Discovery BoxGenesis 6:5
Context6:5 But the Lord saw 1 that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination 2 of the thoughts 3 of their minds 4 was only evil 5 all the time. 6
Genesis 8:21
Context8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma 7 and said 8 to himself, 9 “I will never again curse 10 the ground because of humankind, even though 11 the inclination of their minds 12 is evil from childhood on. 13 I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.
Genesis 8:2
Context8:2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, 14 and the rain stopped falling from the sky.
Genesis 17:15
Context17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; 15 Sarah 16 will be her name.
Psalms 81:12
Context81:12 I gave them over to their stubborn desires; 17
they did what seemed right to them. 18
Ecclesiastes 7:29
Context7:29 This alone have I discovered: God made humankind upright,
but they have sought many evil schemes.
Isaiah 44:9-20
Context44:9 All who form idols are nothing;
the things in which they delight are worthless.
Their witnesses cannot see;
they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.
44:10 Who forms a god and casts an idol
that will prove worthless? 19
44:11 Look, all his associates 20 will be put to shame;
the craftsmen are mere humans. 21
Let them all assemble and take their stand!
They will panic and be put to shame.
44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool 22
and forges metal over the coals.
He forms it 23 with hammers;
he makes it with his strong arm.
He gets hungry and loses his energy; 24
he drinks no water and gets tired.
44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; 25
he marks out an outline of its form; 26
he scrapes 27 it with chisels,
and marks it with a compass.
He patterns it after the human form, 28
like a well-built human being,
and puts it in a shrine. 29
44:14 He cuts down cedars
and acquires a cypress 30 or an oak.
He gets 31 trees from the forest;
he plants a cedar 32 and the rain makes it grow.
44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; 33
he takes some of it and warms himself.
Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
Then he makes a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it. 34
44:16 Half of it he burns in the fire –
over that half he cooks 35 meat;
he roasts a meal and fills himself.
Yes, he warms himself and says,
‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’
44:17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships it.
He prays to it, saying,
‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’
44:18 They do not comprehend or understand,
for their eyes are blind and cannot see;
their minds do not discern. 36
44:19 No one thinks to himself,
nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:
‘I burned half of it in the fire –
yes, I baked bread over the coals;
I roasted meat and ate it.
With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?
Should I bow down to dry wood?’ 37
his deceived mind misleads him.
He cannot rescue himself,
nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ 39
Jeremiah 2:5
Context2:5 This is what the Lord says:
“What fault could your ancestors 40 have possibly found in me
that they strayed so far from me? 41
They paid allegiance to 42 worthless idols, and so became worthless to me. 43
Jeremiah 10:3-8
Context10:3 For the religion 44 of these people is worthless.
They cut down a tree in the forest,
and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. 45
10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold.
He uses hammer and nails to fasten it 46 together
so that it will not fall over.
10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.
They cannot talk.
They must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them
because they cannot hurt you.
And they do not have any power to help you.” 47
“There is no one like you, Lord. 49
You are great.
And you are renowned for your power. 50
10:7 Everyone should revere you, O King of all nations, 51
because you deserve to be revered. 52
For there is no one like you
among any of the wise people of the nations nor among any of their kings. 53
10:8 The people of those nations 54 are both stupid and foolish.
Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! 55
Jeremiah 10:14-15
Context10:14 All these idolaters 56 will prove to be stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.
For the image he forges is merely a sham. 57
There is no breath in any of those idols. 58
10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. 59
When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.
Jeremiah 16:19
Context“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.
You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. 61
Nations from all over the earth
will come to you and say,
‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods –
worthless idols that could not help them at all. 62
Ephesians 4:17-18
Context4:17 So I say this, and insist 63 in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility 64 of their thinking. 65 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, 66 being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.
Ephesians 4:1
Context4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, 67 urge you to live 68 worthily of the calling with which you have been called, 69
Ephesians 1:18
Context1:18 – since the eyes of your 70 heart have been enlightened 71 – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, 72 what is the wealth of his glorious 73 inheritance in the saints,
[6:5] 1 sn The Hebrew verb translated “saw” (רָאָה, ra’ah), used here of God’s evaluation of humankind’s evil deeds, contrasts with God’s evaluation of creative work in Gen 1, when he observed that everything was good.
