Deuteronomy 16:18-19

Provision for Justice

16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants ¹  for each tribe in all your villages ²  that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. ³  16:19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort ⁴  the words of the righteous. ⁵ 

Jude 1:22-23

1:22 And have mercy on those who waver; 1:23 save ⁶  others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy ⁷  on others, coupled with a fear of God, ⁸  hating even the clothes stained ⁹  by the flesh. ¹⁰ 

Jude 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ¹¹ 

Jude 1:5-6

1:5 Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts ¹²  once for all ¹³ ) that Jesus, ¹⁴  having saved the ¹⁵  people out of the land of Egypt, later ¹⁶  destroyed those who did not believe. 1:6 You also know that ¹⁷  the angels who did not keep within their proper domain ¹⁸  but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept ¹⁹  in eternal chains ²⁰  in utter ²¹  darkness, locked up ²²  for the judgment of the great Day.

Nehemiah 7:2

7:2 I then put in charge over Jerusalem ²³  my brother Hanani and Hananiah ²⁴  the chief of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many do.

Nehemiah 7:1

7:1 When the wall had been rebuilt and I had positioned the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed,

Nehemiah 5:1

Nehemiah Intervenes on behalf of the Oppressed

5:1 Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. ²⁵ 

[16:18]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term וְשֹׁטְרִים (vÿshoterim), usually translated “officers” (KJV, NCV) or “officials” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), derives from the verb שֹׁטֵר (shoter, “to write”). The noun became generic for all types of public officials. Here, however, it may be appositionally epexegetical to “judges,” thus resulting in the phrase, “judges, that is, civil officers,” etc. Whoever the שֹׁטְרִים are, their task here consists of rendering judgments and administering justice.

[16:18]  ² tn Heb “gates.”

[16:18]  ³ tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

[16:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”

[16:19]  ⁵ tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”

[1:23]  ⁶ tn Grk “and save.”

[1:23]  ⁷ tn Grk “and have mercy.”

[1:23]  ⁸ tn Grk “with fear.” But as this contrasts with ἀφόβως (afobw") in v. 12 (without reverence), the posture of the false teachers, it most likely refers to reverence for God.

[1:23]  ⁹ sn The imagery here suggests that the things close to the sinners are contaminated by them, presumably during the process of sinning.

[1:23]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “hating even the tunic spotted by the flesh.” The “flesh” in this instance could refer to the body or to the sin nature. It makes little difference in one sense: Jude is thinking primarily of sexual sins, which are borne of the sin nature and manifest themselves in inappropriate deeds done with the body. At the same time, he is not saying that the body is intrinsically bad, a view held by the opponents of Christianity. Hence, it is best to see “flesh” as referring to the sin nature here and the language as metaphorical.

[1:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[1:5]  ¹² tn Grk “knowing all things.” The subject of the participle “knowing” (εἰδότας, eidota") is an implied ὑμᾶς (Jumas), though several ancient witnesses actually add it. The πάντα (panta) takes on an adverbial force in this context (“fully”), intensifying how acquainted the readers are with the following points.

[1:5]  ¹³ tc ‡ Some translations take ἅπαξ (Japax) with the following clause (thus, “[Jesus,] having saved the people once for all”). Such a translation presupposes that ἅπαξ is a part of the ὅτι (Joti) clause. The reading of NA²⁷, πάντα ὅτι [ὁ] κύριος ἅπαξ (panta {oti [Jo] kurio" {apax), suggests this interpretation (though with “Lord” instead of “Jesus”). This particle is found before λαόν (laon) in the ὅτι clause in א C* Ψ 630 1241 1243 1505 1739 1846 1881 pc co. But ἅπαξ is found before the ὅτι clause in most witnesses, including several important ones (Ì⁷² A B C² 33 81 623 2344 Ï vg). What seems best able to explain the various placements of the adverb is that scribes were uncomfortable with ἅπαξ referring to the readers’ knowledge, feeling it was more appropriate to the theological significance of “saved” (σώσας, swsas).

[1:5]  ¹⁴ tc ‡ The reading ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsous, “Jesus”) is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel. However, not only does this reading enjoy the strongest support from a variety of early witnesses (e.g., A B 33 81 1241 1739 1881 2344 pc vg co Or^1739mg), but the plethora of variants demonstrate that scribes were uncomfortable with it, for they seemed to exchange κύριος (kurios, “Lord”) or θεός (qeos, “God”) for ᾿Ιησοῦς (though Ì⁷² has the intriguing reading θεὸς Χριστός [qeos Cristos, “God Christ”] for ᾿Ιησοῦς). In addition to the evidence supplied in NA²⁷ for this reading, note also {88 322 323 424^c 665 915 2298 eth Cyr Hier Bede}. As difficult as the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is, in light of v. 4 and in light of the progress of revelation (Jude being one of the last books in the NT to be composed), it is wholly appropriate.

[1:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or perhaps “a,” though this is less likely.

[1:5]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the second time.”

[1:6]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and.” Verse 6 is a continuation of the same sentence begun in v. 5. Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:6]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “who did not keep their own domain.”

[1:6]  ¹⁹ sn There is an interesting play on words used in this verse. Because the angels did not keep their proper place, Jesus has kept them chained up in another place. The same verb keep is used in v. 1 to describe believers’ status before God and Christ.

[1:6]  ²⁰ sn In 2 Pet 2:4 a less common word for chains is used.

[1:6]  ²¹ tn The word ζόφος (zofos, “utter, deepest darkness”) is used only five times in the NT: two in 2 Peter, two in Jude, and one in Hebrews. Jude 6 parallels 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 13 parallels 2 Pet 2:17.

[1:6]  ²² tn The words “locked up” are not in Greek, but is expressed in English as a resumptive point after the double prepositional phrase (“in eternal chains in utter darkness”).

[7:2]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[7:2]  ²⁴ tn Some have suggested that “Hananiah” is another name for Hanani, Nehemiah’s brother, so that only one individual is mentioned here. However, the third person plural in v. 3 indicates two people are in view.

[5:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “their brothers the Jews.”