Discovery Box1 Samuel 16:14
Context16:14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had turned away from Saul, and an evil spirit 1 from the Lord tormented him.
Psalms 60:3
Context60:3 You have made your people experience hard times; 2
you have made us drink intoxicating wine. 3
Isaiah 6:9-10
Context6:9 He said, “Go and tell these people:
‘Listen continually, but don’t understand!
Look continually, but don’t perceive!’
6:10 Make the hearts of these people calloused;
make their ears deaf and their eyes blind!
Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.” 4
Isaiah 19:11-17
Context19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; 5
Pharaoh’s wise advisers give stupid advice.
How dare you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the sages,
one well-versed in the writings of the ancient kings?” 6
19:12 But where, oh where, are your wise men? 7
Let them tell you, let them find out
what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.
19:13 The officials of Zoan are fools,
the officials of Memphis 8 are misled;
the rulers 9 of her tribes lead Egypt astray.
19:14 The Lord has made them undiscerning; 10
they lead Egypt astray in all she does,
so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. 11
19:15 Egypt will not be able to do a thing,
head or tail, shoots and stalk. 12
19:16 At that time 13 the Egyptians 14 will be like women. 15 They will tremble and fear because the Lord who commands armies brandishes his fist against them. 16 19:17 The land of Judah will humiliate Egypt. Everyone who hears about Judah will be afraid because of what the Lord who commands armies is planning to do to them. 17
Isaiah 43:19
Context43:19 “Look, I am about to do something new.
Now it begins to happen! 18 Do you not recognize 19 it?
Yes, I will make a road in the desert
and paths 20 in the wilderness.
Jeremiah 4:9
Context4:9 “When this happens,” 21 says the Lord,
“the king and his officials will lose their courage.
The priests will be struck with horror,
and the prophets will be speechless in astonishment.”
Ezekiel 4:17
Context4:17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity. 22
Luke 21:25-26
Context21:25 “And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, 23 and on the earth nations will be in distress, 24 anxious 25 over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves. 21:26 People will be fainting from fear 26 and from the expectation of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27
Acts 13:41
Context13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! 28
For I am doing a work in your days,
a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” 29
Acts 13:2
Context13:2 While they were serving 30 the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart 31 for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Acts 2:9-11
Context2:9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia, 32 2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, 33 and visitors from Rome, 34 2:11 both Jews and proselytes, 35 Cretans and Arabs – we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done!” 36
[16:14] 1 tn Or “an injurious spirit”; cf. NLT “a tormenting spirit.” The phrase need not refer to an evil, demonic spirit. The Hebrew word translated “evil” may refer to the character of the spirit or to its effect upon Saul. If the latter, another translation option might be “a mischief-making spirit.”
[60:3] 2 tn Heb “you have caused your people to see [what is] hard.”
[60:3] 3 tn Heb “wine of staggering,” that is, intoxicating wine that makes one stagger in drunkenness. Intoxicating wine is here an image of divine judgment that makes its victims stagger like drunkards. See Isa 51:17-23.
[6:10] 4 sn Do we take this commission at face value? Does the Lord really want to prevent his people from understanding, repenting, and being healed? Verse 9, which ostensibly records the content of Isaiah’s message, is clearly ironic. As far as we know, Isaiah did not literally proclaim these exact words. The Hebrew imperatival forms are employed rhetorically and anticipate the response Isaiah will receive. When all is said and done, Isaiah might as well preface and conclude every message with these ironic words, which, though imperatival in form, might be paraphrased as follows: “You continually hear, but don’t understand; you continually see, but don’t perceive.” Isaiah might as well command them to be spiritually insensitive, because, as the preceding and following chapters make clear, the people are bent on that anyway. (This ironic command is comparable to saying to a particularly recalcitrant individual, “Go ahead, be stubborn!”) Verse 10b is also clearly sarcastic. On the surface it seems to indicate Isaiah’s hardening ministry will prevent genuine repentance. But, as the surrounding chapters clearly reveal, the people were hardly ready or willing to repent. Therefore, Isaiah’s preaching was not needed to prevent repentance! Verse 10b reflects the people’s attitude and might be paraphrased accordingly: “Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their mind, repent, and be restored, and they certainly wouldn’t want that, would they?” Of course, this sarcastic statement may also reveal that the Lord himself is now bent on judgment, not reconciliation. Just as Pharaoh’s rejection of Yahweh’s ultimatum ignited judgment and foreclosed, at least temporarily, any opportunity for repentance, so the Lord may have come to the point where he has decreed to bring judgment before opening the door for repentance once more. The sarcastic statement in verse 10b would be an emphatic way of making this clear. (Perhaps we could expand our paraphrase: “Otherwise they might…repent, and be restored, and they certainly wouldn’t want that, would they? Besides, it’s too late for that!”) Within this sarcastic framework, verse 10a must also be seen as ironic. As in verse 9 the imperatival forms should be taken as rhetorical and as anticipating the people’s response. One might paraphrase: “Your preaching will desensitize the minds of these people, make their hearing dull, and blind their eyes.” From the outset the Lord might as well command Isaiah to harden the people, because his preaching will end up having that effect. Despite the use of irony, we should still view this as a genuine, albeit indirect, act of divine hardening. After all, God did not have to send Isaiah. By sending him, he drives the sinful people further from him, for Isaiah’s preaching, which focuses on the Lord’s covenantal demands and impending judgment upon covenantal rebellion, forces the people to confront their sin and then continues to desensitize them as they respond negatively to the message. As in the case of Pharaoh, Yahweh’s hardening is not arbitrarily imposed on a righteous or even morally neutral object. Rather his hardening is an element of his righteous judgment on recalcitrant sinners. Ironically, Israel’s rejection of prophetic preaching in turn expedites disciplinary punishment, and brings the battered people to a point where they might be ready for reconciliation. The prophesied judgment (cf. 6:11-13) was fulfilled by 701
[19:11] 5 tn Or “certainly the officials of Zoan are fools.” אַךְ (’akh) can carry the sense, “only, nothing but,” or “certainly, surely.”
