Exodus 8:18-19

8:18 When ¹  the magicians attempted ²  to bring forth gnats by their secret arts, they could not. So there were gnats on people and on animals. 8:19 The magicians said ³  to Pharaoh, “It is the finger ⁴  of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ⁵  and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

Exodus 9:11

9:11 The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.

Exodus 9:1

The Fifth Blow: Disease

9:1 ⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Release my people that they may serve me!

Exodus 9:9

9:9 It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt and will cause boils to break out and fester ⁷  on both people and animals in all the land of Egypt.”

Isaiah 44:25

44:25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers ⁸ 

and humiliates ⁹  the omen readers,

who overturns the counsel of the wise men ¹⁰ 

and makes their advice ¹¹  seem foolish,

Isaiah 47:12-14

47:12 Persist ¹²  in trusting ¹³  your amulets

and your many incantations,

which you have faithfully recited ¹⁴  since your youth!

Maybe you will be successful ¹⁵  –

maybe you will scare away disaster. ¹⁶ 

47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice. ¹⁷ 

Let them take their stand –

the ones who see omens in the sky,

who gaze at the stars,

who make monthly predictions –

let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! ¹⁸ 

47:14 Look, they are like straw,

which the fire burns up;

they cannot rescue themselves

from the heat ¹⁹  of the flames.

There are no coals to warm them,

no firelight to enjoy. ²⁰ 

Daniel 2:9-11

2:9 If you don’t inform me of the dream, there is only one thing that is going to happen to you. ²¹  For you have agreed among yourselves to report to me something false and deceitful ²²  until such time as things might change. So tell me the dream, and I will have confidence ²³  that you can disclose its interpretation.”

2:10 The wise men replied to the king, “There is no man on earth who is able to disclose the king’s secret, ²⁴  for no king, regardless of his position and power, has ever requested such a thing from any magician, astrologer, or wise man. 2:11 What the king is asking is too difficult, and no one exists who can disclose it to the king, except for the gods – but they don’t live among mortals!” ²⁵ 

Zechariah 13:4

13:4 “Therefore, on that day each prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies and will no longer wear the hairy garment ²⁶  of a prophet to deceive the people. ²⁷ 

Zechariah 13:2

13:2 And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ²⁸  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

Zechariah 3:8-9

3:8 Listen now, Joshua the high priest, both you and your colleagues who are sitting before you, all of you ²⁹  are a symbol that I am about to introduce my servant, the Branch. ³⁰  3:9 As for the stone ³¹  I have set before Joshua – on the one stone there are seven eyes. ³²  I am about to engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘to the effect that I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. ³³ 

[8:18]  ¹ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the main clause as a temporal clause.

[8:18]  ² tn Heb “and the magicians did so.”

[8:19]  ³ tn Heb “and the magicians said.”

[8:19]  ⁴ tn The word “finger” is a bold anthropomorphism (a figure of speech in which God is described using human characteristics).

[8:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the heart of Pharaoh became hard.” This phrase translates the Hebrew word חָזַק (khazaq; see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 53). In context this represents the continuation of a prior condition.

[9:1]  ⁶ sn This plague demonstrates that Yahweh has power over the livestock of Egypt. He is able to strike the animals with disease and death, thus delivering a blow to the economic as well as the religious life of the land. By the former plagues many of the Egyptian religious ceremonies would have been interrupted and objects of veneration defiled or destroyed. Now some of the important deities will be attacked. In Goshen, where the cattle are merely cattle, no disease hits, but in the rest of Egypt it is a different matter. Osiris, the savior, cannot even save the brute in which his own soul is supposed to reside. Apis and Mnevis, the ram of Ammon, the sheep of Sais, and the goat of Mendes, perish together. Hence, Moses reminds Israel afterward, “On their gods also Yahweh executed judgments” (Num 33:4). When Jethro heard of all these events, he said, “Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all the gods” (Exod 18:11).

