Amos 3:1

Every Effect has its Cause

3:1 Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against ¹  you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up ²  from the land of Egypt:

Amos 5:1

Death is Imminent

5:1 Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, ³  family ⁴  of Israel:

Zechariah 1:6

1:6 But have my words and statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, not outlived your fathers? ⁵  Then they paid attention ⁶  and confessed, ‘The Lord who rules over all has indeed done what he said he would do to us, because of our sinful ways.’”

Mark 12:12

12:12 Now ⁷  they wanted to arrest him (but they feared the crowd), because they realized that he told this parable against them. So ⁸  they left him and went away. ⁹ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Or “about.”

[3:1]  ² tn One might expect a third person verb form (“he brought up”), since the Lord apparently refers to himself in the third person in the preceding sentence. This first person form, however, serves to connect this message to the earlier indictment (2:10) and anticipates the words of the following verse.

[5:1]  ³ tn Heb “Listen to this word which I am about to take up against you, a funeral song.”

[5:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[1:6]  ⁵ tc BHS suggests אֶתְכֶם (’etkhem, “you”) for the MT אֲבֹתֵיכֶם (’avotekhem, “your fathers”) to harmonize with v. 4. In v. 4 the ancestors would not turn but in v. 6 they appear to have done so. The subject in v. 6, however, is to be construed as Zechariah’s own listeners.

[1:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “they turned” (so ASV). Many English versions have “they repented” here; cf. CEV “they turned back to me.”

[12:12]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to introduce a somewhat parenthetical remark by the author.

[12:12]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.

[12:12]  ⁹ sn The point of the parable in Mark 12:1-12 is that the leaders of the nation have been rejected by God and the vineyard (v. 9, referring to the nation and its privileged status) will be taken from them and given to others (an allusion to the Gentiles).