Genesis 6:12

6:12 God saw the earth, and indeed ¹  it was ruined, ²  for all living creatures ³  on the earth were sinful. ⁴ 

Isaiah 1:9

1:9 If the Lord who commands armies ⁵  had not left us a few survivors,

we would have quickly become like Sodom, ⁶ 

we would have become like Gomorrah.

Isaiah 1:21-22

Purifying Judgment

1:21 How tragic that the once-faithful city

has become a prostitute! ⁷ 

She was once a center of ⁸  justice,

fairness resided in her,

but now only murderers. ⁹ 

1:22 Your ¹⁰  silver has become scum, ¹¹ 

your beer is diluted with water. ¹² 

Isaiah 57:1

57:1 The godly ¹³  perish,

but no one cares. ¹⁴ 

Honest people disappear, ¹⁵ 

when no one ¹⁶  minds ¹⁷ 

that the godly ¹⁸  disappear ¹⁹  because of ²⁰  evil. ²¹ 

Isaiah 63:5

63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ²² 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ²³ 

Jeremiah 5:1

Judah is Justly Deserving of Coming Judgment

5:1 The Lord said, ²⁴ 

“Go up and down ²⁵  through the streets of Jerusalem. ²⁶ 

Look around and see for yourselves.

Search through its public squares.

See if any of you can find a single person

who deals honestly and tries to be truthful. ²⁷ 

If you can, ²⁸  then I will not punish this city. ²⁹ 

Micah 7:1-2

Micah Laments Judah’s Sin

7:1 I am depressed! ³⁰ 

Indeed, ³¹  it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered,

and the grapes have been harvested. ³² 

There is no grape cluster to eat,

no fresh figs that I crave so much. ³³ 

7:2 Faithful men have disappeared ³⁴  from the land;

there are no godly men left. ³⁵ 

They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ³⁶ 

they hunt their own brother with a net. ³⁷ 

Matthew 24:12

24:12 and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold.

[6:12]  ¹ tn Or “God saw how corrupt the earth was.”

[6:12]  ² tn The repetition in the text (see v. 11) emphasizes the point.

[6:12]  ³ tn Heb “flesh.” Since moral corruption is in view here, most modern western interpreters understand the referent to be humankind. However, the phrase “all flesh” is used consistently of humankind and the animals in Gen 6-9 (6:17, 19; 7:15-16, 21; 8:17; 9:11, 15-17), suggesting that the author intends to picture all living creatures, humankind and animals, as guilty of moral failure. This would explain why the animals, not just humankind, are victims of the ensuing divine judgment. The OT sometimes views animals as morally culpable (Gen 9:5; Exod 21:28-29; Jonah 3:7-8). The OT also teaches that a person’s sin can contaminate others (people and animals) in the sinful person’s sphere (see the story of Achan, especially Josh 7:10). So the animals could be viewed here as morally contaminated because of their association with sinful humankind.

[6:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “had corrupted its way.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix on “way” refers to the collective “all flesh.” The construction “corrupt one’s way” occurs only here (though Ezek 16:47 uses the Hiphil in an intransitive sense with the preposition בְּ [bet, “in”] followed by “ways”). The Hiphil of שָׁחָת (shakhat) means “to ruin, to destroy, to corrupt,” often as here in a moral/ethical sense. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) here refers to behavior or moral character, a sense that it frequently carries (see BDB 203 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 6.a).

[1:9]  ⁵ tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts.” The title pictures God as the sovereign king who has at his disposal a multitude of attendants, messengers, and warriors to do his bidding. In some contexts, like this one, the military dimension of his rulership is highlighted. In this case, the title pictures him as one who leads armies into battle against his enemies.

[1:9]  ⁶ tc The translation assumes that כִּמְעָט (kim’at, “quickly,” literally, “like a little”) goes with what follows, contrary to the MT accents, which take it with what precedes. In this case, one could translate the preceding line, “If the Lord who commands armies had not left us a few survivors.” If כִּמְעָט goes with the preceding line (following the MT accents), this expression highlights the idea that there would only be a few survivors (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:20; H. Zobel, TDOT 8:456). Israel would not be almost like Sodom but exactly like Sodom.

[1:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “How she has become a prostitute, the faithful city!” The exclamatory אֵיכָה (’ekhah, “how!”) is used several times as the beginning of a lament (see Lam 1:1; 2;1; 4:1-2). Unlike a number of other OT passages that link references to Israel’s harlotry to idolatry, Isaiah here makes the connection with social and moral violations.

