Isaiah 28:15

28:15 For you say,

“We have made a treaty with death,

with Sheol ¹  we have made an agreement. ² 

When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ³ 

it will not reach us.

For we have made a lie our refuge,

we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ⁴ 

Isaiah 28:2

28:2 Look, the sovereign master ⁵  sends a strong, powerful one. ⁶ 

With the force of a hailstorm or a destructive windstorm, ⁷ 

with the might of a driving, torrential rainstorm, ⁸ 

he will knock that crown ⁹  to the ground with his hand. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 30:10

30:10 They ¹¹  say to the visionaries, “See no more visions!”

and to the seers, “Don’t relate messages to us about what is right! ¹² 

Tell us nice things,

relate deceptive messages. ¹³ 

Isaiah 36:16

36:16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. ¹⁴  Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

Jeremiah 15:17

15:17 I did not spend my time in the company of other people,

laughing and having a good time.

I stayed to myself because I felt obligated to you ¹⁵ 

and because I was filled with anger at what they had done.

Jeremiah 20:7

Jeremiah Complains about the Reaction to His Ministry

20:7 Lord, you coerced me into being a prophet,

and I allowed you to do it.

You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me. ¹⁶ 

Now I have become a constant laughingstock.

Everyone ridicules me.

Matthew 27:39

27:39 Those ¹⁷  who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads

Matthew 27:44

27:44 The ¹⁸  robbers who were crucified with him also spoke abusively to him. ¹⁹ 

Acts 13:40-41

13:40 Watch out, ²⁰  then, that what is spoken about by ²¹  the prophets does not happen to you:

13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! ²² 

For I am doing a work in your days,

a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” ²³ 

Acts 17:32

17:32 Now when they heard about ²⁴  the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, ²⁵  but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

[28:15]  ¹ sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.

[28:15]  ² tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.

[28:15]  ³ tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).

[28:15]  ⁴ sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.

[28:2]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 22 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[28:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “Look, a strong and powerful [one] belongs to the Lord.”

[28:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “like a rainstorm of hail, a wind of destruction.”

[28:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “like a rainstorm of mighty, overflowing waters.”

[28:2]  ⁹ tn The words “that crown” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The object of the verb is unexpressed in the Hebrew text.

[28:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “by [his] power.”

[30:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who” (so NASB, NRSV). A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:10]  ¹² tn Heb “Do not see for us right things.”

[30:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “Tell us smooth things, see deceptive things.”

[36:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”

[15:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “because of your hand.”

[20:7]  ¹⁶ tn The translation is admittedly interpretive but so is every other translation that tries to capture the nuance of the verb rendered here “coerced.” Here the Hebrew text reads: “You [ – ]ed me and I let myself be [ – ]ed. You overpowered me and prevailed.” The value one assigns to [ – ] is in every case interpretive based on what one thinks the context is referring to. The word is rendered “deceived” or “tricked” by several English versions (see, e.g., KJV, NASB, TEV, ICV) as though God had misled him. It is rendered “enticed” by some (see, e.g., NRSV, NJPS) as though God had tempted him with false hopes. Some go so far as to accuse Jeremiah of accusing God of metaphorically “raping” him. It is true that the word is used of “seducing” a virgin in Exod 22:15 and that it is used in several places to refer to “deceiving” someone with false words (Prov 24:28; Ps 78:36). It is also true that it is used of “coaxing” someone to reveal something he does not want to (Judg 14:15; 16:5) and of “enticing” someone to do something on the basis of false hopes (1 Kgs 22:20-22; Prov 1:10). However, it does not always have negative connotations or associations. In Hos 2:14 (2:16 HT) God “charms” or “woos” Israel, his estranged ‘wife,’ into the wilderness where he hopes to win her back to himself. What Jeremiah is alluding to here is crucial for translating and interpreting the word. There is no indication in this passage that Jeremiah is accusing God of misleading him or raising false hopes; God informed him at the outset that he would encounter opposition (1:17-19). Rather, he is alluding to his call to be a prophet, a call which he initially resisted but was persuaded to undertake because of God’s persistence (Jer 1:7-10). The best single word to translate ‘…’ with is thus “persuaded” or “coerced.” The translation spells out the allusion explicitly so the reader is not left wondering about what is being alluded to when Jeremiah speaks of being “coerced.” The translation “I let you do it” is a way of rendering the Niphal of the same verb which must be tolerative rather than passive since the normal passive for the Piel would be the Pual (See IBHS 389-90 §23.4g for discussion and examples.). The translation “you overcame my resistance” is based on allusion to the same context (1:7-10) and the parallel use of חָזַק (khazaq) as a transitive verb with a direct object in 1 Kgs 16:22.

[27:39]  ¹⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:44]  ¹⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:44]  ¹⁹ sn Matthew’s wording suggests that both of the criminals spoke abusively to him. If so, one of them quickly changed his attitude toward Jesus (see Luke 23:40-43).

[13:40]  ²⁰ sn The speech closes with a warning, “Watch out,” that also stresses culpability.

[13:40]  ²¹ tn Or “in.”

[13:41]  ²² tn Or “and die!”

[13:41]  ²³ sn A quotation from Hab 1:5. The irony in the phrase even if someone tells you, of course, is that Paul has now told them. So the call in the warning is to believe or else face the peril of being scoffers whom God will judge. The parallel from Habakkuk is that the nation failed to see how Babylon’s rising to power meant perilous judgment for Israel.

[17:32]  ²⁴ tn The participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") has been taken temporally.

[17:32]  ²⁵ tn L&N 33.408 has “some scoffed (at him) Ac 17:32” for ἐχλεύαζον (ecleuazon) here; the imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive imperfect (“began to scoff”).