[19:11] 6 tn Heb “A son of wise men am I, a son of ancient kings.” The term בֶּן (ben, “son of”) could refer to literal descent, but many understand the word, at least in the first line, in its idiomatic sense of “member [of a guild].” See HALOT 138 s.v. בֶּן and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:371. If this is the case, then one can take the word in a figurative sense in the second line as well, the “son of ancient kings” being one devoted to their memory as preserved in their literature.
[19:12] 7 tn Heb “Where are they? Where are your wise men?” The juxtaposition of the interrogative pronouns is emphatic. See HALOT 38 s.v. אֶי.
[19:13] 8 tn Heb “Noph” (so KJV); most recent English versions substitute the more familiar “Memphis.”
[19:13] 9 tn Heb “the cornerstone.” The singular form should be emended to a plural.
[19:14] 10 tn Heb “the Lord has mixed into her midst a spirit of blindness.”
[19:14] 11 tn Heb “like the going astray of a drunkard in his vomit.”
[19:15] 12 tn Heb “And there will not be for Egypt a deed, which head and tail, shoot and stalk can do.” In 9:14-15 the phrase “head or tail” refers to leaders and prophets, respectively. This interpretation makes good sense in this context, where both leaders and advisers (probably including prophets and diviners) are mentioned (vv. 11-14). Here, as in 9:14, “shoots and stalk” picture a reed, which symbolizes the leadership of the nation in its entirety.
[19:16] 13 tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV), likewise at the beginning of vv. 18 and 19.
[19:16] 14 tn Heb “Egypt,” which stands by metonymy for the country’s inhabitants.
[19:16] 15 sn As the rest of the verse indicates, the point of the simile is that the Egyptians will be relatively weak physically and will wilt in fear before the Lord’s onslaught.
[19:16] 16 tn Heb “and he will tremble and be afraid because of the brandishing of the hand of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts], which he brandishes against him.” Since according to the imagery here the Lord’s “hand” is raised as a weapon against the Egyptians, the term “fist” has been used in the translation.
[19:17] 17 tn Heb “and the land of Judah will become [a source of] shame to Egypt, everyone to whom one mentions it [i.e., the land of Judah] will fear because of the plan of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] which he is planning against him.”
[43:19] 18 tn Heb “sprouts up”; NASB “will spring forth.”
[43:19] 19 tn Or “know” (KJV, ASV); NASB “be aware of”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “perceive.”
[43:19] 20 tn The Hebrew texts has “streams,” probably under the influence of v. 20. The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has נתיבות (“paths”).
[4:9] 21 tn Heb “In that day.”
[4:17] 22 tn Or “in their punishment.” Ezek 4:16-17 alludes to Lev 26:26, 39. The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here, 3:18, 19; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”
[21:25] 23 sn Signs in the sun and moon and stars are cosmic signs that turn our attention to the end and the Son of Man’s return for the righteous. OT imagery is present: See Isa 13:9-10; 24:18-20; 34:4; Ezek 32:7-8; Joel 2:1, 30-31; 3:15.
[21:25] 24 tn Grk “distress of nations.”
[21:25] 25 tn Or “in consternation” (L&N 32.9).
[21:26] 26 tn According to L&N 23.184 this could be mainly a psychological experience rather than actual loss of consciousness. It could also refer to complete discouragement because of fear, leading people to give up hope (L&N 25.293).
[21:26] 27 sn An allusion to Isa 34:4. The heavens were seen as the abode of heavenly forces, so their shaking indicates distress in the spiritual realm. Although some take the powers as a reference to bodies in the heavens (like stars and planets, “the heavenly bodies,” NIV) this is not as likely.
[13:41] 29 sn A quotation from Hab 1:5. The irony in the phrase even if someone tells you, of course, is that Paul has now told them. So the call in the warning is to believe or else face the peril of being scoffers whom God will judge. The parallel from Habakkuk is that the nation failed to see how Babylon’s rising to power meant perilous judgment for Israel.
[13:2] 30 tn This term is frequently used in the LXX of the service performed by priests and Levites in the tabernacle (Exod 28:35, 43; 29:30; 30:20; 35:19; 39:26; Num 1:50; 3:6, 31) and the temple (2 Chr 31:2; 35:3; Joel 1:9, 13; 2:17, and many more examples). According to BDAG 591 s.v. λειτουργέω 1.b it is used “of other expression of religious devotion.” Since the previous verse described the prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch, it is probable that the term here describes two of them (Barnabas and Saul) as they were serving in that capacity. Since they were not in Jerusalem where the temple was located, general religious service is referred to here.
[2:9] 32 tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.
[2:10] 33 tn According to BDAG 595 s.v. Λιβύη, the western part of Libya, Libya Cyrenaica, is referred to here (see also Josephus, Ant. 16.6.1 [16.160] for a similar phrase).
[2:10] 34 map For location see JP4 A1.
[2:11] 35 sn Proselytes refers to Gentile (i.e., non-Jewish) converts to Judaism.
[2:11] 36 tn Or “God’s mighty works.” Here the genitive τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou) has been translated as a subjective genitive.
