1 Samuel 4:3-6

4:3 When the army ¹  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ²  the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us ³  from the hand of our enemies.

4:4 So the army ⁴  sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 4:5 When the ark of the covenant of the Lord arrived at the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly ⁵  that the ground shook.

4:6 When the Philistines heard the sound of the shout, they said, “What is this loud shout in the camp of the Hebrews?” Then they realized that the ark of the Lord had arrived at the camp.

Isaiah 48:2

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 7:4

7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ⁸  “We are safe! ⁹  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 7:8-12

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ¹¹  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ¹²  that will not deliver you. ¹³  7:9 You steal. ¹⁴  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ¹⁵  other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ¹⁶  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ¹⁷  7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ¹⁸  is to be a hideout for robbers? ¹⁹  You had better take note! ²⁰  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord. 7:12 So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped ²¹  in the early days. See what I did to it ²²  because of the wicked things my people Israel did.

Matthew 3:9

3:9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Romans 2:17-29

The Condemnation of the Jew

2:17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law ²³  and boast of your relationship to God ²⁴  2:18 and know his will ²⁵  and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, ²⁶  2:19 and if you are convinced ²⁷  that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth – 2:21 therefore ²⁸  you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor ²⁹  idols, do you rob temples? 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” ³⁰ 

2:25 For circumcision ³¹  has its value if you practice the law, but ³²  if you break the law, ³³  your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys ³⁴  the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 2:27 And will not the physically uncircumcised man ³⁵  who keeps the law judge you who, despite ³⁶  the written code ³⁷  and circumcision, transgress the law? 2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 2:29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart ³⁸  by the Spirit ³⁹  and not by the written code. ⁴⁰  This person’s ⁴¹  praise is not from people but from God.

[4:3]  ¹ tn Or “people.”

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “before.”

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “and it will come in our midst and it will save.” After the cohortative (see “let’s take”), the prefixed verbal forms with the prefixed conjunction indicate purpose or result. The translation understands the ark to be the subject of the third masculine singular verbs, although it is possible to understand the Lord as the subject. In the latter case, one should translate, “when he is with us, he will save us.”

[4:4]  ⁴ tn Or “people.”

[4:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “shouted [with] a great shout.”

[48:2]  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.

[48:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

[7:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

[7:4]  ⁹ tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ¹⁰ 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).

[7:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ¹² tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[7:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:10]  ¹⁶ 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.

[7:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”

[7:11]  ¹⁸ 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.

[7:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

[7:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “where I caused my name to dwell.” The translation does not adequately represent the theology of the Lord’s deliberate identification with a place where he chose to manifest his presence and desired to be worshiped (cf. Exod 20:25; Deut 16:2, 6, 11).

[7:12]  ²² sn The place in Shiloh…see what I did to it. This refers to the destruction of Shiloh by the Philistines circa 1050 b.c. (cf. Ps 78:60). The destruction of Shiloh is pertinent to the argument. The presence of the tabernacle and ark of the covenant did not prevent Shiloh from being destroyed when Israel sinned. The people of Israel used the ark as a magic charm but it did not prevent them from being defeated or the ark being captured (1 Sam 4:3, 11, 21-22).

[2:17]  ²³ sn The law refers to the Mosaic law, described mainly in the OT books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

[2:17]  ²⁴ tn Grk “boast in God.” This may be an allusion to Jer 9:24.

[2:18]  ²⁵ tn Grk “the will.”

[2:18]  ²⁶ tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”

[2:19]  ²⁷ tn This verb is parallel to the verbs in vv. 17-18a, so it shares the conditional meaning even though the word “if” is not repeated.

[2:21]  ²⁸ tn The structure of vv. 21-24 is difficult. Some take these verses as the apodosis of the conditional clauses (protases) in vv. 17-20; others see vv. 17-20 as an instance of anacoluthon (a broken off or incomplete construction).

[2:22]  ²⁹ tn Or “detest.”

[2:24]  ³⁰ sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.

[2:25]  ³¹ sn Circumcision refers to male circumcision as prescribed in the OT, which was given as a covenant to Abraham in Gen 17:10-14. Its importance for Judaism can hardly be overstated: According to J. D. G. Dunn (Romans [WBC], 1:120) it was the “single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” J. Marcus has suggested that the terms used for circumcision (περιτομή, peritomh) and uncircumcision (ἀκροβυστία, akrobustia) were probably derogatory slogans used by Jews and Gentiles to describe their opponents (“The Circumcision and the Uncircumcision in Rome,” NTS 35 [1989]: 77-80).

[2:25]  ³² tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:25]  ³³ tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”

[2:26]  ³⁴ tn The Greek word φυλάσσω (fulassw, traditionally translated “keep”) in this context connotes preservation of and devotion to an object as well as obedience.

[2:27]  ³⁵ tn Grk “the uncircumcision by nature.” The word “man” is supplied here to make clear that male circumcision (or uncircumcision) is in view.

[2:27]  ³⁶ tn Grk “through,” but here the preposition seems to mean “(along) with,” “though provided with,” as BDAG 224 s.v. διά A.3.c indicates.

[2:27]  ³⁷ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ³⁸ sn On circumcision is of the heart see Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Ezek 44:9.

[2:29]  ³⁹ tn Some have taken the phrase ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati, “by/in [the] S/spirit”) not as a reference to the Holy Spirit, but referring to circumcision as “spiritual and not literal” (RSV).

[2:29]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “whose.” The relative pronoun has been replaced by the phrase “this person’s” and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation.