Isaiah 29:13

29:13 The sovereign master ¹  says,

“These people say they are loyal to me; ² 

they say wonderful things about me, ³ 

but they are not really loyal to me. ⁴ 

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual. ⁵ 

Isaiah 48:1-2

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ⁶ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁷ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁸  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁹ 

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ¹⁰ 

they trust in ¹¹  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 58:1-3

The Lord Desires Genuine Devotion

58:1 “Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet!

Yell as loud as a trumpet!

Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; ¹² 

confront Jacob’s family with their sin! ¹³ 

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ¹⁴ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

58:3 They lament, ¹⁵  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast?

Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ¹⁶ 

you oppress your workers. ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 33:30-32

33:30 “But as for you, son of man, your people ¹⁸  (who are talking about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses) say to one another, ¹⁹  ‘Come hear the word that comes ²⁰  from the Lord.’ 33:31 They come to you in crowds, ²¹  and they sit in front of you as ²²  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ²³  them. For they talk lustfully, ²⁴  and their heart is set on ²⁵  their own advantage. ²⁶  33:32 Realize ²⁷  that to them you are like a sensual song, a beautiful voice and skilled musician. ²⁸  They hear your words, but they do not obey them. ²⁹ 

Matthew 7:15

A Tree and Its Fruit

7:15 “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. ³⁰ 

Matthew 23:27-28

23:27 “Woe to you, experts in the law ³¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. ³²  23:28 In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Romans 2:20-24

2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth – 2:21 therefore ³³  you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor ³⁴  idols, do you rob temples? 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” ³⁵ 

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ³⁶ Therefore ³⁷  you are without excuse, ³⁸  whoever you are, ³⁹  when you judge someone else. ⁴⁰  For on whatever grounds ⁴¹  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Romans 5:8

5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Titus 1:16

1:16 They profess to know God but with their deeds they deny him, since they are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

[29:13]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[29:13]  ² tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”

[29:13]  ³ tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”

[29:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “but their heart is far from me.” The heart is viewed here as the seat of the will, from which genuine loyalty derives.

[29:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”

[48:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[48:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

[48:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

[58:1]  ¹² tn Heb “declare to my people their rebellion.”

[58:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “and to the house of Jacob their sin.” The verb “declare” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[58:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[58:3]  ¹⁵ tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

[58:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

[33:30]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “sons of your people.”

[33:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “one to one, a man to his brother.”

[33:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “comes out.”

[33:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “as people come.” Apparently this is an idiom indicating that they come in crowds. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:264.

[33:31]  ²² tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

[33:31]  ²³ tn Heb “do.”

[33:31]  ²⁴ tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

[33:31]  ²⁵ tn Heb “goes after.”

[33:31]  ²⁶ tn The present translation understands the term often used for “unjust gain” in a wider sense, following M. Greenberg, who also notes that the LXX uses a term which can describe either sexual or ritual pollution. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:687.

[33:32]  ²⁷ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[33:32]  ²⁸ tn Heb “one who makes playing music well.”

[33:32]  ²⁹ sn Similar responses are found in Isa 29:13; Matt 21:28-32; James 1:22-25.

[7:15]  ³⁰ sn Sheep’s clothing…voracious wolves. Jesus uses a metaphor here to point out that these false prophets appear to be one thing, but in reality they are something quite different and dangerous.

[23:27]  ³¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:27]  ³² sn This was an idiom for hypocrisy – just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (for discussion of a similar metaphor, see L&N 88.234; BDAG 1010 s.v. τοῖχος). See Deut 28:22; Ezek 13:10-16; Acts 23:3.

[2:21]  ³³ tn The structure of vv. 21-24 is difficult. Some take these verses as the apodosis of the conditional clauses (protases) in vv. 17-20; others see vv. 17-20 as an instance of anacoluthon (a broken off or incomplete construction).

[2:22]  ³⁴ tn Or “detest.”

[2:24]  ³⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.

[2:1]  ³⁶ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ³⁷ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ³⁸ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ³⁹ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”