[6:5] 2 tn The noun יֵצֶר (yetser) is related to the verb יָצָר (yatsar, “to form, to fashion [with a design]”). Here it refers to human plans or intentions (see Gen 8:21; 1 Chr 28:9; 29:18). People had taken their God-given capacities and used them to devise evil. The word יֵצֶר (yetser) became a significant theological term in Rabbinic literature for what might be called the sin nature – the evil inclination (see also R. E. Murphy, “Yeser in the Qumran Literature,” Bib 39 [1958]: 334-44).
[6:5] 3 tn The related verb הָשָׁב (hashav) means “to think, to devise, to reckon.” The noun (here) refers to thoughts or considerations.
[6:5] 4 tn Heb “his heart” (referring to collective “humankind”). The Hebrew term לֵב (lev, “heart”) frequently refers to the seat of one’s thoughts (see BDB 524 s.v. לֵב). In contemporary English this is typically referred to as the “mind.”
[6:5] 5 sn Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil. There is hardly a stronger statement of the wickedness of the human race than this. Here is the result of falling into the “knowledge of good and evil”: Evil becomes dominant, and the good is ruined by the evil.
[8:21] 7 tn The
[8:21] 8 tn Heb “and the
[8:21] 9 tn Heb “in his heart.”
[8:21] 10 tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.
[8:21] 11 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.
[8:21] 12 tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”
[8:21] 13 tn Heb “from his youth.”
[8:2] 14 tn Some (e.g., NIV) translate the preterite verb forms in this verse as past perfects (e.g., “had been closed”), for it seems likely that the sources of the water would have stopped before the waters receded.
[17:15] 15 tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”
[17:15] 16 sn Sarah. The name change seems to be a dialectical variation, both spellings meaning “princess” or “queen.” Like the name Abram, the name Sarai symbolized the past. The new name Sarah, like the name Abraham, would be a reminder of what God intended to do for Sarah in the future.
[81:12] 17 tn Heb “and I sent him away in the stubbornness of their heart.”
[81:12] 18 tn Heb “they walked in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite (“walked”) or a customary imperfect (“were walking”).
[44:10] 19 tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”
[44:11] 20 tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.
[44:11] 21 sn The point seems to be this: If the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”
[44:12] 22 tn The noun מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad), which refers to some type of tool used for cutting, occurs only here and in Jer 10:3. See HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד.
[44:12] 23 tn Some English versions take the pronoun “it” to refer to an idol being fashioned by the blacksmith (cf. NIV, NCV, CEV). NLT understands the referent to be “a sharp tool,” which is then used by the carpenter in the following verse to carve an idol from wood.
[44:12] 24 tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”
[44:13] 25 tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”
[44:13] 26 tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”
[44:13] 27 tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”
[44:13] 28 tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”
[44:13] 29 tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”
[44:14] 30 tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).
[44:14] 31 tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).
[44:14] 32 tn Some prefer to emend אֹרֶן (’oren) to אֶרֶז (’erez, “cedar”), but the otherwise unattested noun appears to have an Akkadian cognate, meaning “cedar.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 44-45. HALOT 90 s.v. I אֹרֶן offers the meaning “laurel.”
[44:15] 33 tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”
[44:15] 34 tn Or perhaps, “them.”
[44:16] 35 tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”
[44:18] 36 tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”
[44:19] 37 tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.
[44:20] 38 tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”
[44:20] 39 tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”
[2:5] 41 tn Or “I did not wrong your ancestors in any way. Yet they went far astray from me.” Both translations are an attempt to render the rhetorical question which demands a negative answer.
[2:5] 42 tn Heb “They went/followed after.” This idiom is found most often in Deuteronomy or covenant contexts. It refers to loyalty to God and to his covenant or his commandments (e.g., 1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (e.g., Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (i.e., to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (e.g., 2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the
[2:5] 43 tn The words “to me” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context: Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing,” which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.
[10:3] 44 tn Heb “statutes.” According to BDB 350 s.v. חֻקָּה 2.b it refers to the firmly established customs or practices of the pagan nations. Compare the usage in Lev 20:23; 2 Kgs 17:8. Here it is essentially equivalent to דֶּרֶךְ (derekh) in v. 1, which has already been translated “religious practices.”
