Deuteronomy 29:18

29:18 Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. ¹ 

Isaiah 5:7

5:7 Indeed ²  Israel ³  is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,

the people ⁴  of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.

He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! ⁵ 

He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! ⁶ 

Isaiah 59:13-15

59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;

we turned back from following our God.

We stir up ⁷  oppression and rebellion;

we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ⁸ 

59:14 Justice is driven back;

godliness ⁹  stands far off.

Indeed, ¹⁰  honesty stumbles in the city square

and morality is not even able to enter.

59:15 Honesty has disappeared;

the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed.

The Lord watches and is displeased, ¹¹ 

for there is no justice.

Amos 5:7

5:7 The Israelites ¹²  turn justice into bitterness; ¹³ 

they throw what is fair and right ¹⁴  to the ground. ¹⁵ 

Amos 6:12

6:12 Can horses run on rocky cliffs?

Can one plow the sea with oxen? ¹⁶ 

Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant,

and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant. ¹⁷ 

Acts 8:23

8:23 For I see that you are bitterly envious ¹⁸  and in bondage to sin.”

Hebrews 12:15

12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up ¹⁹  and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.

Revelation 8:10-11

8:10 Then ²⁰  the third angel blew his trumpet, and a huge star burning like a torch fell from the sky; ²¹  it landed ²²  on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 8:11 (Now ²³  the name of the star is ²⁴  Wormwood.) ²⁵  So ²⁶  a third of the waters became wormwood, ²⁷  and many people died from these waters because they were poisoned. ²⁸ 

[29:18]  ¹ tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”

[5:7]  ² tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[5:7]  ³ tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[59:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[59:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”

[59:14]  ⁹ tn Or “righteousness” (ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NAB “justice.”

[59:14]  ¹⁰ tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).

[59:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it is displeasing in his eyes.”

[5:7]  ¹² tn Heb “Those who”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity. In light of vv. 11-13, it is also possible that the words are directed at a more limited group within the nation – those with social and economic power.

[5:7]  ¹³ tn There is an interesting wordplay here with the verb הָפַךְ (hafakh, “overturn, turn”). Israel “turns” justice into wormwood (cf. 6:12), while the Lord “turns” darkness into morning (v. 8; cf. 4:11; 8:10). Israel’s turning is for evil, whereas the Lord’s is to demonstrate his absolute power and sovereignty.

[5:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they throw righteousness.”

[5:7]  ¹⁵ sn In v. 7 the prophet begins to describe the guilty Israelites, but then interrupts his word picture with a parenthetical, but powerful, description of the judge they must face (vv. 8-9). He resumes his description of the sinners in v. 10.

[6:12]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “Does one plow with oxen?” This obviously does not fit the parallelism, for the preceding rhetorical question requires the answer, “Of course not!” An error of fusion has occurred in the Hebrew, with the word יָם (yam, “sea”) being accidentally added as a plural ending to the collective noun בָּקָר (baqar, “oxen”). A proper division of the consonants produces the above translation, which fits the parallelism and also anticipates the answer, “Of course not!”

[6:12]  ¹⁷ sn The botanical imagery, when juxtaposed with the preceding rhetorical questions, vividly depicts and emphasizes how the Israelites have perverted justice and violated the created order by their morally irrational behavior.

[8:23]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “in the gall of bitterness,” an idiom meaning to be particularly envious or resentful of someone. In this case Simon was jealous of the apostles’ power to bestow the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and wanted that power for himself. The literal phrase does not convey this to the modern reader, and in fact some modern translations have simply rendered the phrase as involving bitterness, which misses the point of the envy on Simon’s part. See L&N 88.166. The OT images come from Deut 29:17-18 and Isa 58:6.

[12:15]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “that there not be any root of bitterness,” but referring figuratively to a person who causes trouble (as in Deut 29:17 [LXX] from which this is quoted).

[8:10]  ²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[8:10]  ²¹ tn Or “from heaven” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[8:10]  ²² tn Grk “fell.”

[8:11]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” in keeping with the parenthetical nature of this remark.

[8:11]  ²⁴ tn Grk “is called,” but this is somewhat redundant in contemporary English.

[8:11]  ²⁵ sn Wormwood refers to a particularly bitter herb with medicinal value. According to L&N 3.21, “The English term wormwood is derived from the use of the plant as a medicine to kill intestinal worms.” This remark about the star’s name is parenthetical in nature.

[8:11]  ²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the star falling on the waters.

[8:11]  ²⁷ tn That is, terribly bitter (see the note on “Wormwood” earlier in this verse).

[8:11]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and many of the men died from these waters because they were bitter.”