Isaiah 10:5-6

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ¹ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ² 

10:6 I sent him ³  against a godless ⁴  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ⁵ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ⁶  like dirt in the streets.

Isaiah 10:15

10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,

or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? ⁷ 

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

Isaiah 45:7

45:7 I am ⁸  the one who forms light

and creates darkness; ⁹ 

the one who brings about peace

and creates calamity. ¹⁰ 

I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.

Isaiah 46:10-11

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand ¹¹  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

46:11 who summons an eagle ¹²  from the east,

from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.

Yes, I have decreed, ¹³ 

yes, I will bring it to pass;

I have formulated a plan,

yes, I will carry it out.

Genesis 50:20

50:20 As for you, you meant to harm me, ¹⁴  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 17:13

17:13 Rise up, Lord!

Confront him! ¹⁶  Knock him down! ¹⁷ 

Use your sword to rescue me from the wicked man! ¹⁸ 

Psalms 76:10

76:10 Certainly ¹⁹  your angry judgment upon men will bring you praise; ²⁰ 

you reveal your anger in full measure. ²¹ 

Amos 3:6

3:6 If an alarm sounds ²²  in a city, do people not fear? ²³ 

If disaster overtakes a ²⁴  city, is the Lord not responsible? ²⁵ 

Acts 2:23

2:23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed ²⁶  by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. ²⁷ 

Acts 4:27-28

4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against ²⁸  your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ²⁹  4:28 to do as much as your power ³⁰  and your plan ³¹  had decided beforehand ³²  would happen.

Acts 4:1

The Arrest and Trial of Peter and John

4:1 While Peter and John ³³  were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander ³⁴  of the temple guard ³⁵  and the Sadducees ³⁶  came up ³⁷  to them,

Acts 2:8

2:8 And how is it that each one of us hears them ³⁸  in our own native language? ³⁹ 

Jude 1:4

1:4 For certain men ⁴⁰  have secretly slipped in among you ⁴¹  – men who long ago ⁴²  were marked out ⁴³  for the condemnation I am about to describe ⁴⁴  – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil ⁴⁵  and who deny our only Master ⁴⁶  and Lord, ⁴⁷  Jesus Christ.

[10:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

[10:5]  ² tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”

[10:6]  ³ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

[10:6]  ⁴ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[10:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”

[45:7]  ⁸ tn The words “I am” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the participle at the beginning of v. 7 stands in apposition to “the Lord” in v. 6.

[45:7]  ⁹ tn On the surface v. 7a appears to describe God’s sovereign control over the cycle of day and night, but the following statement suggests that “light” and “darkness” symbolize “deliverance” and “judgment.”

[45:7]  ¹⁰ sn This verses affirms that God is ultimately sovereign over his world, including mankind and nations. In accordance with his sovereign will, he can cause wars to cease and peace to predominate (as he was about to do for his exiled people through Cyrus), or he can bring disaster and judgment on nations (as he was about to do to Babylon through Cyrus).

[46:10]  ¹¹ tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”

[46:11]  ¹² tn Or, more generally, “a bird of prey” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV; see 18:6).

[46:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “spoken”; KJV “I have spoken it.”

[50:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

[50:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”

[17:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Be in front of his face.”

[17:13]  ¹⁷ tn Or “bring him to his knees.”

[17:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “rescue my life from the wicked [one] [by] your sword.”

[76:10]  ¹⁹ tn Or “for.”

[76:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the anger of men will praise you.” This could mean that men’s anger (subjective genitive), when punished by God, will bring him praise, but this interpretation does not harmonize well with the next line. The translation assumes that God’s anger is in view here (see v. 7) and that “men” is an objective genitive. God’s angry judgment against men brings him praise because it reveals his power and majesty (see vv. 1-4).

[76:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “the rest of anger you put on.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear. Perhaps the idea is that God, as he prepares for battle, girds himself with every last ounce of his anger, as if it were a weapon.