[10:3] 45 sn This passage is dripping with sarcasm. It begins by talking about the “statutes” of the pagan peoples as a “vapor” using a singular copula and singular predicate. Then it suppresses the subject, the idol, as though it were too horrible to mention, using only the predications about it. The last two lines read literally: “[it is] a tree which one cuts down from the forest; the work of the hands of a craftsman with his chisel.”
[10:4] 46 tn The pronoun is plural in Hebrew, referring to the parts.
[10:5] 47 tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”
[10:6] 48 tn The words “I said” are not in the Hebrew text, but there appears to be a shift in speaker. Someone is now addressing the
[10:6] 49 tn The form that introduces this line has raised debate. The form מֵאֵין (me’en) normally means “without” and introduces a qualification of a term expressing desolation or “so that not” and introduces a negative result (cf. BDB 35 s.v. II אַיִן 6.b). Neither of these nuances fit either this verse or the occurrence in v. 7. BDB 35 s.v. II אַיִן 6.b.γ notes that some have explained this as a strengthened form of אַיִן (’ayin) which occurs in a similar phrase five other times (cf., e.g., 1 Kgs 8:23). Though many including BDB question the validity of this solution it is probably better than the suggestion that BDB gives of repointing to מֵאַיִן (me’ayin, “whence”), which scarcely fits the context of v. 7, or the solution of HALOT 41 s.v. I אַיִן, which suggests that the מ (mem) is a double writing (dittograph) of the final consonant from the preceding word. That would assume that the scribe made the same error twice or was influenced the second time by the first erroneous writing.
[10:6] 50 tn Heb “Great is your name in power.”
[10:7] 51 tn Heb “Who should not revere you…?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.
[10:7] 52 tn Heb “For it is fitting to you.”
[10:7] 53 tn Heb “their royalty/dominion.” This is a case of substitution of the abstract for the concrete “royalty, royal power” for “kings” who exercise it.
[10:8] 54 tn Or “Those wise people and kings are…” It is unclear whether the subject is the “they” of the nations in the preceding verse, or the wise people and kings referred to. The text merely has “they.”
[10:8] 55 tn Heb “The instruction of vanities [worthless idols] is wood.” The meaning of this line is a little uncertain. Various proposals have been made to make sense, most of which involve radical emendation of the text. For some examples see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 323-24, fn 6. However, this is probably a case of the bold predication that discussed in GKC 452 §141.d, some examples of which may be seen in Ps 109:4 “I am prayer,” and Ps 120:7 “I am peace.”
[10:14] 56 tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.
[10:14] 57 tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”
[10:14] 58 tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.
[10:15] 59 tn Or “objects of mockery.”
[16:19] 60 tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.
[16:19] 61 tn Heb “O
[16:19] 62 tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”
[4:17] 63 tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.
[4:17] 64 tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.
[4:17] 65 tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”
[4:18] 66 tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.
[4:1] 67 tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”
[4:1] 68 tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.
[4:1] 69 sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.
[1:18] 70 tc ‡ Most witnesses, especially of the Byzantine and Western texttypes, though with a few important Alexandrian witnesses (א A D F G Ψ 0278 Ï latt sy), add ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) after καρδίας (kardias, “heart”), though it is clearly implied in the shorter (Alexandrian) reading (found in Ì46 B 6 33 1175 1739 1881 pc). The longer reading thus looks to be a clarifying gloss, as is frequently found in the Byzantine and Western traditions. The translation above also uses “your” because of English requirements, not because of textual basis.
[1:18] 71 tn The perfect participle πεφωτισμένους (pefwtismenou") may either be part of the prayer (“that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened”) or part of the basis of the prayer (“since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened”). Although the participle follows the ἵνα (Jina) of v. 17, it is awkward grammatically in the clause. Further, perfect adverbial participles are usually causal in NT Greek. Finally, the context both here and throughout Ephesians seems to emphasize the motif of light as a property belonging to believers. Thus, it seems that the author is saying, “I know that you are saved, that you have had the blinders of the devil removed; because of this, I can now pray that you will fully understand and see the light of God’s glorious revelation.” Hence, the translation takes the participle to form a part of the basis for the prayer.
[1:18] 72 tn Or “the hope to which he has called you.”
[1:18] 73 tn Grk “of the glory of his inheritance.” Here “inheritance” is taken as an attributed genitive and the head noun, “glory,” is thus translated as an adjective, “glorious inheritance.”
