Genesis 42:9-18

42:9 Then Joseph remembered ¹  the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see if our land is vulnerable!” ² 

42:10 But they exclaimed, ³  “No, my lord! Your servants have come to buy grain for food! 42:11 We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men! Your servants are not spies.”

42:12 “No,” he insisted, “but you have come to see if our land is vulnerable.” ⁴  42:13 They replied, “Your servants are from a family of twelve brothers. ⁵  We are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father at this time, ⁶  and one is no longer alive.” ⁷ 

42:14 But Joseph told them, “It is just as I said to you: ⁸  You are spies! 42:15 You will be tested in this way: As surely as Pharaoh lives, ⁹  you will not depart from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 42:16 One of you must go and get ¹⁰  your brother, while ¹¹  the rest of you remain in prison. ¹²  In this way your words may be tested to see if ¹³  you are telling the truth. ¹⁴  If not, then, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!” 42:17 He imprisoned ¹⁵  them all for three days. 42:18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do as I say ¹⁶  and you will live, ¹⁷  for I fear God. ¹⁸ 

Joshua 2:1-3

Joshua Sends Spies into the Land

2:1 Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: ¹⁹  “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho.” ²⁰  They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there. ²¹  2:2 The king of Jericho received this report: “Note well! ²²  Israelite men have come here tonight ²³  to spy on the land.” 2:3 So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab: ²⁴  “Turn over ²⁵  the men who came to you ²⁶  – the ones who came to your house ²⁷  – for they have come to spy on the whole land!”

Jude 1:23-24

1:23 save ²⁸  others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy ²⁹  on others, coupled with a fear of God, ³⁰  hating even the clothes stained ³¹  by the flesh. ³² 

Final Blessing

1:24 Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, ³³  and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, ³⁴  without blemish ³⁵  before his glorious presence, ³⁶ 

Jude 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ³⁷ 

Jude 1:8-10

1:8 Yet these men, ³⁸  as a result of their dreams, ³⁹  defile the flesh, reject authority, ⁴⁰  and insult ⁴¹  the glorious ones. ⁴²  1:9 But even ⁴³  when Michael the archangel ⁴⁴  was arguing with the devil and debating with him ⁴⁵  concerning Moses’ body, he did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” 1:10 But these men do not understand the things they slander, and they are being destroyed by the very things that, like irrational animals, they instinctively comprehend. ⁴⁶ 

[42:9]  ¹ sn You are spies. Joseph wanted to see how his brothers would react if they were accused of spying.

[42:9]  ² tn Heb “to see the nakedness of the land you have come.”

[42:10]  ³ tn Heb “and they said to him.” In context this is best understood as an exclamation.

[42:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he said, ‘No, for the nakedness of the land you have come to see.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for clarity.

[42:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “twelve [were] your servants, brothers [are] we.”

[42:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “today.”

[42:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the one is not.”

[42:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “to you, saying.”

[42:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “[By] the life of Pharaoh.”

[42:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “send from you one and let him take.” After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose.

[42:16]  ¹¹ tn The disjunctive clause is here circumstantial-temporal.

[42:16]  ¹² tn Heb “bound.”

[42:16]  ¹³ tn The words “to see” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[42:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the truth [is] with you.”

[42:17]  ¹⁵ sn The same Hebrew word is used for Joseph’s imprisonment in 40:3, 4, 7. There is some mirroring going on in the narrative. The Hebrew word used here (אָסַף, ’asaf, “to gather”) is not normally used in a context like this (for placing someone in prison), but it forms a wordplay on the name Joseph (יוֹסֵף, yosoef) and keeps the comparison working.

[42:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Do this.”

[42:18]  ¹⁷ tn After the preceding imperative, the imperative with vav (ו) can, as here, indicate logical sequence.

[42:18]  ¹⁸ sn For I fear God. Joseph brings God into the picture to awaken his brothers’ consciences. The godly person cares about the welfare of people, whether they live or die. So he will send grain back, but keep one of them in Egypt. This action contrasts with their crime of selling their brother into slavery.

[2:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Joshua, son of Nun, sent from Shittim two men, spies, secretly, saying.”

