Genesis 7:21-22

7:21 And all living things ¹  that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life ²  in its nostrils died.

Job 22:15-17

22:15 Will you keep to the old path ³ 

that evil men have walked –

22:16 men ⁴  who were carried off ⁵  before their time, ⁶ 

when the flood ⁷  was poured out ⁸ 

on their foundations? ⁹ 

22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 24:1-8

The Lord Will Judge the Earth

24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth

and leave it in ruins;

he will mar its surface

and scatter its inhabitants.

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ¹¹ 

the master as well as the servant, ¹² 

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ¹³ 

the seller as well as the buyer, ¹⁴ 

the borrower as well as the lender, ¹⁵ 

the creditor as well as the debtor. ¹⁶ 

24:3 The earth will be completely devastated

and thoroughly ransacked.

For the Lord has decreed this judgment. ¹⁷ 

24:4 The earth ¹⁸  dries up ¹⁹  and withers,

the world shrivels up and withers;

the prominent people of the earth ²⁰  fade away.

24:5 The earth is defiled by ²¹  its inhabitants, ²² 

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation, ²³ 

and broken the permanent treaty. ²⁴ 

24:6 So a treaty curse ²⁵  devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt. ²⁶ 

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, ²⁷ 

and are reduced to just a handful of people. ²⁸ 

24:7 The new wine dries up,

the vines shrivel up,

all those who like to celebrate ²⁹  groan.

24:8 The happy sound ³⁰  of the tambourines stops,

the revelry of those who celebrate comes to a halt,

the happy sound of the harp ceases.

Matthew 24:37-39

24:37 For just like the days of Noah ³¹  were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 24:38 For in those days before the flood, people ³²  were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. 24:39 And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. ³³  It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁴ 

Luke 17:26-27

17:26 Just ³⁵  as it was ³⁶  in the days of Noah, ³⁷  so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 17:27 People ³⁸  were eating, ³⁹  they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage – right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then ⁴⁰  the flood came and destroyed them all. ⁴¹ 

Luke 17:1

Sin, Forgiveness, Faith, and Service

17:1 Jesus ⁴²  said to his disciples, “Stumbling blocks are sure to come, but woe ⁴³  to the one through whom they come!

Luke 3:20

3:20 Herod added this to them all: He locked up John in prison.

Luke 3:2

3:2 during the high priesthood ⁴⁴  of Annas and Caiaphas, the word ⁴⁵  of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ⁴⁶ 

Luke 2:5

2:5 He went ⁴⁷  to be registered with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him, ⁴⁸  and who was expecting a child.

[7:21]  ¹ tn Heb “flesh.”

[7:22]  ² tn Heb “everything which [has] the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils from all which is in the dry land.”

[22:15]  ³ tn The “old path” here is the way of defiance to God. The text in these two verses is no doubt making reference to the flood in Genesis, one of the perennial examples of divine judgment.

[22:16]  ⁴ tn The word “men” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied to clarify the relative pronoun “who.”

[22:16]  ⁵ tn The verb קָמַט (qamat) basically means “to seize; to tie together to make a bundle.” So the Pual will mean “to be bundled away; to be carried off.”

[22:16]  ⁶ tn The clause has “and [it was] not the time.” It may be used adverbially here.

[22:16]  ⁷ tn The word is נָהַר (nahar, “river” or “current”); it is taken here in its broadest sense of the waters on the earth that formed the current of the flood (Gen 7:6, 10).

[22:16]  ⁸ tn The verb יָצַק (yatsaq) means “to pour out; to shed; to spill; to flow.” The Pual means “to be poured out” (as in Lev 21:10 and Ps 45:3).

[22:16]  ⁹ tn This word is then to be taken as an adverbial accusative of place. Another way to look at this verse is what A. B. Davidson (Job, 165) proposes “whose foundation was poured away and became a flood.” This would mean that that on which they stood sank away.

[22:17]  ¹⁰ tn The form in the text is “to them.” The LXX and the Syriac versions have “to us.”

[24:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”

[24:2]  ¹² tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”

[24:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”

[24:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”

[24:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”

[24:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”

[24:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.”

[24:4]  ¹⁸ tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (erets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37;12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).

[24:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.

[24:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (mÿrom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (mÿrome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.

[24:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”

[24:5]  ²² sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.

[24:5]  ²³ tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”

[24:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”

[24:6]  ²⁵ sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.

[24:6]  ²⁶ tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).

[24:6]  ²⁷ tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).

[24:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”

[24:7]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “all the joyful in heart,” but the context specifies the context as parties and drinking bouts.

[24:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the joy” (again later in this verse).

[24:37]  ³¹ sn Like the days of Noah, the time of the flood in Gen 6:5-8:22, the judgment will come as a surprise as people live their day to day lives.

[24:38]  ³² tn Grk “they,” but in an indefinite sense, “people.”

[24:39]  ³³ sn Like the flood that came and took them all away, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.

[24:39]  ³⁴ tn Grk “So also will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

[17:26]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[17:26]  ³⁶ tn Or “as it happened.”

[17:26]  ³⁷ sn Like the days of Noah, the time of the flood in Gen 6:5-8:22, the judgment will come as a surprise as people live their day to day lives.

[17:27]  ³⁸ tn Grk “They.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

[17:27]  ³⁹ tn These verbs (“eating… drinking… marrying… being given in marriage”) are all progressive imperfects, describing action in progress at that time.

[17:27]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[17:27]  ⁴¹ sn Like that flood came and destroyed them all, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.

[17:1]  ⁴² tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[17:1]  ⁴³ sn See Luke 6:24-26.

[3:2]  ⁴⁴ sn Use of the singular high priesthood to mention two figures is unusual but accurate, since Annas was the key priest from a.d. 6-15 and then his relatives were chosen for many of the next several years. After two brief tenures by others, his son-in-law Caiaphas came to power and stayed there until a.d. 36.

[3:2]  ⁴⁵ tn The term translated “word” here is not λόγος (logos) but ῥῆμα (rJhma), and thus could refer to the call of the Lord to John to begin ministry.

[3:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “desert.”

[2:5]  ⁴⁷ tn The words “He went” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied to begin a new sentence in the translation. The Greek sentence is longer and more complex than normal contemporary English usage.

[2:5]  ⁴⁸ tn Traditionally, “Mary, his betrothed.” Although often rendered in contemporary English as “Mary, who was engaged to him,” this may give the modern reader a wrong impression, since Jewish marriages in this period were typically arranged marriages. The term ἐμνηστευμένῃ (emnhsteumenh) may suggest that the marriage is not yet consummated, not necessarily that they are not currently married. Some mss read “the betrothed to him wife”; others, simply “his wife.” These readings, though probably not original, may give the right sense.