Daniel 5:4-5

5:4 As they drank wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

5:5 At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ¹  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ²  The king was watching the back ³  of the hand that was writing.

Exodus 15:9-10

15:9 The enemy said, ‘I will chase, ⁴  I will overtake,

I will divide the spoil;

my desire ⁵  will be satisfied on them.

I will draw ⁶  my sword, my hand will destroy them.’ ⁷ 

15:10 But ⁸  you blew with your breath, and ⁹  the sea covered them.

They sank ¹⁰  like lead in the mighty waters.

Job 20:23

20:23 “While he is ¹¹  filling his belly,

God ¹²  sends his burning anger ¹³  against him,

and rains down his blows upon him. ¹⁴ 

Luke 12:20

12:20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life ¹⁵  will be demanded back from ¹⁶  you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ ¹⁷ 

Acts 12:22-23

12:22 But the crowd ¹⁸  began to shout, ¹⁹  “The voice of a god, ²⁰  and not of a man!” 12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ²¹  struck ²²  Herod ²³  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ²⁴ 

Acts 12:1

James is Killed and Peter Imprisoned

12:1 About that time King Herod ²⁵  laid hands on ²⁶  some from the church to harm them. ²⁷ 

Acts 5:3

5:3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled ²⁸  your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds from the sale of ²⁹  the land?

[5:5]  ¹ tn Aram “came forth.”

[5:5]  ² sn The mention of the lampstand in this context is of interest because it suggests that the writing was in clear view.

[5:5]  ³ tn While Aramaic פַּס (pas) can mean the palm of the hand, here it seems to be the back of the hand that is intended.

[15:9]  ⁴ sn W. C. Kaiser observes the staccato phrases that almost imitate the heavy, breathless heaving of the Egyptians as, with what reserve of strength they have left, they vow, “I will…, I will…, I will…” (“Exodus,” EBC 2:395).

[15:9]  ⁵ tn The form is נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”). But this word refers to the whole person, the body and the soul, or better, a bundle of appetites in a body. It therefore can figuratively refer to the desires or appetites (Deut 12:15; 14:26; 23:24). Here, with the verb “to be full” means “to be satisfied”; the whole expression might indicate “I will be sated with them” or “I will gorge myself.” The greedy appetite was to destroy.

[15:9]  ⁶ tn The verb רִיק (riq) means “to be empty” in the Qal, and in the Hiphil “to empty.” Here the idea is to unsheathe a sword.

[15:9]  ⁷ tn The verb is יָרַשׁ (yarash), which in the Hiphil means “to dispossess” or “root out.” The meaning “destroy” is a general interpretation.

[15:10]  ⁸ tn “But” has been supplied here.

[15:10]  ⁹ tn Here “and” has been supplied.

[15:10]  ¹⁰ tn The verb may have the idea of sinking with a gurgling sound, like water going into a whirlpool (R. A. Cole, Exodus [TOTC], 124; S. R. Driver, Exodus, 136). See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, “The Song of Miriam,” JNES 14 (1955): 243-47.

[20:23]  ¹¹ tn D. J. A. Clines observes that to do justice to the three jussives in the verse, one would have to translate “May it be, to fill his belly to the full, that God should send…and rain” (Job [WBC], 477). The jussive form of the verb at the beginning of the verse could also simply introduce a protasis of a conditional clause (see GKC 323 §109.h, i). This would mean, “if he [God] is about to fill his [the wicked’s] belly to the full, he will send….” The NIV reads “when he has filled his belly.” These fit better, because the context is talking about the wicked in his evil pursuit being cut down.

[20:23]  ¹² tn “God” is understood as the subject of the judgment.

[20:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “the anger of his wrath.”

[20:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “rain down upon him, on his flesh.” Dhorme changes עָלֵימוֹ (’alemo, “upon him”) to “his arrows”; he translates the line as “he rains his arrows upon his flesh.” The word בִּלְחוּמוֹ (bilkhumo,“his flesh”) has been given a wide variety of translations: “as his food,” “on his flesh,” “upon him, his anger,” or “missiles or weapons of war.”

[12:20]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “your soul,” but ψυχή (yuch) is frequently used of one’s physical life. It clearly has that meaning in this context.

[12:20]  ¹⁶ tn Or “required back.” This term, ἀπαιτέω (apaitew), has an economic feel to it and is often used of a debt being called in for repayment (BDAG 96 s.v. 1).

[12:20]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” The words “for yourself” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[12:22]  ¹⁸ tn The translation “crowd” is given by BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος; the word often means a gathering of citizens to conduct public business. Here it is simply the group of people gathered to hear the king’s speech.

[12:22]  ¹⁹ tn The imperfect verb ἐπεφώνει (epefwnei) is taken ingressively in the sequence of events. Presumably the king had started his speech when the crowd began shouting.

[12:22]  ²⁰ sn The voice of a god. Contrast the response of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:13-15.

[12:23]  ²¹ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ²² sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

[12:23]  ²³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ²⁴ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).

[12:1]  ²⁵ sn King Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great). His mediocre career is summarized in Josephus, Ant. 18-19. This event took place in a.d. 42 or 43.

[12:1]  ²⁶ tn Or “King Herod had some from the church arrested.”

[12:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “to cause them injury.”

[5:3]  ²⁸ sn This is a good example of the Greek verb fill (πληρόω, plhrow) meaning “to exercise control over someone’s thought and action” (cf. Eph 5:18).

[5:3]  ²⁹ tn The words “from the sale of” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify the meaning, since the phrase “proceeds from the land” could possibly be understood as crops rather than money from the sale.