Isaiah 3:15

3:15 Why do you crush my people

and grind the faces of the poor?” ¹ 

The sovereign Lord who commands armies ²  has spoken.

Ezekiel 18:2

18:2 “What do you mean by quoting this proverb concerning the land of Israel,

“‘The fathers eat sour grapes

And the children’s teeth become numb?’ ³ 

Acts 21:13

21:13 Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking ⁴  my heart? For I am ready not only to be tied up, ⁵  but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Romans 13:11

Motivation to Godly Conduct

13:11 And do this ⁶  because we know ⁷  the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers.

Ephesians 5:14

5:14 For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ⁸ 

“Awake, ⁹  O sleeper! ¹⁰ 

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!” ¹¹ 

[3:15]  ¹ sn The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s outrage at what the leaders have done to the poor. He finds it almost unbelievable that they would have the audacity to treat his people in this manner.

[3:15]  ² tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at 1:9.

[18:2]  ³ tn This word only occurs here and in the parallel passage in Jer 31:29-30 in the Qal stem and in Eccl 10:10 in the Piel stem. In the latter passage it refers to the bluntness of an ax that has not been sharpened. Here the idea is of the “bluntness” of the teeth, not from having ground them down due to the bitter taste of sour grapes but to the fact that they have lost their “edge,” “bite,” or “sharpness” because they are numb from the sour taste. For this meaning for the word, see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:197.

[21:13]  ⁴ tn The term translated “breaking” as used by Josephus (Ant. 10.10.4 [10.207]) means to break something into pieces, but in its only NT use (it is a hapax legomenon) it is used figuratively (BDAG 972 s.v. συνθρύπτω).

[21:13]  ⁵ tn L&N 18.13 has “to tie objects together – ‘to tie, to tie together, to tie up.’” The verb δέω (dew) is sometimes figurative for imprisonment (L&N 37.114), but it is preferable to translate it literally here in light of v. 11 where Agabus tied himself up with Paul’s belt.

[13:11]  ⁶ tn Grk “and this,” probably referring to the command to love (13:8-10); hence, “do” is implied from the previous verses.

[13:11]  ⁷ tn The participle εἰδότες (eidotes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

[5:14]  ⁸ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[5:14]  ⁹ tn Grk “Rise up.”

[5:14]  ¹⁰ tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (Jo kaqeudwn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. Thus, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”

[5:14]  ¹¹ sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, and 60:1.