Ezekiel 20:26

20:26 I declared them to be defiled because of their sacrifices ¹  – they caused all their first born to pass through the fire ²  – so that I would devastate them, so that they will know that I am the Lord.’ ³ 

Ezekiel 20:39

20:39 “‘As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Each of you go and serve your idols, ⁴  if you will not listen to me. ⁵  But my holy name will not be profaned ⁶  again by your sacrifices ⁷  and your idols.

Ezekiel 14:9-11

14:9 “‘As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word – I, the Lord, have made a fool of ⁸  that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel. 14:10 They will bear their punishment; ⁹  the punishment of the one who sought an oracle will be the same as the punishment of the prophet who gave it ¹⁰  14:11 so that the house of Israel will no longer go astray from me, nor continue to defile themselves by all their sins. They will be my people and I will be their God, ¹¹  declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Deuteronomy 4:27-28

4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you ¹²  among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.

Deuteronomy 28:36

28:36 The Lord will force you and your king ¹³  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there.

Psalms 81:12

81:12 I gave them over to their stubborn desires; ¹⁴ 

they did what seemed right to them. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 66:4

66:4 So I will choose severe punishment ¹⁶  for them;

I will bring on them what they dread,

because I called, and no one responded,

I spoke and they did not listen.

They did evil before me; ¹⁷ 

they chose to do what displeases me.”

Romans 1:21-28

1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ¹⁸  were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed ¹⁹  to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings ²⁰  or birds or four-footed animals ²¹  or reptiles.

1:24 Therefore God gave them over ²²  in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor ²³  their bodies among themselves. ²⁴  1:25 They ²⁵  exchanged the truth of God for a lie ²⁶  and worshiped and served the creation ²⁷  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, ²⁸  1:27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women ²⁹  and were inflamed in their passions ³⁰  for one another. Men ³¹  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, ³²  God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. ³³ 

Romans 1:2

1:2 This gospel ³⁴  he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

Romans 2:9-11

2:9 There will be ³⁵  affliction and distress on everyone ³⁶  who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, ³⁷  2:10 but ³⁸  glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also the Greek. 2:11 For there is no partiality with God.

[20:26]  ¹ tn Or “gifts.”

[20:26]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[20:39]  ⁴ sn Compare the irony here to Amos 4:4 and Jer 44:25.

[20:39]  ⁵ tn Heb “and after, if you will not listen to me.” The translation leaves out “and after” for smoothness. The text is difficult. M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:374) suggests that it may mean “but afterwards, if you will not listen to me…” with an unspoken threat.

[20:39]  ⁶ sn A similar concept may be found in Lev 18:21; 20:3.

[20:39]  ⁷ tn Or “gifts.”

[14:9]  ⁸ tn The translation is uncertain due to difficulty both in determining the meaning of the verb’s stem and its conjugation in this context. In the Qal stem the basic meaning of the verbal root פָּתַה (patah) is “to be gullible, foolish.” The doubling stems (the Pual and Piel used in this verse) typically give such stative verbs a factitive sense, hence either “make gullible” (i.e., “entice”) or “make into a fool” (i.e., “to show to be a fool”). The latter represents the probable meaning of the term in Jer 20:7, 10 and is followed here (see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:193; R. Mosis “Ez 14, 1-11 - ein Ruf zur Umkehr,” BZ 19 [1975]: 166-69 and ThWAT 4:829-31). In this view, if a prophet speaks when not prompted by God, he will be shown to be a fool, but this does not reflect negatively on the Lord because it is God who shows him to be a fool. Secondly, the verb is in the perfect conjugation and may be translated “I have made a fool of him” or “I have enticed him,” or to show determination (see IBHS 439-41 §27.2f and g), or in certain syntactical constructions as future. Any of these may be plausible if the doubling stems used are understood in the sense of “making a fool of.” But if understood as “to make gullible,” more factors come into play. As the Hebrew verbal form is a perfect, it is often translated as present perfect: “I have enticed.” In this case the Lord states that he himself enticed the prophet to cooperate with the idolaters. Such enticement to sin would seem to be a violation of God’s moral character, but sometimes he does use such deception and enticement to sin as a form of punishment against those who have blatantly violated his moral will (see, e.g., 2 Sam 24). If one follows this line of interpretation in Ezek 14:9, one would have to assume that the prophet had already turned from God in his heart. However, the context gives no indication of this. Therefore, it is better to take the perfect as indicating certitude and to translate it with the future tense: “I will entice.” In this case the Lord announces that he will judge the prophet appropriately. If a prophet allows himself to be influenced by idolaters, then the Lord will use deception as a form of punishment against that deceived prophet. A comparison with the preceding oracles also favors this view. In 14:4 the perfect of certitude is used for emphasis (see “I will answer”), though in v. 7 a participle is employed. For a fuller discussion of this text, see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 23-25.

[14:10]  ⁹ tn Or “They will bear responsibility for their iniquity.” The Hebrew term “iniquity” (three times in this verse) often refers by metonymy to the consequence of sin (see Gen 4:13).

[14:10]  ¹⁰ tn Or “As is the guilt of the inquirer so is the guilt of the prophet.”

[14:11]  ¹¹ sn I will be their God. See Exod 6:7; Lev 26:12; Jer 7:23; 11:4.

[4:27]  ¹² tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”

[28:36]  ¹³ tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”

[81:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and I sent him away in the stubbornness of their heart.”

[81:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they walked in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite (“walked”) or a customary imperfect (“were walking”).

[66:4]  ¹⁶ tn The precise meaning of the noun is uncertain. It occurs only here and in 3:4 (but see the note there). It appears to be derived from the verbal root עָלַל (’alal), which can carry the nuance “deal severely.”

[66:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “that which is evil in my eyes.”

[1:21]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “heart.”

[1:22]  ¹⁹ tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.

[1:23]  ²⁰ tn Grk “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God in likeness of an image of corruptible man.” Here there is a wordplay on the Greek terms ἄφθαρτος (afqarto", “immortal, imperishable, incorruptible”) and φθαρτός (fqarto", “mortal, corruptible, subject to decay”).

[1:23]  ²¹ sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 106:19-20.

[1:24]  ²² sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 81:12.

[1:24]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Grk “among them.”

[1:25]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the lie.”

[1:25]  ²⁷ tn Or “creature, created things.”

[1:26]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ tn Grk “likewise so also the males abandoning the natural function of the female.”

[1:27]  ³⁰ tn Grk “burned with intense desire” (L&N 25.16).

[1:27]  ³¹ 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]  ³² tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”

[1:28]  ³³ tn Grk “the things that are improper.”

[1:2]  ³⁴ 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.

[2:9]  ³⁵ tn No verb is expressed in this verse, but the verb “to be” is implied by the Greek construction. Literally “suffering and distress on everyone…”

[2:9]  ³⁶ tn Grk “every soul of man.”

[2:9]  ³⁷ sn Paul uses the term Greek here and in v. 10 to refer to non-Jews, i.e., Gentiles.

[2:10]  ³⁸ tn Grk “but even,” to emphasize the contrast. The second word has been omitted since it is somewhat redundant in English idiom.