Acts 14:4

14:4 But the population ¹  of the city was divided; some ²  sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.

Psalms 55:9

55:9 Confuse them, ³  O Lord!

Frustrate their plans! ⁴ 

For I see violence and conflict in the city.

Matthew 10:34

Not Peace, but a Sword

10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring ⁵  peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

John 7:40-43

Differing Opinions About Jesus

7:40 When they heard these words, some of the crowd ⁶  began to say, “This really ⁷  is the Prophet!” ⁸  7:41 Others said, “This is the Christ!” ⁹  But still others said, “No, ¹⁰  for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ¹¹  7:42 Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant ¹²  of David ¹³  and comes from Bethlehem, ¹⁴  the village where David lived?” ¹⁵  7:43 So there was a division in the crowd ¹⁶  because of Jesus. ¹⁷ 

[14:4]  ¹ tn BDAG 825 s.v. πλῆθος 2.b.γ has this translation for πλῆθος (plhqo").

[14:4]  ² tn These clauses are a good example of the contrastive μὲν…δέ (men…de) construction: Some “on the one hand” sided with the Jews, but some “on the other hand” sided with the apostles.

[55:9]  ³ tn Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallow” in the sense of “devour” or “destroy” (cf. KJV), but this may be a homonym meaning “confuse” (see BDB 118 s.v. בַּלַּע; HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע). “Their tongue” is the understood object of the verb (see the next line).

[55:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “split their tongue,” which apparently means “confuse their speech,” or, more paraphrastically, “frustrate the plans they devise with their tongues.”

[10:34]  ⁵ tn Grk “cast.” For βάλλω (ballw) in the sense of causing a state or condition, see L&N 13.14.

[7:40]  ⁶ tn Or “The common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).

[7:40]  ⁷ tn Or “truly.”

[7:40]  ⁸ sn The Prophet is a reference to the “prophet like Moses” of Deut 18:15, by this time an eschatological figure in popular belief.

[7:41]  ⁹ tn Or “the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[7:41]  ¹⁰ tn An initial negative reply (“No”) is suggested by the causal or explanatory γάρ (gar) which begins the clause.

[7:41]  ¹¹ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “does he?”).

[7:42]  ¹² tn Grk “is from the seed” (an idiom for human descent).

[7:42]  ¹³ sn An allusion to Ps 89:4.

[7:42]  ¹⁴ sn An allusion to Mic 5:2.

[7:42]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “the village where David was.”

[7:43]  ¹⁶ tn Or “among the common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities like the chief priests and Pharisees).

[7:43]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.