Ezekiel 20:25-26

20:25 I also gave ¹  them decrees ²  which were not good and regulations by which they could not live. 20:26 I declared them to be defiled because of their sacrifices ³  – they caused all their first born to pass through the fire ⁴  – so that I would devastate them, so that they will know that I am the Lord.’ ⁵ 

Jude 1:14

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ⁶  even prophesied of them, ⁷  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ⁸  with thousands and thousands ⁹  of his holy ones,

Jude 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ¹⁰ 

Jude 1:13

1:13 wild sea waves, ¹¹  spewing out the foam of ¹²  their shame; ¹³  wayward stars ¹⁴  for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness ¹⁵  have been reserved.

Psalms 81:12

81:12 I gave them over to their stubborn desires; ¹⁶ 

they did what seemed right to them. ¹⁷ 

Hosea 4:17

4:17 Ephraim has attached himself to idols;

Do not go near him!

Amos 4:4-5

Israel has an Appointment with God

4:4 “Go to Bethel ¹⁸  and rebel! ¹⁹ 

At Gilgal ²⁰  rebel some more!

Bring your sacrifices in ²¹  the morning,

your tithes on ²²  the third day!

4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! ²³ 

Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! ²⁴ 

For you love to do this, you Israelites.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking!

Romans 1:24-28

1:24 Therefore God gave them over ²⁵  in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor ²⁶  their bodies among themselves. ²⁷  1:25 They ²⁸  exchanged the truth of God for a lie ²⁹  and worshiped and served the creation ³⁰  rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, ³¹  1:27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women ³²  and were inflamed in their passions ³³  for one another. Men ³⁴  committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ³⁵  God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. ³⁶ 

Romans 1:2

1:2 This gospel ³⁷  he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

Romans 2:11

2:11 For there is no partiality with God.

[20:25]  ¹ tn Or “permitted.”

[20:25]  ² tn The Hebrew term חֻקּוֹת (khuqot; translated “statutes” elsewhere in this chapter) is normally feminine. Here Ezekiel changes the form to masculine: חֻקִּים (khuqim). Further, they are not called “my decrees” as vv. 11 and 13 refer to “my statutes.” The change is a signal that Ezekiel is not talking about the same statutes in vv. 11 and 13, which lead to life.

[20:26]  ³ tn Or “gifts.”

[20:26]  ⁴ sn This act is prohibited in Deut 12:29-31 and Jer 7:31; 19:5; 32:35. See also 2 Kgs 21:6; 23:10. This custom indicates that the laws the Israelites were following were the disastrous laws of pagan nations (see Ezek 16:20-21).

[20:26]  ⁵ sn God sometimes punishes sin by inciting the sinner to sin even more, as the biblical examples of divine hardening and deceit make clear. See Robert B. Chisholm, Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34; idem, “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 11-28. For other instances where the Lord causes individuals to act unwisely or even sinfully as punishment for sin, see 1 Sam 2:25; 2 Sam 17:14; 1 Kgs 12:15; 2 Chr 25:20.

[1:14]  ⁵ tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

[1:14]  ⁶ tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ⁷ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ⁸ tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

[1:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[1:13]  ⁹ tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”

[1:13]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “foaming, causing to foam.” The verb form is intensive and causative. BDAG 360 s.v. ἐπαφρίζω suggests the meaning “to cause to splash up like froth, cause to foam,” or, in this context, “waves casting up their own shameless deeds like (dirty) foam.”

[1:13]  ¹¹ tn Grk “shames, shameful things.” It is uncertain whether shameful deeds or shameful words are in view. Either way, the picture has taken a decided turn: Though waterless clouds and fruitless trees may promise good things, but deliver nothing, wild sea-waves are portents of filth spewed forth from the belly of the sea.

[1:13]  ¹² sn The imagery of a star seems to fit the nautical theme that Jude is developing. Stars were of course the guides to sailors at night, just as teachers are responsible to lead the flock through a benighted world. But false teachers, as wayward stars, are not fixed and hence offer unreliable, even disastrous guidance. They are thus both the dangerous reefs on which the ships could be destroyed and the false guides, leading them into these rocks. There is a special irony that these lights will be snuffed out, reserved for the darkest depths of eternal darkness.

[1:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.

[81:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and I sent him away in the stubbornness of their heart.”

[81:12]  ¹² tn Heb “they walked in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite (“walked”) or a customary imperfect (“were walking”).

[4:4]  ¹³ sn Bethel and Gilgal were important formal worship centers because of their importance in Israel’s history. Here the Lord ironically urges the people to visit these places so they can increase their sin against him. Their formal worship, because it was not accompanied by social justice, only made them more guilty in God’s sight by adding hypocrisy to their list of sins. Obviously, theirs was a twisted view of the Lord. They worshiped a god of their own creation in order to satisfy their religious impulses (see 4:5: “For you love to do this”). Note that none of the rituals listed in 4:4-5 have to do with sin.

[4:4]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word translated “rebel” (also in the following line) could very well refer here to Israel’s violations of their covenant with God (see also the term “crimes” in 1:3 [with note] and the phrase “covenant transgressions” in 2:4 [with note]; 3:14).

[4:4]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on Bethel earlier in this verse.

[4:4]  ¹⁶ tn Or “for.”

[4:4]  ¹⁷ tn Or “for.”

[4:5]  ¹⁵ sn For the background of the thank offering of bread made with yeast, see Lev 7:13.

[4:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “proclaim voluntary offerings, announce.”

[1:24]  ¹⁷ sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 81:12.

[1:24]  ¹⁸ tn The genitive articular infinitive τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι (tou atimazesqai, “to dishonor”) has been taken as (1) an infinitive of purpose; (2) an infinitive of result; or (3) an epexegetical (i.e., explanatory) infinitive, expanding the previous clause.

[1:24]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “among them.”

[1:25]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:25]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the lie.”

[1:25]  ²¹ tn Or “creature, created things.”

[1:26]  ²¹ tn Grk “for their females exchanged the natural function for that which is contrary to nature.” The term χρῆσις (crhsi") has the force of “sexual relations” here (L&N 23.65).

[1:27]  ²³ tn Grk “likewise so also the males abandoning the natural function of the female.”

[1:27]  ²⁴ tn Grk “burned with intense desire” (L&N 25.16).

[1:27]  ²⁵ tn Grk “another, men committing…and receiving,” continuing the description of their deeds. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:28]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”

[1:28]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the things that are improper.”

[1:2]  ²⁷ tn Grk “the gospel of God, which he promised.” Because of the length and complexity of this sentence in Greek, it was divided into shorter English sentences in keeping with contemporary English style. To indicate the referent of the relative pronoun (“which”), the word “gospel” was repeated at the beginning of v. 2.