Isaiah 36:22--37:1

36:22 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief ¹  and reported to him what the chief adviser had said. 37:1 When King Hezekiah heard this, ²  he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple.

Jeremiah 36:23-24

36:23 As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns ³  of the scroll, the king ⁴  would cut them off with a penknife ⁵  and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. ⁶  36:24 Neither he nor any of his attendants showed any alarm when they heard all that had been read. Nor did they tear their clothes to show any grief or sorrow. ⁷ 

Acts 14:13-14

14:13 The priest of the temple ⁸  of Zeus, ⁹  located just outside the city, brought bulls ¹⁰  and garlands ¹¹  to the city gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifices to them. ¹²  14:14 But when the apostles ¹³  Barnabas and Paul heard about ¹⁴  it, they tore ¹⁵  their clothes and rushed out ¹⁶  into the crowd, shouting, ¹⁷ 

[36:22]  ¹ tn Heb “with their clothes torn”; the words “in grief” have been supplied in the translation to indicate that this was done as a sign of grief and mourning.

[37:1]  ² tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[36:23]  ³ tn Heb “doors.” This is the only time the word “door” is used in this way but all the commentaries and lexicons agree that it means “columns.” The meaning is figurative based on the similarity of shape.

[36:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “he.” The majority of commentaries and English versions are agreed that “he” is the king. However, since a penknife (Heb “a scribe’s razor”) is used to cut the columns off, it is possible that Jehudi himself did it. However, even if Jehudi himself did it, he was acting on the king’s orders.

[36:23]  ⁵ sn Heb “a scribe’s razor.” There is some irony involved here since a scribe’s razor was used to trim the sheets to be sewn together, scrape them in preparation for writing, and to erase errors. What was normally used to prepare the scroll was used to destroy it.

[36:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “until the whole scroll was consumed upon the fire which was in the fire pot.”

[36:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “Neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words were afraid or tore their clothes.” The sentence has been broken up into two shorter sentences to better conform to English style and some of the terms explained (e.g., tore their clothes) for the sake of clarity.

[14:13]  ⁸ tn The words “the temple of” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. The translation “the priest of (the temple/shrine of) Zeus located before the city” is given for this phrase by BDAG 426 s.v. Ζεύς.

[14:13]  ⁹ sn See the note on Zeus in the previous verse.

[14:13]  ¹⁰ tn Or “oxen.”

[14:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “wreaths.”

[14:13]  ¹² tn The words “to them” are not in the Greek text, but are clearly implied by the response of Paul and Barnabas in the following verse.

[14:14]  ¹³ sn The apostles Barnabas and Paul. This is one of only two places where Luke calls Paul an apostle, and the description here is shared with Barnabas. This is a nontechnical use here, referring to a commissioned messenger.

[14:14]  ¹⁴ tn The participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is taken temporally.

[14:14]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “tearing their clothes they rushed out.” The participle διαρρήξαντες (diarrhxante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. This action is a Jewish response to blasphemy (m. Sanhedrin 7.5; Jdt 14:16-17).

[14:14]  ¹⁶ tn So BDAG 307 s.v. ἐκπηδάω 1, “rush (lit. ‘leap’) out…εἰς τὸν ὄχλον into the crowd Ac 14:14.”

[14:14]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “shouting and saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes, in v. 15) has not been translated because it is redundant.