[1:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “filled with.”

[1:21]  ⁹ tn Or “assassins.” This refers to the oppressive rich and/or their henchmen. R. Ortlund (Whoredom, 78) posits that it serves as a synecdoche for all varieties of criminals, the worst being mentioned to imply all lesser ones. Since Isaiah often addressed his strongest rebuke to the rulers and leaders of Israel, he may have in mind the officials who bore the responsibility to uphold justice and righteousness.

[1:22]  ¹⁰ tn The pronoun is feminine singular; personified Jerusalem (see v. 21) is addressed.

[1:22]  ¹¹ tn Or “dross.” The word refers to the scum or impurites floating on the top of melted metal.

[1:22]  ¹² sn The metaphors of silver becoming impure and beer being watered down picture the moral and ethical degeneration that had occurred in Jerusalem.

[57:1]  ¹³ tn Or “righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the just man”; TEV “Good people.”

[57:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps, “understands.” Heb “and there is no man who sets [it] upon [his] heart.”

[57:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Men of loyalty are taken away.” The Niphal of אָסַף (’asaf) here means “to die.”

[57:1]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term בְּאֵין (bÿ’en) often has the nuance “when there is no.” See Prov 8:24; 11;14; 14:4; 15:22; 26:20; 29:18.

[57:1]  ¹⁷ tn Or “realizes”; Heb “understands” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[57:1]  ¹⁸ tn Or “righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the just man.”

[57:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “are taken away.” The Niphal of אָסַף (’asaf) here means “to die.”

[57:1]  ²⁰ tn The term מִפְּנֵי (mippÿne, “from the face of”) often has a causal nuance. It also appears with the Niphal of אָסַף (’asaph, “gather”) in 2 Chr 12:5: אֲשֶׁר־נֶאֶסְפוּ אֶל־יְרוּשָׁלַם מִפְּנֵי שִׁישָׁק (’asher-ne’esphu ’el-yÿrushalam mippÿney shishaq, “who had gathered at Jerusalem because of [i.e., due to fear of] Shishak”).

[57:1]  ²¹ tn The translation assumes that this verse, in proverbial fashion, laments society’s apathy over the persecution of the godly. The second half of the verse observes that such apathy results in more widespread oppression. Since the next verse pictures the godly being taken to a place of rest, some interpret the second half of v. 1 in a more positive vein. According to proponents of this view, God removes the godly so that they might be spared suffering and calamity, a fact which the general populace fails to realize.

[63:5]  ²² sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ²³ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”

[5:1]  ²⁴ tn These words are not in the text, but since the words at the end are obviously those of the Lord, they are supplied in the translation here to mark the shift in speaker from 4:29-31 where Jeremiah is the obvious speaker.

[5:1]  ²⁵ tn It is not clear who is being addressed here. The verbs are plural so they are not addressed to Jeremiah per se. Since the passage is talking about the people of Jerusalem, it is unlikely they are addressed here except perhaps rhetorically. Some have suggested that the heavenly court is being addressed here as in Job 1:6-8; 2:1-3. It is clear from Jer 23:18, 22; Amos 3:7 that the prophets had access to this heavenly counsel through visions (cf. 1 Kgs 22:19-23), so Jeremiah could have been privy to this speech through that means. Though these are the most likely addressee, it is too presumptuous to supply such an explicit addressee without clearer indication in the text. The translation will just have to run the risk of the probable erroneous assumption by most English readers that the addressee is Jeremiah.

[5:1]  ²⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “who does justice and seeks faithfulness.”

[5:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “squares. If you can find…if there is one person…then I will…”

[5:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “forgive [or pardon] it.”

[7:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “woe to me!” In light of the image that follows, perhaps one could translate, “I am disappointed.”

[7:1]  ³¹ tn Or “for.”

[7:1]  ³² tn Heb “I am like the gathering of the summer fruit, like the gleanings of the harvest.” Micah is not comparing himself to the harvested fruit. There is an ellipsis here, as the second half of the verse makes clear. The idea is, “I am like [one at the time] the summer fruit is gathered and the grapes are harvested.”

[7:1]  ³³ tn Heb “my appetite craves.”

[7:2]  ³⁴ tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”

[7:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”

[7:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”

[7:2]  ³⁷ sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.