Ezekiel 7:23

7:23 (Make the chain, ¹  because the land is full of murder ²  and the city is full of violence.)

Ezekiel 9:9

9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, ³  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ⁴ 

Ezekiel 11:6

11:6 You have killed many people in this city; you have filled its streets with corpses.’

Genesis 6:13

6:13 So God said ⁵  to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, ⁶  for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy ⁷  them and the earth.

Genesis 6:2

6:2 the sons of God ⁸  saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose.

Genesis 21:16

21:16 Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot ⁹  away; for she thought, ¹⁰  “I refuse to watch the child die.” ¹¹  So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably. ¹² 

Genesis 24:4

24:4 You must go instead to my country and to my relatives ¹³  to find ¹⁴  a wife for my son Isaac.”

Jeremiah 6:7

6:7 As a well continually pours out fresh water

so it continually pours out wicked deeds. ¹⁵ 

Sounds of violence and destruction echo throughout it. ¹⁶ 

All I see are sick and wounded people.’ ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 19:4

19:4 I will do so because these people ¹⁸  have rejected me and have defiled ¹⁹  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ²⁰  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 20:8

20:8 For whenever I prophesy, ²²  I must cry out, ²³ 

“Violence and destruction are coming!” ²⁴ 

This message from the Lord ²⁵  has made me

an object of continual insults and derision.

Amos 3:10

3:10 “They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.)

“They store up ²⁶  the spoils of destructive violence ²⁷  in their fortresses.

Amos 6:3

6:3 You refuse to believe a day of disaster will come, ²⁸ 

but you establish a reign of violence. ²⁹ 

Micah 2:2

2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,

and seize the houses they want. ³⁰ 

They defraud people of their homes, ³¹ 

and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ³² 

Micah 6:12

6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; ³³ 

her inhabitants lie, ³⁴ 

their tongues speak deceptive words. ³⁵ 

Zephaniah 1:9

1:9 On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, ³⁶ 

who fill the house of their master ³⁷  with wealth taken by violence and deceit. ³⁸ 

[7:23]  ¹ tc The Hebrew word “the chain” occurs only here in the OT. The reading of the LXX (“and they will make carnage”) seems to imply a Hebrew text of ַהבַּתּוֹק (habbattoq, “disorder, slaughter”) instead of הָרַתּוֹק (haratoq, “the chain”). The LXX is also translating the verb as a third person plural future and taking this as the end of the preceding verse. As M. Greenberg (Ezekiel [AB], 1:154) notes, this may refer to a chain for a train of exiles but “the context does not speak of exile but of the city’s fall. The versions guess desperately and we can do little better.”

[7:23]  ² tn Heb “judgment for blood,” i.e., indictment or accountability for bloodshed. The word for “judgment” does not appear in the similar phrase in 9:9.

[9:9]  ³ tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”

[9:9]  ⁴ sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.

[6:13]  ⁵ sn On the divine style utilized here, see R. Lapointe, “The Divine Monologue as a Channel of Revelation,” CBQ 32 (1970): 161-81.

[6:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “the end of all flesh is coming [or “has come”] before me.” (The verb form is either a perfect or a participle.) The phrase “end of all flesh” occurs only here. The term “end” refers here to the end of “life,” as v. 3 and the following context (which describes how God destroys all flesh) make clear. The statement “the end has come” occurs in Ezek 7:2, 6, where it is used of divine judgment. The phrase “come before” occurs in Exod 28:30, 35; 34:34; Lev 15:14; Num 27:17; 1 Sam 18:13, 16; 2 Sam 19:8; 20:8; 1 Kgs 1:23, 28, 32; Ezek 46:9; Pss 79:11 (groans come before God); 88:3 (a prayer comes before God); 100:2; 119:170 (prayer comes before God); Lam 1:22 (evil doing comes before God); Esth 1:19; 8:1; 9:25; 1 Chr 16:29. The expression often means “have an audience with” or “appear before.” But when used metaphorically, it can mean “get the attention of” or “prompt a response.” This is probably the sense in Gen 6:13. The necessity of ending the life of all flesh on earth is an issue that has gotten the attention of God. The term “end” may even be a metonymy for that which has prompted it – violence (see the following clause).

[6:13]  ⁷ tn The participle, especially after הִנֵּה (hinneh) has an imminent future nuance. The Hiphil of שָׁחָת (shakhat) here has the sense “to destroy” (in judgment). Note the wordplay involving this verb in vv. 11-13: The earth is “ruined” because all flesh has acted in a morally “corrupt” manner. Consequently, God will “destroy” all flesh (the referent of the suffix “them”) along with the ruined earth. They had ruined themselves and the earth with violence, and now God would ruin them with judgment. For other cases where “earth” occurs as the object of the Hiphil of שָׁחָת, see 1 Sam 6:5; 1 Chr 20:1; Jer 36:29; 51:25.