[3:6]  ²² tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

[3:6]  ²³ tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

[3:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”

[2:23]  ²⁶ tn Or “you killed.”

[2:23]  ²⁷ tn Grk “at the hands of lawless men.” At this point the term ἄνομος (anomo") refers to non-Jews who live outside the Jewish (Mosaic) law, rather than people who broke any or all laws including secular laws. Specifically it is a reference to the Roman soldiers who carried out Jesus’ crucifixion.

[4:27]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ sn A wordplay on “Christ,” v. 26, which means “one who has been anointed.”

[4:28]  ³⁰ tn Grk “hand,” here a metaphor for God’s strength or power or authority.

[4:28]  ³¹ tn Or “purpose,” “will.”

[4:28]  ³² tn Or “had predestined.” Since the term “predestine” is something of a technical theological term, not in wide usage in contemporary English, the translation “decide beforehand” was used instead (see L&N 30.84). God’s direction remains as the major theme.

[4:1]  ³³ tn Grk “While they”; the referents (Peter and John) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:1]  ³⁴ tn Or “captain.”

[4:1]  ³⁵ tn Grk “the official of the temple,” a title for the commander of the Jewish soldiers guarding the temple (thus the translation, “the commander of the temple guard”). See L&N 37.91.

[4:1]  ³⁶ sn The Sadducees controlled the official political structures of Judaism at this time, being the majority members of the Sanhedrin. They were known as extremely strict on law and order issues (Josephus, J. W. 2.8.2 [2.119], 2.8.14 [2.164-166]; Ant. 13.5.9 [13.171-173], 13.10.6 [13.293-298], 18.1.2 [18.11], 18.1.4 [18.16-17], 20.9.1 [20.199]; Life 2 [10-11]). See also Matt 3:7; 16:1-12; 22:23-34; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8.

[4:1]  ³⁷ tn Or “approached.” This verb often denotes a sudden appearing (BDAG 418 s.v. ἐφίστημι 1).

[2:8]  ³⁸ tn Grk “we hear them, each one of us.”

[2:8]  ³⁹ tn Grk “in our own language in which we were born.”

[1:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “people.” However, if Jude is indeed arguing that Peter’s prophecy about false teachers has come true, these are most likely men in the original historical and cultural setting. See discussion of this point in the note on the phrase “these men” in 2 Pet 2:12.

[1:4]  ⁴¹ tn “Among you” is not in the Greek text, but is obviously implied.

[1:4]  ⁴² tn Or “in the past.” The adverb πάλαι (palai) can refer to either, though the meaning “long ago” is more common.

[1:4]  ⁴³ tn Grk “written about.”

[1:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “for this condemnation.” τοῦτο (touto) is almost surely a kataphoric demonstrative pronoun, pointing to what follows in vv. 5-18. Otherwise, the condemnation is only implied (in v. 3b) or is merely a statement of their sinfulness (“ungodly” in v. 4b), not a judgment of it.

[1:4]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “debauchery.” This is the same word Peter uses to predict what the false teachers will be like (2 Pet 2:2, 7, 18).

[1:4]  ⁴⁶ tc Most later witnesses (P Ψ Ï sy) have θεόν (qeon, “God”) after δεσπότην (despothn, “master”), which appears to be a motivated reading in that it explicitly links “Master” to “God” in keeping with the normal NT pattern (see Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; 2 Tim 2:21; Rev 6:10). In patristic Greek, δεσπότης (despoth") was used especially of God (cf. BDAG 220 s.v. 1.b.). The earlier and better witnesses (Ì^72,78 א A B C 0251 33 81 323 1241 1739 al co) lack θεόν; the shorter reading is thus preferred on both internal and external grounds.

[1:4]  ⁴⁷ tn The terms “Master and Lord” both refer to the same person. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. For more discussion see ExSyn 270-78. See also Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1