Genesis 4:12-15

4:12 When you try to cultivate ¹  the

ground it will no longer yield ²  its best ³  for you. You will be a homeless wanderer ⁴  on the earth.” 4:13 Then Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment ⁵  is too great to endure! ⁶  4:14 Look! You are driving me off the land ⁷  today, and I must hide from your presence. ⁸  I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me.” 4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ⁹  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ¹⁰  Then the Lord put a special mark ¹¹  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ¹² 

Jude 1:6-7

1:6 You also know that ¹³  the angels who did not keep within their proper domain ¹⁴  but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept ¹⁵  in eternal chains ¹⁶  in utter ¹⁷  darkness, locked up ¹⁸  for the judgment of the great Day. 1:7 So also ¹⁹  Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, ²⁰  since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire ²¹  in a way similar to ²²  these angels, ²³  are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

Ecclesiastes 9:5

9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything;

they have no further reward – and even the memory of them disappears. ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 12:15-16

12:15 “Then they will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries. 12:16 But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel 14:22-23

14:22 Yet some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their behavior and their deeds, you will be consoled about the catastrophe I have brought on Jerusalem – for everything I brought on it. 14:23 They will console you when you see their behavior and their deeds, because you will know that it was not without reason that I have done everything which I have done in it, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Revelation 9:6

9:6 In ²⁵  those days people ²⁶  will seek death, but ²⁷  will not be able to ²⁸  find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

[4:12]  ¹ tn Heb “work.”

[4:12]  ² tn Heb “it will not again (תֹסֵף, tosef) give (תֵּת, tet),” meaning the ground will no longer yield. In translation the infinitive becomes the main verb, and the imperfect verb form becomes adverbial.

[4:12]  ³ tn Heb “its strength.”

[4:12]  ⁴ tn Two similar sounding synonyms are used here: נָע וָנָד (na’ vanad, “a wanderer and a fugitive”). This juxtaposition of synonyms emphasizes the single idea. In translation one can serve as the main description, the other as a modifier. Other translation options include “a wandering fugitive” and a “ceaseless wanderer” (cf. NIV).

[4:13]  ⁵ tn The primary meaning of the Hebrew word עָוֹן (’avon) is “sin, iniquity.” But by metonymy it can refer to the “guilt” of sin, or to “punishment” for sin. The third meaning applies here. Just before this the Lord announces the punishment for Cain’s actions, and right after this statement Cain complains of the severity of the punishment. Cain is not portrayed as repenting of his sin.

[4:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “great is my punishment from bearing.” The preposition מִן (min, “from”) is used here in a comparative sense.

[4:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “from upon the surface of the ground.”

[4:14]  ⁸ sn I must hide from your presence. The motif of hiding from the Lord as a result of sin also appears in Gen 3:8-10.

[4:15]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) in this context carries the sense of “Okay,” or “in that case then I will do this.”

[4:15]  ¹⁰ sn The symbolic number seven is used here to emphasize that the offender will receive severe punishment. For other rhetorical and hyperbolic uses of the expression “seven times over,” see Pss 12:6; 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.

[4:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sign”; “reminder.” The term “sign” is not used in the translation because it might imply to an English reader that God hung a sign on Cain. The text does not identify what the “sign” was. It must have been some outward, visual reminder of Cain’s special protected status.

[4:15]  ¹² sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.

[1:6]  ¹³ tn Grk “and.” Verse 6 is a continuation of the same sentence begun in v. 5. Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:6]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “who did not keep their own domain.”

[1:6]  ¹⁵ sn There is an interesting play on words used in this verse. Because the angels did not keep their proper place, Jesus has kept them chained up in another place. The same verb keep is used in v. 1 to describe believers’ status before God and Christ.

[1:6]  ¹⁶ sn In 2 Pet 2:4 a less common word for chains is used.

[1:6]  ¹⁷ tn The word ζόφος (zofos, “utter, deepest darkness”) is used only five times in the NT: two in 2 Peter, two in Jude, and one in Hebrews. Jude 6 parallels 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 13 parallels 2 Pet 2:17.

[1:6]  ¹⁸ tn The words “locked up” are not in Greek, but is expressed in English as a resumptive point after the double prepositional phrase (“in eternal chains in utter darkness”).

[1:7]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “as.”

[1:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the towns [or cities] surrounding them.”

[1:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “strange flesh.” This phrase has been variously interpreted. It could refer to flesh of another species (such as angels lusting after human flesh). This would aptly describe the sin of the angels, but not easily explain the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. It could refer to the homosexual practices of the Sodomites, but a difficulty arises from the use of ἕτερος ({etero"; “strange,” “other”). When this is to be distinguished from ἄλλος (allos, “another”) it suggests “another of a different kind.” If so, would that properly describe homosexual behavior? In response, the language could easily be compact: “pursued flesh other than what was normally pursued.” However, would this find an analogy in the lust of angels (such would imply that angels normally had sexual relations of some sort, but cf. Matt 22:30)? Another alternative is that the focus of the parallel is on the activity of the surrounding cities and the activity of the angels. This is especially plausible since the participles ἐκπορνεύσασαι (ekporneusasai, “having indulged in sexual immorality”) and ἀπελθοῦσαι (apelqousai, “having pursued”) have concord with “cities” (πόλεις, poleis), a feminine plural noun, rather than with Sodom and Gomorrah (both masculine nouns). If so, then their sin would not necessarily have to be homosexuality. However, most likely the feminine participles are used because of constructio ad sensum (construction according to sense). That is, since both Sodom and Gomorrah are cities, the feminine is used to imply that all the cities are involved. The connection with angels thus seems to be somewhat loose: Both angels and Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in heinous sexual immorality. Thus, whether the false teachers indulge in homosexual activity is not the point; mere sexual immorality is enough to condemn them.

[1:7]  ²² tn Or “in the same way as.”

[1:7]  ²³ tn “Angels” is not in the Greek text; but the masculine demonstrative pronoun most likely refers back to the angels of v. 6.

[9:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “for their memory is forgotten.” The pronominal suffix is an objective genitive, “memory of them.”

[9:6]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:6]  ²⁶ tn Grk “men”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here of both men and women.

[9:6]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[9:6]  ²⁸ tn The phrase “not be able to” was used in the translation to emphasize the strong negation (οὐ μή, ou mh) in the Greek text.