Isaiah 36:6

36:6 Look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If someone leans on it for support, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him!

Deuteronomy 32:30-31

32:30 How can one man chase a thousand of them, ¹ 

and two pursue ten thousand;

unless their Rock had delivered them up, ² 

and the Lord had handed them over?

32:31 For our enemies’ ³  rock is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

Psalms 9:20

9:20 Terrify them, Lord! ⁴ 

Let the nations know they are mere mortals! ⁵  (Selah)

Psalms 146:3-5

146:3 Do not trust in princes,

or in human beings, who cannot deliver! ⁶ 

146:4 Their life’s breath departs, they return to the ground;

on that day their plans die. ⁷ 

146:5 How blessed is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord his God,

Ezekiel 28:9

28:9 Will you still say, “I am a god,” before the one who kills you –

though you are a man and not a god –

when you are in the power of those who wound you?

Acts 12:22-23

12:22 But the crowd ⁸  began to shout, ⁹  “The voice of a god, ¹⁰  and not of a man!” 12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ¹¹  struck ¹²  Herod ¹³  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ¹⁴ 

Acts 12:2

12:2 He had James, the brother of John, executed with a sword. ¹⁵ 

Acts 2:4-8

2:4 All ¹⁶  of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages ¹⁷  as the Spirit enabled them. ¹⁸ 

2:5 Now there were devout Jews ¹⁹  from every nation under heaven residing in Jerusalem. ²⁰  2:6 When this sound ²¹  occurred, a crowd gathered and was in confusion, ²²  because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 2:7 Completely baffled, they said, ²³  “Aren’t ²⁴  all these who are speaking Galileans? 2:8 And how is it that each one of us hears them ²⁵  in our own native language? ²⁶ 

[32:30]  ¹ tn The words “man” and “of them” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[32:30]  ² tn Heb “sold them” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[32:31]  ³ tn Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[9:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “place, Lord, terror with regard to them.” The Hebrew term מוֹרָה (morah, “terror”) is an alternative form of מוֹרָא (mora’; a reading that appears in some mss and finds support in several ancient textual witnesses).

[9:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “let the nations know they [are] man[kind]”; i.e., mere human beings (as opposed to God).

[146:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “in a son of man, to whom there is no deliverance.”

[146:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “his spirit goes out, it returns to his ground; in that day his plans die.” The singular refers to the representative man mentioned in v. 3b.

[12:22]  ⁸ tn The translation “crowd” is given by BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος; the word often means a gathering of citizens to conduct public business. Here it is simply the group of people gathered to hear the king’s speech.

[12:22]  ⁹ tn The imperfect verb ἐπεφώνει (epefwnei) is taken ingressively in the sequence of events. Presumably the king had started his speech when the crowd began shouting.

[12:22]  ¹⁰ sn The voice of a god. Contrast the response of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:13-15.

[12:23]  ¹¹ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ¹² sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

[12:23]  ¹³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ¹⁴ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).

[12:2]  ¹⁵ sn The expression executed with a sword probably refers to a beheading. James was the first known apostolic martyr (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 2.9.1-3). On James, not the Lord’s brother, see Luke 5:10; 6:14. This death ended a short period of peace noted in Acts 9:31 after the persecution mentioned in 8:1-3.

[2:4]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “And all.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[2:4]  ¹⁷ tn The Greek term is γλώσσαις (glwssai"), the same word used for the tongues of fire.

[2:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “just as the spirit gave them to utter.” The verb ἀποφθέγγομαι (apofqengomai) was used of special utterances in Classical Greek (BDAG 125 s.v.).

[2:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Jews, devout men.” It is possible that only men are in view here in light of OT commands for Jewish men to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at various times during the year (cf. Exod 23:17, 34:23; Deut 16:16). However, other evidence seems to indicate that both men and women might be in view. Luke 2:41-52 shows that whole families would make the temporary trip to Jerusalem. In addition, it is probable that the audience consisted of families who had taken up permanent residence in Jerusalem. The verb κατοικέω (katoikew) normally means “reside” or “dwell,” and archaeological evidence from tombs in Jerusalem does indicate that many families immigrated to Jerusalem permanently (see B. Witherington, Acts, 135); this would naturally include women. Also, the word ἀνήρ (ajnhr), which usually does mean “male” or “man” (as opposed to woman), sometimes is used generically to mean “a person” (BDAG 79 s.v. 2; cf. Matt 12:41). Given this evidence, then, it is conceivable that the audience in view here is not individual male pilgrims but a mixed group of men and women.

[2:5]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Now there were residing in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.”

[2:6]  ²¹ tn Or “this noise.”

[2:6]  ²² tn Or “was bewildered.”

[2:7]  ²³ tn Grk “They were astounded and amazed, saying.” The two imperfect verbs, ἐξίσταντο (existanto) and ἐθαύμαζον (eqaumazon), show both the surprise and the confusion on the part of the hearers. The verb ἐξίσταντο (from ἐξίστημι, existhmi) often implies an illogical perception or response (BDAG 350 s.v. ἐξίστημι): “to be so astonished as to almost fail to comprehend what one has experienced” (L&N 25.218).

[2:7]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Behold, aren’t all these.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[2:8]  ²⁵ tn Grk “we hear them, each one of us.”

[2:8]  ²⁶ tn Grk “in our own language in which we were born.”