[9:9]  ⁷ tn The word שְׁחִין (shÿkhin) means “boils.” It may be connected to an Arabic cognate that means “to be hot.” The illness is associated with Job (Job 2:7-8) and Hezekiah (Isa 38:21); it has also been connected with other skin diseases described especially in the Law. The word connected with it is אֲבַעְבֻּעֹת (’ava’bu’ot); this means “blisters, pustules” and is sometimes translated as “festering.” The etymology is debated, whether from a word meaning “to swell up” or “to overflow” (W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:359).

[44:25]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text has בַּדִּים (baddim), perhaps meaning “empty talkers” (BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד). In the four other occurrences of this word (Job 11:3; Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30; 50:36) the context does not make the meaning of the term very clear. Its primary point appears to be that the words spoken are meaningless or false. In light of its parallelism with “omen readers,” some have proposed an emendation to בָּרִים (barim, “seers”). The Mesopotamian baru-priests were divination specialists who played an important role in court life. See R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 93-98. Rather than supporting an emendation, J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:189, n. 79) suggests that Isaiah used בַּדִּים purposively as a derisive wordplay on the Akkadian word baru (in light of the close similarity of the d and r consonants).

[44:25]  ⁹ tn Or “makes fools of” (NIV, NRSV); NAB and NASB both similar.

[44:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who turns back the wise” (so NRSV); NIV “overthrows the learning of the wise”; TEV “The words of the wise I refute.”

[44:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “their knowledge” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[47:12]  ¹² tn Heb “stand” (so KJV, ASV); NASB, NRSV “Stand fast.”

[47:12]  ¹³ tn The word “trusting” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See v. 9.

[47:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in that which you have toiled.”

[47:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “maybe you will be able to profit.”

[47:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “maybe you will cause to tremble.” The object “disaster” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See the note at v. 9.

[47:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”

[47:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months – from those things which are coming upon you.”

[47:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.

[47:14]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “there is no coal [for?] their food, light to sit before it.” Some emend לַחְמָם (lakhmam, “their food”) to לְחֻמָּם (lÿkhummam, “to warm them”; see HALOT 328 s.v. חמם). This statement may allude to Isa 44:16, where idolaters are depicted warming themselves over a fire made from wood, part of which was used to form idols. The fire of divine judgment will be no such campfire; its flames will devour and destroy.

[2:9]  ²¹ tn Aram “one is your law,” i.e., only one thing is applicable to you.

[2:9]  ²² tn Aram “a lying and corrupt word.”

[2:9]  ²³ tn Aram “I will know.”

[2:10]  ²⁴ tn Aram “matter, thing.”

[2:11]  ²⁵ tn Aram “whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

[13:4]  ²⁶ tn The “hairy garment of a prophet” (אַדֶּרֶת שֵׁעָר, ’adderet she’ar) was the rough clothing of Elijah (1 Kgs 19:13), Elisha (1 Kgs 19:19; 2 Kgs 2:14), and even John the Baptist (Matt 3:4). Yet, אַדֶּרֶת alone suggests something of beauty and honor (Josh 7:21). The prophet’s attire may have been simple the image it conveyed was one of great dignity.

[13:4]  ²⁷ tn The words “the people” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation from context (cf. NCV, TEV, NLT).

[13:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “cut off” (so NRSV); NAB “destroy”; NIV “banish.”

[3:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “these men.” The cleansing of Joshua and his elevation to enhanced leadership as a priest signify the coming of the messianic age.

[3:8]  ³⁰ sn The collocation of servant and branch gives double significance to the messianic meaning of the passage (cf. Isa 41:8, 9; 42:1, 19; 43:10; 44:1, 2, 21; Ps 132:17; Jer 23:5; 33:15).

[3:9]  ³¹ sn The stone is also a metaphor for the Messiah, a foundation stone that, at first rejected (Ps 118:22-23; Isa 8:13-15), will become the chief cornerstone of the church (Eph 2:19-22).

[3:9]  ³² tn Some understand the Hebrew term עַיִן (’ayin) here to refer to facets (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT) or “faces” (NCV, CEV “seven sides”) of the stone rather than some representation of organs of sight.

[3:9]  ³³ sn Inscriptions were common on ancient Near Eastern cornerstones. This inscription speaks of the redemption achieved by the divine resident of the temple, the Messiah, who will in the day of the Lord bring salvation to all Israel (cf. Isa 66:7-9).