Isaiah 59:2-3

59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;

your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹ 

59:3 For your hands are stained with blood

and your fingers with sin;

your lips speak lies,

your tongue utters malicious words.

Jeremiah 7:8-10

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ²  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ³  that will not deliver you. ⁴  7:9 You steal. ⁵  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ⁶  other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ⁷  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ⁸ 

Micah 3:9-11

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family ⁹  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ¹⁰  of Israel!

You ¹¹  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

3:10 You ¹²  build Zion through bloody crimes, ¹³ 

Jerusalem ¹⁴  through unjust violence.

3:11 Her ¹⁵  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ¹⁶ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ¹⁷  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ¹⁸ 

Disaster will not overtake ¹⁹  us!”

[59:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”

[7:8]  ² tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ³ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[7:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:10]  ⁸ tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”

[3:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).

[3:10]  ¹² tn Heb “who.”

[3:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”

[3:10]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:11]  ¹⁵ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ¹⁹ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”