officials mentioned here are not the same as those mentioned in Jer 36:12, most of whom were favorably disposed toward Jeremiah, or at least regarded what he said with enough trepidation to try to protect Jeremiah and preserve the scroll containing his messages (36:16, 19, 24). All those officials had been taken into exile with Jeconiah in 597 b.c. (2 Kgs 24:14).

[37:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for they had made it into the house of confinement.” The causal particle does not fit the English sentence very well and “house of confinement” needs some explanation. Some translate this word “prison” but that creates redundancy with the earlier word translated “prison” (בֵּית הָאֵסוּר, bet ha’esur, “house of the band/binding”] which is more closely related to the concept of prison [cf. אָסִיר, ’asir, “prisoner”]). It is clear from the next verse that Jeremiah was confined in a cell in the dungeon of this place.

[37:16]  ¹¹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) here is probably temporal, introducing the protasis to the main clause in v. 17 (cf. BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.a). However, that would make the translation too long, so the present translation does what several modern English versions do here, though there are no parallels listed for this nuance in the lexicons.

[37:16]  ¹² tn Heb “Jeremiah came into the house of the pit [= “dungeon,” BDB 92 s.v. בּוֹר 4 and compare usage in Gen 40:15; 41:14] and into the cells [this word occurs only here; it is defined on the basis of the cognate languages (cf. BDB 333 s.v. חָנוּת)].” The sentence has been restructured and some words supplied in the translation to better relate it to the preceding context.

[37:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “Jeremiah.” But the proper name is somewhat redundant and unnecessary in a modern translation.

[38:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “weakening the hands of.” For this idiom see BDB 951 s.v. רָפָה Pi. and compare the usage in Isa 13:7; Ezek 21:7 (21:12 HT).

[38:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “by saying these things.”

[38:4]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) has not been rendered here because it is introducing a parallel causal clause to the preceding one. To render “For” might be misunderstood as a grounds for the preceding statement. To render “And” or “Moreover” sounds a little odd here. If it must be represented, “Moreover” is perhaps the best rendering.

[38:4]  ¹⁷ tn Or “is not looking out for these people’s best interests but is really trying to do them harm”; Heb “is not seeking the welfare [or “well-being”; Hebrew shalom] of this people but [their] harm [more literally, evil].”

[11:50]  ¹⁸ tn Or “you are not considering.”

[11:50]  ¹⁹ tn Although it is possible to argue that ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") should be translated “person” here since it is not necessarily masculinity that is in view in Caiaphas’ statement, “man” was retained in the translation because in 11:47 “this man” (οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος, outo" Jo anqrwpo") has as its referent a specific individual, Jesus, and it was felt this connection should be maintained.

[11:50]  ²⁰ sn In his own mind Caiaphas was no doubt giving voice to a common-sense statement of political expediency. Yet he was unconsciously echoing a saying of Jesus himself (cf. Mark 10:45). Caiaphas was right; the death of Jesus would save the nation from destruction. Yet Caiaphas could not suspect that Jesus would die, not in place of the political nation Israel, but on behalf of the true people of God; and he would save them, not from physical destruction, but from eternal destruction (cf. 3:16-17). The understanding of Caiaphas’ words in a sense that Caiaphas could not possibly have imagined at the time he uttered them serves as a clear example of the way in which the author understood that words and actions could be invested retrospectively with a meaning not consciously intended or understood by those present at the time.

[23:12]  ²¹ tn Grk “when it was day.”

[23:12]  ²² tn Grk “forming a conspiracy, bound.” The participle ποιήσαντες (poihsantes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:12]  ²³ tn L&N 30.72 has ‘some Jews formed a conspiracy’ Ac 23:12”; BDAG 979 s.v. συστροφή 1 has “Judeans came together in a mob 23:12. But in the last pass. the word may also mean – 2. the product of a clandestine gathering, plot, conspiracy” (see also Amos 7:10; Ps 63:3).

[23:12]  ²⁴ tn Or “bound themselves under a curse.” BDAG 63 s.v. ἀναθεματίζω 1 has “trans. put under a curse τινά someone…pleonastically ἀναθέματι ἀ. ἑαυτόν Ac 23:14…ἀ. ἑαυτόν vss. 12, 21, 13 v.l.” On such oaths see m. Shevi’it 3:1-5. The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[23:12]  ²⁵ tn The word “anything” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[23:13]  ²⁶ tn L&N 30.73 defines συνωμοσία (sunwmosia) as “a plan for taking secret action someone or some institution, with the implication of an oath binding the conspirators – ‘conspiracy, plot.’ …‘there were more than forty of them who formed this conspiracy’ Ac 23:13.”