1 Samuel 17:26

17:26 David asked the men who were standing near him, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and frees Israel from this humiliation? ¹  For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he defies the armies of the living God?”

1 Samuel 17:36

17:36 Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them. ²  For he has defied the armies of the living God!”

Genesis 17:7-11

17:7 I will confirm ³  my covenant as a perpetual ⁴  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁵  17:8 I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing ⁶  – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent ⁷  possession. I will be their God.”

17:9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep ⁸  the covenantal requirement ⁹  I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 17:10 This is my requirement that you and your descendants after you must keep: ¹⁰  Every male among you must be circumcised. ¹¹  17:11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskins. This will be a reminder ¹²  of the covenant between me and you.

Jude 1:18

1:18 For they said to you, “In the end time there will come ¹³  scoffers, propelled by their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁴ 

Jude 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ¹⁵ 

Jude 1:20

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 9:23

9:23 ¹⁷ The Lord says,

“Wise people should not boast that they are wise.

Powerful people should not boast that they are powerful. ¹⁸ 

Rich people should not boast that they are rich. ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 9:26

9:26 That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. ²⁰  I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord’s sight. ²¹  Moreover, none of the people of Israel ²²  are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.” ²³ 

Ephesians 2:11-12

New Life Corporately

2:11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body ²⁴  by human hands – 2:12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, ²⁵  alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, ²⁶  having no hope and without God in the world.

Philippians 3:3

3:3 For we are the circumcision, ²⁷  the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, ²⁸  exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials ²⁹ 

[17:26]  ¹ tn Heb “and turns aside humiliation from upon Israel.”

[17:36]  ² tc The LXX includes here the following words not found in the MT: “Should I not go and smite him, and remove today reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised one?”

[17:7]  ³ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ⁴ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[17:8]  ⁶ tn The verbal root is גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to reside temporarily,” i.e., as a resident alien). It is the land in which Abram resides, but does not yet possess as his very own.

[17:8]  ⁷ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:9]  ⁸ tn The imperfect tense could be translated “you shall keep” as a binding command; but the obligatory nuance (“must”) captures the binding sense better.

[17:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “my covenant.” The Hebrew word בְּרִית (bÿrit) can refer to (1) the agreement itself between two parties (see v. 7), (2) the promise made by one party to another (see vv. 2-3, 7), (3) an obligation placed by one party on another, or (4) a reminder of the agreement. In vv. 9-10 the word refers to a covenantal obligation which God gives to Abraham and his descendants.

[17:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “This is my covenant that you must keep between me and you and your descendants after you.”

[17:10]  ¹¹ sn For a discussion of male circumcision as the sign of the covenant in this passage see M. V. Fox, “The Sign of the Covenant: Circumcision in the Light of the Priestly ‘ot Etiologies,” RB 81 (1974): 557-96.

[17:11]  ¹² tn Or “sign.”

[1:18]  ¹³ tn Grk “be.”

[1:18]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “going according to their own desires of ungodliness.”

[1:2]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[1:20]  ¹⁶ tn The participles in v. 20 have been variously interpreted. Some treat them imperativally or as attendant circumstance to the imperative in v. 21 (“maintain”): “build yourselves up…pray.” But they do not follow the normal contours of either the imperatival or attendant circumstance participles, rendering this unlikely. A better option is to treat them as the means by which the readers are to maintain themselves in the love of God. This both makes eminently good sense and fits the structural patterns of instrumental participles elsewhere.

[9:23]  ¹⁷ sn It is not always clear why verses were placed in their present position in the editorial process of collecting Jeremiah’s sermons and the words the Lord spoke to him (see Jer 36:4, 32 for reference to two of these collections). Here it is probable that vv. 23-26 were added as a further answer to the question raised in v. 12.

[9:23]  ¹⁸ tn Or “Strong people should not brag that they are strong.”

[9:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “…in their wisdom…in their power…in their riches.”

[9:26]  ²⁰ tn Heb “all those who are cut off on the side of the head who live in the desert.” KJV and some other English versions (e.g., NIV “who live in the desert in distant places”; NLT “who live in distant places”) have followed the interpretation that this is a biform of an expression meaning “end or remote parts of the [far] corners [of the earth].” This interpretation is generally abandoned by the more recent commentaries and lexicons (see, e.g. BDB 802 s.v. פֵּאָה 1 and HALOT 858 s.v. פֵּאָה 1.β). It occurs also in 25:33; 49:32.

[9:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “For all of these nations are uncircumcised.” The words “I will do so” are supplied in the translation to indicate the connection with the preceding statement.

[9:26]  ²² tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[9:26]  ²³ tn Heb “And all the house of Israel is uncircumcised of heart.”

[2:11]  ²⁴ tn Grk “in the flesh.”

[2:12]  ²⁵ tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”

[2:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “covenants of the promise.”

[3:3]  ²⁷ tn There is a significant wordplay here in the Greek text. In v. 2 a rare, strong word is used to describe those who were pro-circumcision (κατατομή, katatomh, “mutilation”; see BDAG 528 s.v.), while in v. 3 the normal word for circumcision is used (περιτομή, peritomh; see BDAG 807 s.v.). Both have τομή (the feminine form of the adjective τομός [tomo"], meaning “cutting, sharp”) as their root; the direction of the action of the former is down or off (from κατά, kata), hence the implication of mutilation or emasculation, while the direction of the action of the latter is around (from περί, peri). The similarity in sound yet wide divergence of meaning between the two words highlights in no uncertain terms the differences between Paul and his opponents.

[3:3]  ²⁸ tc The verb λατρεύω (latreuw; here the participial form, λατρεύοντες [latreuonte"]) either takes a dative direct object or no object at all, bearing virtually a technical nuance of “worshiping God” (see BDAG 587 s.v.). In this text, πνεύματι (pneumati) takes an instrumental force (“by the Spirit”) rather than functioning as object of λατρεύοντες. However, the word after πνεύματι is in question, no doubt because of the collocation with λατρεύοντες. Most witnesses, including some of the earliest and best representatives of the Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine texts (א* A B C D² F G 0278^vid 33 1739 1881 Ï co Ambr), read θεοῦ (qeou; thus, “worship by the Spirit of God”). But several other important witnesses (א² D* P Ψ 075 365 1175 lat sy Chr) have the dative θεῷ (qew) here (“worship God by the Spirit”). Ì⁴⁶ is virtually alone in its omission of the divine name, probably due to an unintentional oversight. The dative θεῷ was most likely a scribal emendation intended to give the participle its proper object, and thus avoid confusion about the force of πνεύματι. Although the Church came to embrace the full deity of the Spirit, the NT does not seem to speak of worshiping the Spirit explicitly. The reading θεῷ thus appears to be a clarifying reading. On external and internal grounds, then, θεοῦ is the preferred reading.

[3:3]  ²⁹ tn Grk “have no confidence in the flesh.”