Genesis 13:13

13:13 (Now ¹  the people ²  of Sodom were extremely wicked rebels against the Lord.) ³ 

Genesis 18:20

18:20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against ⁴  Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant ⁵ 

Exodus 16:2

16:2 The entire company ⁶  of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron in the desert.

Exodus 23:2

23:2 “You must not follow a crowd ⁷  in doing evil things; ⁸  in a lawsuit you must not offer testimony that agrees with a crowd so as to pervert justice, ⁹ 

Jeremiah 5:1-6

Judah is Justly Deserving of Coming Judgment

5:1 The Lord said, ¹⁰ 

“Go up and down ¹¹  through the streets of Jerusalem. ¹² 

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. ¹³ 

If you can, ¹⁴  then I will not punish this city. ¹⁵ 

5:2 These people make promises in the name of the Lord. ¹⁶ 

But the fact is, ¹⁷  what they swear to is really a lie.” ¹⁸ 

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ¹⁹ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ²⁰ 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ²¹ 

They refuse to change their ways. ²² 

5:4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. ²³ 

They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. ²⁴ 

They do not know what their God requires of them. ²⁵ 

5:5 I will go to the leaders ²⁶ 

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands. ²⁷ 

Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ²⁸ 

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him. ²⁹ 

5:6 So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them.

Like a wolf from the desert they will destroy them.

Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their cities

and totally destroy anyone who ventures out. ³⁰ 

For they have rebelled so much

and done so many unfaithful things. ³¹ 

Jeremiah 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ³² 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ³³ 

Matthew 27:20-25

27:20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. 27:21 The ³⁴  governor asked them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas!” 27:22 Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?” ³⁵  They all said, “Crucify him!” ³⁶  27:23 He asked, “Why? What wrong has he done?” But they shouted more insistently, “Crucify him!”

Jesus is Condemned and Mocked

27:24 When ³⁷  Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but that instead a riot was starting, he took some water, washed his hands before the crowd and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You take care of it yourselves!” ³⁸  27:25 In ³⁹  reply all the people said, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

[13:13]  ¹ tn Here is another significant parenthetical clause in the story, signaled by the vav (וו) disjunctive (translated “now”) on the noun at the beginning of the clause.

[13:13]  ² tn Heb “men.” However, this is generic in sense; it is unlikely that only the male residents of Sodom were sinners.

[13:13]  ³ tn Heb “wicked and sinners against the Lord exceedingly.” The description of the sinfulness of the Sodomites is very emphatic. First, two nouns are used to form a hendiadys: “wicked and sinners” means “wicked sinners,” the first word becoming adjectival. The text is saying these were no ordinary sinners; they were wicked sinners, the type that cause pain for others. Then to this phrase is added “against the Lord,” stressing their violation of the laws of heaven and their culpability. Finally, to this is added מְאֹד (mÿ’od, “exceedingly,” translated here as “extremely”).

[18:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “the outcry of Sodom,” which apparently refers to the outcry for divine justice from those (unidentified persons) who observe its sinful ways.

[18:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “heavy.”

[16:2]  ⁶ tn Or “community” or “assembly.”

[23:2]  ⁷ tn The word רָבִּים (rabbim), here rendered “crowd,” is also used infrequently to refer to the “mighty,” people of importance in society (Job 35:9; cf. Lev 19:15).

[23:2]  ⁸ tn For any individual to join a group that is bent on acting wickedly would be a violation of the Law and would incur personal responsibility.

[23:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “you will not answer in a lawsuit to turn after the crowd to turn.” The form translated “agrees with” (Heb “to turn after”) is a Qal infinitive construct from נָטָה (natah); the same root is used at the end of the verse but as a Hiphil infinitive construct, “to pervert [justice].”

[5:1]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “who does justice and seeks faithfulness.”

[5:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “squares. If you can find…if there is one person…then I will…”

[5:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “forgive [or pardon] it.”

[5:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.

[5:2]  ¹⁷ tc The translation follows many Hebrew mss and the Syriac version in reading “surely” (אָכֵן, ’akhen) instead of “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) in the MT.

[5:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they swear falsely.”

[5:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ²⁰ tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

[5:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ²² tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[5:4]  ²³ tn Heb “Surely they are poor.” The translation is intended to make clear the explicit contrasts and qualifications drawn in this verse and the next.

[5:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ²⁶ tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”

[5:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.

[5:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “So a lion from the thicket will kill them. A wolf from the desert will destroy them. A leopard will watch outside their cities. Anyone who goes out from them will be torn in pieces.” However, it is unlikely that, in the context of judgment that Jeremiah has previously been describing, literal lions are meant. The animals are metaphorical for their enemies. Compare Jer 4:7.

[5:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “their rebellions are so many and their unfaithful acts so numerous.”

[5:31]  ³² tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ³³ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[27:21]  ³⁴ tn Grk “answering, the governor said to them.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:22]  ³⁵ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[27:22]  ³⁶ tn Grk “Him – be crucified!” The third person imperative is difficult to translate because English has no corresponding third person form for the imperative. The traditional translation “Let him be crucified” sounds as if the crowd is giving consent or permission. “He must be crucified” is closer, but it is more natural in English to convert the passive to active and simply say “Crucify him.”

[27:24]  ³⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:24]  ³⁸ sn You take care of it yourselves! Compare the response of the chief priests and elders to Judas in 27:4. The expression is identical except that in 27:4 it is singular and here it is plural.

[27:25]  ³⁹ tn Grk “answering, all the people said.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.