Hosea 5:1-2

Announcement of Sin and Judgment

5:1 Hear this, you priests!

Pay attention, you Israelites! ¹ 

Listen closely, ²  O king! ³ 

For judgment is about to overtake you! ⁴ 

For you were like a trap ⁵  to Mizpah, ⁶ 

like a net ⁷  spread out to catch Tabor. ⁸ 

5:2 Those who revolt are knee-deep in slaughter, ⁹ 

but I will discipline them all. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 1:23

1:23 Your officials are rebels, ¹¹ 

they associate with ¹²  thieves.

All of them love bribery,

and look for ¹³  payoffs. ¹⁴ 

They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ¹⁵ 

or defend the rights of the widow. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 5:5

5:5 I will go to the leaders ¹⁷ 

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands. ¹⁸ 

Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ¹⁹ 

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him. ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 22:27

22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit.

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ²¹  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ²² 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ²³  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ²⁴ 

Disaster will not overtake ²⁵  us!”

Zephaniah 3:3

3:3 Her princes ²⁶  are as fierce as roaring lions; ²⁷ 

her rulers ²⁸  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ²⁹ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ³⁰ 

Acts 4:5-7

4:5 On the next day, ³¹  their rulers, elders, and experts in the law ³²  came together ³³  in Jerusalem. ³⁴  4:6 Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others who were members of the high priest’s family. ³⁵  4:7 After ³⁶  making Peter and John ³⁷  stand in their midst, they began to inquire, “By what power or by what name ³⁸  did you do this?”

Acts 4:27

4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against ³⁹  your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ⁴⁰ 

Acts 5:21

5:21 When they heard this, they entered the temple courts ⁴¹  at daybreak and began teaching. ⁴² 

Now when the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they summoned the Sanhedrin ⁴³  – that is, the whole high council ⁴⁴  of the Israelites ⁴⁵  – and sent to the jail to have the apostles ⁴⁶  brought before them. ⁴⁷ 

[5:1]  ¹ tn Heb “O house of Israel” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); NLT “all of Israel’s leaders.”

[5:1]  ² tn Heb “Use the ear”; ASV “give ear.”

[5:1]  ³ tn Heb “O house of the king” (so KJV); NIV “O royal house.”

[5:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “for the judgment is to you”; or “For this accusation is against you.” Cf. NIV “This judgment is against you.”

[5:1]  ⁵ sn The noun פַּח (pakh, “trap”) is used (1) literally of a bird-trap, used in similes and metaphors (Amos 3:5; Prov 7:23; Eccl 9:12), and (2) figuratively to refer to (a) calamities and plots (Job 18:9; 22:10; Pss 91:3; 119:110; 124:7; 140:6; 141:9; 142:4; Prov 22:5; Isa 24:17-18; Jer 18:22; 48:43-44; Hos 9:8) and (b) a source of calamity (Josh 23:13; Pss 11:6; 69:23; Isa 8:14; Hos 5:1; BDB 809 s.v. פַּח).

[5:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “you were a trap to Mizpah.”

[5:1]  ⁷ sn The noun רֶשֶׁת (reshet, “net”) is used (1) literally of a net used to catch birds (Prov 1:17) and (2) in figurative descriptions of the wicked plotting to ensnare their victims (Prov 29:5; Pss 9:16; 10:9; 25:15; 31:5; 35:7; 57:7; 140:6; Job 18:8; BDB 440 s.v. רֶשֶׁת).

[5:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and a net spread out over Tabor.”

[5:2]  ⁹ tc The MT reads וְשַׁחֲטָה שֵׂטִים הֶעְמִיקוּ (vÿshakhatah setim he’miqu): “and rebels have made deep the slaughter.” The BHS editors propose ושַׁחַת הַשִּׁטִּים הֶעְמִיקוּ (vÿshakhat hashittim he’miqu): “they have made the pit of Shittim [place of idolatry] deep” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT; see BDB 1006 s.v. שַׁחֲטָּה). This involves: (1) phonological confusion between the similar sounding consonants ת (tav) and ט (tet), (2) redivision of words to take ה (hey) as the article with הַשִּׁטִּים rather than feminine noun ending of וְשַׁחֲטָה, and (3) revocalization of הַשִּׁטִּים with the two daghesh fortes. Retaining the reading of the MT is preferable here.

[5:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “but I am discipline to all of them”; ASV “but I am a rebuker of them all.”

[1:23]  ¹¹ tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”

[1:23]  ¹² tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”

[1:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”

[1:23]  ¹⁴ sn Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts (שַׁלְמוֹנִים, shalmonim; a hapax legomena here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness (שָׁלוֹם, shalom), they sought after payoffs (שַׁלְמוֹנִים).

[1:23]  ¹⁵ sn See the note at v. 17.

[1:23]  ¹⁶ sn The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.

[5:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”

[5:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

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

[3:11]  ²¹ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ²² tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ²³ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ²⁵ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[3:3]  ²⁶ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ²⁸ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

[4:5]  ³¹ tn Grk “It happened that on the next day.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[4:5]  ³² tn Or “and scribes.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[4:5]  ³³ tn Or “law assembled,” “law met together.”

[4:5]  ³⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:6]  ³⁵ sn The high priest’s family. This family controlled the high priesthood as far back as a.d. 6. Annas, Caiaphas, and Alexander were all high priests at one time (though Alexander held that office after this event).

[4:7]  ³⁶ tn Grk “And after.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new sentence is begun in the translation at the beginning of v. 7.

[4:7]  ³⁷ tn Grk “making them”; the referents (Peter and John) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:7]  ³⁸ sn By what name. The issue of the “name” comes up again here. This question, meaning “by whose authority,” surfaces an old dispute (see Luke 20:1-8). Who speaks for God about the ancient faith?

[4:27]  ³⁹ sn The application of Ps 2:1-2 is that Jews and Gentiles are opposing Jesus. The surprise of the application is that Jews are now found among the enemies of God’s plan.

[4:27]  ⁴⁰ sn A wordplay on “Christ,” v. 26, which means “one who has been anointed.”

[5:21]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “the temple.” See the note on the same phrase in the preceding verse.

[5:21]  ⁴² tn The imperfect verb ἐδίδασκον (edidaskon) has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.

[5:21]  ⁴³ tn Or “the council” (the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

[5:21]  ⁴⁴ tn A hendiadys (two different terms referring to a single thing) is likely here (a reference to a single legislative body rather than two separate ones) because the term γερουσίαν (gerousian) is used in both 1 Macc 12:6 and Josephus, Ant. 13.5.8 (13.166) to refer to the Sanhedrin.

[5:21]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “sons of Israel.”

[5:21]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “have them”; the referent (the apostles) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:21]  ⁴⁷ tn The words “before them” are not in the Greek text but are implied.