[6:2]  ⁸ sn The Hebrew phrase translated “sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, bÿne-ha’elohim) occurs only here (Gen 6:2, 4) and in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. There are three major interpretations of the phrase here. (1) In the Book of Job the phrase clearly refers to angelic beings. In Gen 6 the “sons of God” are distinct from “humankind,” suggesting they were not human. This is consistent with the use of the phrase in Job. Since the passage speaks of these beings cohabiting with women, they must have taken physical form or possessed the bodies of men. An early Jewish tradition preserved in 1 En. 6-7 elaborates on this angelic revolt and even names the ringleaders. (2) Not all scholars accept the angelic interpretation of the “sons of God,” however. Some argue that the “sons of God” were members of Seth’s line, traced back to God through Adam in Gen 5, while the “daughters of humankind” were descendants of Cain. But, as noted above, the text distinguishes the “sons of God” from humankind (which would include the Sethites as well as the Cainites) and suggests that the “daughters of humankind” are human women in general, not just Cainites. (3) Others identify the “sons of God” as powerful tyrants, perhaps demon-possessed, who viewed themselves as divine and, following the example of Lamech (see Gen 4:19), practiced polygamy. But usage of the phrase “sons of God” in Job militates against this view. For literature on the subject see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:135.

[21:16]  ⁹ sn A bowshot would be a distance of about a hundred yards (ninety meters).

[21:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “said.”

[21:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will not look on the death of the child.” The cohortative verbal form (note the negative particle אַל,’al) here expresses her resolve to avoid the stated action.

[21:16]  ¹² tn Heb “and she lifted up her voice and wept” (that is, she wept uncontrollably). The LXX reads “he” (referring to Ishmael) rather than “she” (referring to Hagar), but this is probably an attempt to harmonize this verse with the following one, which refers to the boy’s cries.

[24:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “for to my country and my relatives you must go.”

[24:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and take.”

[6:7]  ¹⁵ tc Heb “As a well makes cool/fresh its water, she makes cool/fresh her wickedness.” The translation follows the reading proposed by the Masoretes (Qere) which reads a rare form of the word “well” (בַּיִר [bayir] for בְּאֵר [bÿ’er]) in place of the form written in the text (Kethib, בּוֹר [bor]), which means “cistern.” The latter noun is masculine and the pronoun “its” is feminine. If indeed בַּיִר (bayir) is a byform of בְּאֵר (be’er), which is feminine, it would agree in gender with the pronoun. It also forms a more appropriate comparison since cisterns do not hold fresh water.

[6:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Violence and destruction are heard in it.”

[6:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Sickness and wound are continually before my face.”

[19:4]  ¹⁸ tn The text merely has “they.” But since a reference is made later to “they” and “their ancestors,” the referent must be to the people that the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests represent.

[19:4]  ¹⁹ sn Heb “have made this city foreign.” The verb here is one that is built off of the noun and adjective which relate to foreign nations. Comparison may be made to Jer 2:21 where the adjective refers to the strange, wild vine as opposed to the choice vine the Lord planted and to 5:19 and 8:19 where the noun is used of worshiping foreign gods. Israel through its false worship has “denationalized” itself in its relation to God.

[19:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fathers.”

[19:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “the blood of innocent ones.” This must be a reference to child sacrifice as explained in the next verse. Some have seen a reference to the sins of social injustice alluded to in 2 Kgs 21:16 and 24:4 but those are connected with the city itself. Hence the word children is supplied in the translation to make the referent explicit.

[20:8]  ²² tn Heb “speak,” but the speaking is in the context of speaking as a prophet.

[20:8]  ²³ tn Heb “I cry out, I proclaim.”

[20:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Violence and destruction.”

[20:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the word of the Lord.” For the use of כִּי…כִּי (ki…ki) here in the sense of “for…and” see KBL 432 s.v. כּי 10.

[3:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “those who.”

[3:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “violence and destruction.” The expression “violence and destruction” stand metonymically for the goods the oppressors have accumulated by their unjust actions.

[6:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “those who push away a day of disaster.”

[6:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “you bring near a seat of violence.” The precise meaning of the Hebrew term שֶׁבֶת (shevet, “seat, sitting”) is unclear in this context. The translation assumes that it refers to a throne from which violence (in the person of the oppressive leaders) reigns. Another option is that the expression refers not to the leaders’ oppressive rule, but to the coming judgment when violence will overtake the nation in the person of enemy invaders.

[2:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”

[2:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”

[2:2]  ³² 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.

[6:12]  ³³ tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”

[6:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “speak lies.”

[6:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”

[1:9]  ³⁶ sn The point of the statement all who hop over the threshold is unclear. A ritual or superstition associated with the Philistine god Dagon may be in view (see 1 Sam 5:5).

[1:9]  ³⁷ tn The referent of “their master” is unclear. The king or a pagan god may be in view.

[1:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “who fill…with violence and deceit.” The expression “violence and deceit” refers metonymically to the wealth taken by oppressive measures.