Ezekiel 22:25

22:25 Her princes ¹  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ²  within it.

Micah 2:2

2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,

and seize the houses they want. ³ 

They defraud people of their homes, ⁴ 

and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ⁵ 

Micah 3:1-4

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ⁶  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ⁷  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ⁸ 

3:2 yet you ⁹  hate what is good, ¹⁰ 

and love what is evil. ¹¹ 

You flay my people’s skin ¹² 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ¹³ 

3:3 You ¹⁴  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ¹⁵  –

like meat in a kettle.

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ¹⁶ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

Matthew 23:14

23:14 [[EMPTY]] ¹⁷ 

Luke 20:47

20:47 They ¹⁸  devour ¹⁹  widows’ property, ²⁰  and as a show make long prayers. They will receive a more severe punishment.”

Luke 20:2

20:2 and said to him, ²¹  “Tell us: By what authority ²²  are you doing these things? ²³  Or who it is who gave you this authority?”

Luke 3:6

3:6 and all humanity ²⁴  will see the salvation of God.’” ²⁵ 

[22:25]  ¹ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ² tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[2:2]  ³ tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[3:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ¹² tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ¹⁵ tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

[3:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[23:14]  ¹⁷ tc The most important mss (א B D L Z Θ Ë¹ 33 892* pc and several versional witnesses) do not have 23:14 “Woe to you experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ property, and as a show you pray long prayers! Therefore you will receive a more severe punishment.” Part or all of the verse is contained (either after v. 12 or after v. 13) in W 0102 0107 ˹³ Ï and several versions, but it is almost certainly not original. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number as well, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations. Note also that Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47 are very similar in wording and are not disputed textually.

[20:47]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “who,” continuing the sentence begun in v. 46.

[20:47]  ¹⁹ sn How they were able to devour widows’ houses is debated. Did they seek too much for contributions, or take too high a commission for their work, or take homes after debts failed to be paid? There is too little said here to be sure.

[20:47]  ²⁰ tn Grk “houses,” “households”; however, the term can have the force of “property” or “possessions” as well (O. Michel, TDNT 5:131; BDAG 695 s.v. οἶκια 1.a).

[20:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “and said, saying to him.” This is redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[20:2]  ²² tn On this phrase, see BDAG 844 s.v. ποῖος 2.a.γ.

[20:2]  ²³ sn The leadership is looking back to acts like the temple cleansing (19:45-48). How could a Galilean preacher do these things?

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Grk “all flesh.”

[3:6]  ²⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 40:3-5. Though all the synoptic gospels use this citation from Isaiah, only Luke cites the material of vv. 5-6. His goal may well be to get to the declaration of v. 6, where all humanity (i.e., all nations) see God’s salvation (see also Luke 24:47).