[2:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “go, see the land, and Jericho.”

[2:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “they went and entered the house of a woman, a prostitute, and her name was Rahab, and they slept there.”

[2:2]  ²² tn Or “look.”

[2:2]  ²³ tn Heb “men have come here tonight from the sons of Israel.”

[2:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying.”

[2:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “bring out.”

[2:3]  ²⁶ tn The idiom “come to” (בוֹא אֶל, bo’ ’el) probably has sexual connotations here, as it often does elsewhere when a man “comes to” a woman. If so, the phrase could be translated “your clients.” The instructions reflect Rahab’s perspective as to the identity of the men.

[2:3]  ²⁷ tn The words “the ones who came to your house” (Heb “who came to your house”) may be a euphemistic scribal addition designed to blur the sexual connotation of the preceding words.

[1:23]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and save.”

[1:23]  ²⁹ tn Grk “and have mercy.”

[1:23]  ³⁰ tn Grk “with fear.” But as this contrasts with ἀφόβως (afobw") in v. 12 (without reverence), the posture of the false teachers, it most likely refers to reverence for God.

[1:23]  ³¹ sn The imagery here suggests that the things close to the sinners are contaminated by them, presumably during the process of sinning.

[1:23]  ³² tn Grk “hating even the tunic spotted by the flesh.” The “flesh” in this instance could refer to the body or to the sin nature. It makes little difference in one sense: Jude is thinking primarily of sexual sins, which are borne of the sin nature and manifest themselves in inappropriate deeds done with the body. At the same time, he is not saying that the body is intrinsically bad, a view held by the opponents of Christianity. Hence, it is best to see “flesh” as referring to the sin nature here and the language as metaphorical.

[1:24]  ³³ tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “free from falling” is the adjectival complement.

[1:24]  ³⁴ tn Grk “with rejoicing.” The prepositional clause is placed after “his glorious presence” in Greek, but most likely goes with “cause you to stand.”

[1:24]  ³⁵ tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “without blemish” is the adjectival complement.

[1:24]  ³⁶ tn Or “in the presence of his glory,” “before his glory.”

[1:2]  ³⁷ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[1:8]  ³⁸ tn The reference is now to the false teachers.

[1:8]  ³⁹ tn Grk “dreaming.” The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι (enupniazomenoi, “dreaming”) is adverbial to the pronoun οὗτοι (|outoi, “these”), though the particular relationship is not clear. It could mean, “while dreaming,” “by dreaming,” or “because of dreaming.” This translation has adopted the last option as Jude’s meaning, partially for syntactical reasons (the causal participle usually precedes the main verb) and partially for contextual reasons (these false teachers must derive their authority from some source, and the dreams provide the most obvious base). The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι was sometimes used of apocalyptic visions, both of true and false prophets. This seems to be the meaning here.

[1:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Most likely, the authority of the Lord is in view. This verse, then, echoes the indictment of v. 4: “they deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

[1:8]  ⁴¹ tn The construction with the three verbs (“defile, “reject,” and “insult”) involves the particles μέν, δέ, δέ (men, de, de). A more literal (and pedantic) translation would be: “on the one hand, they defile the flesh, on the other hand, they reject authority, and on another hand, they insult the glorious ones.”

[1:8]  ⁴² sn The glorious ones refers to angelic beings rather than mere human beings, just as in 2 Pet 2:10 (on which this passage apparently depends). Whether the angelic beings are good or evil, however, is difficult to tell (hence, the translation is left ambiguous). However, both in 2 Pet 2:11 and here, in Jude 9, the wicked angels seem to be in view (for not even Michael insults them).

[1:9]  ⁴³ tn The word “even” is not in Greek; it is implied by the height of the contrast.

[1:9]  ⁴⁴ sn According to Jewish intertestamental literature (such as 1 En. 20), Michael was one of seven archangels.

[1:9]  ⁴⁵ tn The sentence structure is a bit different in Greek. Literally it reads: “But Michael the archangel, when arguing with the devil and disputing.”

[1:10]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “they should naturally comprehend.” The present tense in this context may have a conative force.