1 Samuel 6:5

6:5 You should make images of the sores and images of the mice ¹  that are destroying the land. You should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his grip on you, your gods, and your land. ² 

1 Samuel 6:17-18

6:17 These are the gold sores that the Philistines brought as a guilt offering to the Lord – one for each of the following cities: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. 6:18 The gold mice corresponded in number to all the Philistine cities of the five leaders, from the fortified cities to hamlet villages, to greater Abel, ³  where they positioned the ark of the Lord until this very day in the field of Joshua who was from Beth Shemesh.

1 Samuel 5:6

5:6 The Lord attacked ⁴  the residents of Ashdod severely, bringing devastation on them. He struck the people of ⁵  both Ashdod and the surrounding area with sores. ⁶ 

1 Samuel 5:9

5:9 But after it had been moved the Lord attacked ⁷  that city as well, causing a great deal of panic. He struck all the people of that city ⁸  with sores. ⁹ 

Exodus 12:35

12:35 Now the Israelites had done ¹⁰  as Moses told them – they had requested from the Egyptians ¹¹  silver and gold items and clothing.

Joshua 13:3

13:3 from the Shihor River ¹²  east of ¹³  Egypt northward to the territory of Ekron (it is regarded as Canaanite territory), ¹⁴  including the area belonging to the five Philistine lords who ruled in Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, as well as Avvite land ¹⁵ 

Jude 1:3

Condemnation of the False Teachers

1:3 Dear friends, although I have been eager to write to you ¹⁶  about our common salvation, I now feel compelled ¹⁷  instead to write to encourage ¹⁸  you to contend earnestly ¹⁹  for the faith ²⁰  that was once for all ²¹  entrusted to the saints. ²² 

[6:5]  ¹ tn Heb “your mice.” A Qumran ms has simply “the mice.”

[6:5]  ² tn Heb “Perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.”

[6:18]  ³ tc A few Hebrew mss and the LXX read “villages; the large rock…[is witness] until this very day.”

[5:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “the hand of the Lord was heavy upon.”

[5:6]  ⁵ tn The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:6]  ⁶ tc The LXX and Vulgate add the following: “And mice multiplied in their land, and the terror of death was throughout the entire city.”

[5:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “the hand of the Lord was against the city.”

[5:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he struck the men of the city from small and to great.”

[5:9]  ⁹ tn See the note on this term in v. 6. Cf. KJV “and they had emerods in their secret parts.”

[12:35]  ¹⁰ tn The verbs “had done” and then “had asked” were accomplished prior to the present narrative (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 99). The verse begins with disjunctive word order to introduce the reminder of earlier background information.

[12:35]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from Egypt.” Here the Hebrew text uses the name of the country to represent the inhabitants (a figure known as metonymy).

[13:3]  ¹² tn Heb “the Shihor”; the word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied to clarify the meaning.

[13:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “in front of.”

[13:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it is reckoned to the Canaanites.”

[13:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the five lords of the Philistines, the Gazaite, the Ashdodite, the Ashkelonite, the Gathite, and the Ekronite, and the Avvites.”

[1:3]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “while being quite diligent to write to you,” or “while making all haste to write to you.” Two issues are at stake: (1) whether σπουδή (spoudh) here means diligence, eagerness, or haste; (2) whether ποιούμενος γράφειν (poioumeno" grafein) is to be taken conatively (“I was about to write”) or progressively (“I was writing”). Without knowing more of the background, it is difficult to tell which option is to be preferred.

[1:3]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “I had the necessity.” The term ἀνάγκη (anankh, “necessity”) often connotes urgency or distress. In this context, Jude is indicating that the more comprehensive treatment about the faith shared between himself and his readers was not nearly as urgent as the letter he found it now necessary to write.

[1:3]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “encouraging.” Παρακαλῶν (parakalwn) is most likely a telic participle. In keeping with other participles of purpose, it is present tense and occurs after the main verb.

[1:3]  ¹⁹ tn the verb ἐπαγωνίζομαι (epagwnizomai) is an intensive form of ἀγωνίζομαι (agwnizomai). As such, the notion of struggling, fighting, contending, etc. is heightened.

[1:3]  ²⁰ tn Τῇ πίστει (th pistei) here is taken as a dative of advantage (“on behalf of the faith”). Though rare (see BDAG 820 s.v. 3), it is not unexampled and must have this meaning here.

[1:3]  ²¹ sn The adverb once for all (ἅπαξ, Japax) seems to indicate that the doctrinal convictions of the early church had been substantially codified. That is to say, Jude could appeal to written documents of the Christian faith in his arguments with the false teachers. Most likely, these documents were the letters of Paul and perhaps one or more gospels. First and Second Peter may also have been among the documents Jude has in mind (see also the note on the phrase entrusted to the saints in this verse).

[1:3]  ²² sn I now feel compelled instead…saints. Apparently news of some crisis has reached Jude, prompting him to write a different letter than what he had originally planned. A plausible scenario (assuming authenticity of 2 Peter or at least that there are authentic Petrine snippets in it) is that after Peter’s death, Jude intended to write to the same Gentile readers that Peter had written to (essentially, Paul’s churches). Jude starts by affirming that the gospel the Gentiles had received from Paul was the same as the one the Jewish Christians had received from the other apostles (our common salvation). But in the midst of writing this letter, Jude felt that the present crisis deserved another, shorter piece. The crisis, as the letter reveals, is that the false teachers whom Peter prophesied have now infiltrated the church. The letter of Jude is thus an ad hoc letter, intended to confirm the truth of Peter’s letter and encourage the saints to ground their faith in the written documents of the nascent church, rather than listen to the twisted gospel of the false teachers. In large measure, the letter of Jude illustrates the necessity of clinging to the authority of scripture as opposed to those who claim to be prophets.