Exodus 32:8

32:8 They have quickly turned aside ¹  from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

Psalms 14:3

14:3 Everyone rejects God; ² 

they are all morally corrupt. ³ 

None of them does what is right, ⁴ 

not even one!

Ecclesiastes 7:29

7:29 This alone have I discovered: God made humankind upright,

but they have sought many evil schemes.

Isaiah 53:6

53:6 All of us had wandered off like sheep;

each of us had strayed off on his own path,

but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. ⁵ 

Isaiah 59:8

59:8 They are unfamiliar with peace;

their deeds are unjust. ⁶ 

They use deceitful methods,

and whoever deals with them is unfamiliar with peace. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 2:13

2:13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:

they have rejected me,

the fountain of life-giving water, ⁸ 

and they have dug cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”

Ephesians 2:3

2:3 among whom ⁹  all of us ¹⁰  also ¹¹  formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath ¹²  even as the rest… ¹³ 

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ¹⁴  dead ¹⁵  in your transgressions and sins,

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ¹⁶  dead ¹⁷  in your transgressions and sins,

[32:8]  ¹ tn The verb is a perfect tense, reflecting the present perfect nuance: “they have turned aside” and are still disobedient. But the verb is modified with the adverb “quickly” (actually a Piel infinitive absolute). It has been only a matter of weeks since they heard the voice of God prohibiting this.

[14:3]  ² tn Heb “everyone turns aside.”

[14:3]  ³ tn Heb “together they are corrupt.”

[14:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”

[53:6]  ⁵ tn Elsewhere the Hiphil of פָגַע (paga’) means “to intercede verbally” (Jer 15:11; 36:25) or “to intervene militarily” (Isa 59:16), but neither nuance fits here. Apparently here the Hiphil is the causative of the normal Qal meaning, “encounter, meet, touch.” The Qal sometimes refers to a hostile encounter or attack; when used in this way the object is normally introduced by the preposition -בְּ (bet, see Josh 2:16; Judg 8:21; 15:12, etc.). Here the causative Hiphil has a double object – the Lord makes “sin” attack “him” (note that the object attacked is introduced by the preposition -בְּ. In their sin the group was like sheep who had wandered from God’s path. They were vulnerable to attack; the guilt of their sin was ready to attack and destroy them. But then the servant stepped in and took the full force of the attack.

[59:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “a way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their pathways.”

[59:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “their paths they make crooked, everyone who walks in it does not know peace.”

[2:13]  ⁸ tn It is difficult to decide whether to translate “fresh, running water” which the Hebrew term for “living water” often refers to (e.g., Gen 26:19; Lev 14:5), or “life-giving water” which the idiom “fountain of life” as source of life and vitality often refers to (e.g., Ps 36:9; Prov 13:14; 14:27). The contrast with cisterns, which collected and held rain water, suggests “fresh, running water,” but the reality underlying the metaphor contrasts the Lord, the source of life, health, and vitality, with useless idols that cannot do anything.

[2:3]  ⁹ sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).

[2:3]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “we all.”

[2:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “even.”

[2:3]  ¹² sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”

[2:3]  ¹³ sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.

[2:1]  ¹⁴ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ¹⁵ sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.

[2:1]  ¹⁶ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ¹⁷ sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.