Acts 7:51-52

7:51 “You stubborn ¹  people, with uncircumcised ²  hearts and ears! ³  You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors ⁴  did! 7:52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors ⁵  not persecute? ⁶  They ⁷  killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, ⁸  whose betrayers and murderers you have now become! ⁹ 

Nehemiah 9:16

9:16 “But they – our ancestors ¹⁰  – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled ¹¹  and did not obey your commandments.

Psalms 106:16

106:16 In the camp they resented ¹²  Moses,

and Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest. ¹³ 

Psalms 106:32-33

106:32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,

and Moses suffered ¹⁴  because of them,

106:33 for they aroused ¹⁵  his temper, ¹⁶ 

and he spoke rashly. ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 20:6-14

20:6 On that day I swore ¹⁸  to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land which I had picked out ¹⁹  for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, ²⁰  the most beautiful of all lands. 20:7 I said to them, “Each of you must get rid of the detestable idols you keep before you, ²¹  and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” 20:8 But they rebelled against me, and refused to listen to me; no one got rid of their detestable idols, ²²  nor did they abandon the idols of Egypt. Then I decided to pour out ²³  my rage on them and fully vent my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 20:9 I acted for the sake of my reputation, ²⁴  so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived, ²⁵  before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ 

20:10 “‘So I brought them out of the land of Egypt and led them to the wilderness. 20:11 I gave them my statutes ²⁷  and revealed my regulations to them. The one ²⁸  who carries ²⁹  them out will live by them! ³⁰  20:12 I also gave them my Sabbaths ³¹  as a reminder of our relationship, ³²  so that they would know that I, the Lord, sanctify them. ³³  20:13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not follow my statutes and they rejected my regulations (the one who obeys them will live by them), and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I decided to pour out ³⁴  my rage on them in the wilderness and destroy them. ³⁵  20:14 I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

[7:51]  ¹ sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.

[7:51]  ² tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmhtoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.

[7:51]  ³ tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)

[7:51]  ⁴ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:52]  ⁵ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:52]  ⁶ sn Which…persecute. The rhetorical question suggests they persecuted them all.

[7:52]  ⁷ tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:52]  ⁸ sn The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ.

[7:52]  ⁹ sn Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. The harsh critique has OT precedent (1 Kgs 19:10-14; Neh 9:26; 2 Chr 36:16).

[9:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and our fathers.” The vav is explicative.

[9:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck” (so also in the following verse).

[106:16]  ¹² tn Or “envied.”

[106:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “the holy one of the Lord.”

[106:32]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “there was harm to Moses.”

[106:33]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text vocalizes the form as הִמְרוּ (himru), a Hiphil from מָרָה (marah, “to behave rebelliously”), but the verb fits better with the object (“his spirit”) if it is revocalized as הֵמֵרוּ (hemeru), a Hiphil from מָרַר (marar, “to be bitter”). The Israelites “embittered” Moses’ “spirit” in the sense that they aroused his temper with their complaints.

[106:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his spirit.”

[106:33]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds “with his lips,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[20:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand to them.”

[20:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “searched out.” The Hebrew word is used to describe the activity of the spies in “spying out” the land of Canaan (Num 13-14); cf. KJV “I had espied for them.”

[20:6]  ²⁰ sn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a figure of speech describing the land’s abundant fertility, occurs in v. 15 as well as Exod 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Deut 6:3; 11:9; 26:9; 27:3; Josh 5:6; Jer 11:5; 32:23 (see also Deut 1:25; 8:7-9).

[20:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “each one, the detestable things of his eyes, throw away.” The Pentateuch does not refer to the Israelites worshiping idols in Egypt, but Josh 24:14 appears to suggest that they did so.

[20:8]  ²² tn Heb “each one, the detestable things of their eyes did not throw away.”

[20:8]  ²³ tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”

[20:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “for the sake of my name.”

[20:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they were.”

[20:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to whom I made myself known before their eyes to bring them out from the land of Egypt.” The translation understands the infinitive construct (“to bring them out”) as indicating manner. God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt was an act of self-revelation in that it displayed his power and his commitment to his promises.

[20:11]  ²⁷ sn The laws were given at Mount Sinai.

[20:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the man.”

[20:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “does.”

[20:11]  ³⁰ tn The wording and the concept is contained in Lev 18:5 and Deut 30:15-19.

[20:12]  ³¹ sn Ezekiel’s contemporary, Jeremiah, also stressed the importance of obedience to the Sabbath law (Jer 17).

[20:12]  ³² tn Heb “to become a sign between me and them.”

[20:12]  ³³ tn Or “set them apart.” The last phrase of verse 12 appears to be a citation of Exod 31:13.

[20:13]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and I said/thought to pour out.”

[20:13]  ³⁵ tn Heb “to bring them to an end.”