Isaiah 8:13-15

8:13 You must recognize the authority of the Lord who commands armies. ¹ 

He is the one you must respect;

he is the one you must fear. ² 

8:14 He will become a sanctuary, ³ 

but a stone that makes a person trip,

and a rock that makes one stumble –

to the two houses of Israel. ⁴ 

He will become ⁵  a trap and a snare

to the residents of Jerusalem. ⁶ 

8:15 Many will stumble over the stone and the rock, ⁷ 

and will fall and be seriously injured,

and will be ensnared and captured.”

Isaiah 28:13

28:13 So the Lord’s word to them will sound like

meaningless gibberish,

senseless babbling,

a syllable here, a syllable there. ⁸ 

As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk, ⁹ 

and be injured, ensnared, and captured. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 57:14

57:14 He says, ¹¹ 

“Build it! Build it! Clear a way!

Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”

Matthew 13:21

13:21 But he has no root in himself and does not endure; ¹²  when ¹³  trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.

Matthew 24:24

24:24 For false messiahs ¹⁴  and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:1

The Destruction of the Temple

24:1 Now ¹⁵  as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings. ¹⁶ 

Matthew 2:6-8

2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,

for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” ¹⁷ 

2:7 Then Herod ¹⁸  privately summoned the wise men and determined from them when the star had appeared. 2:8 He ¹⁹  sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.”

[8:13]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts], him you must set apart.” The word order is emphatic, with the object being placed first.

[8:13]  ² tn Heb “he is your [object of] fear, he is your [object of] terror.” The roots יָרֵא (yare’) and עָרַץ (’arats) are repeated from v. 12b.

[8:14]  ³ tn Because the metaphor of protection (“sanctuary”) does not fit the negative mood that follows in vv. 14b-15, some contend that מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash, “sanctuary”) is probably a corruption of an original מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh, “snare”), a word that appears in the next line (cf. NAB and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:355-56). If the MT reading is retained (as in the above translation), the fact that Yahweh is a sanctuary wraps up the point of v. 13 and stands in contrast to God’s treatment of those who rebel against him (the rest of v. 14).

[8:14]  ⁴ sn The two “houses” of Israel (= the patriarch Jacob) are the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.

[8:14]  ⁵ tn These words are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. וְהָיָה (vÿhayah, “and he will be”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.

[8:14]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “over them” (so NASB); NCV “over this rock.”

[28:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord will be to them, ‘tsahv latsahv,’ etc.” See the note at v. 10. In this case the “Lord’s word” is not the foreigner’s strange sounding words (as in v. 10), but the Lord’s repeated appeals to them (like the one quoted in v. 12). As time goes on, the Lord’s appeals through the prophets will have no impact on the people; they will regard prophetic preaching as gibberish.

[28:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “as a result they will go and stumble backward.” Perhaps an infant falling as it attempts to learn to walk is the background image here (cf. v. 9b). The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) could be taken as indicating purpose (“in order that”), rather than simple result. In this case the people’s insensitivity to the message is caused by the Lord as a means of expediting their downfall.

[28:13]  ¹⁰ sn When divine warnings and appeals become gibberish to the spiritually insensitive, they have no guidance and are doomed to destruction.

[57:14]  ¹¹ tn Since God is speaking throughout this context, perhaps we should emend the text to “and I say.” However, divine speech is introduced in v. 15.

[13:21]  ¹² tn Grk “is temporary.”

[13:21]  ¹³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[24:24]  ¹⁴ tn Or “false christs”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[24:1]  ¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[24:1]  ¹⁶ sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 [15.380-425]; J. W. 5.5 [5.184-227] and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.

[2:6]  ¹⁷ sn A quotation from Mic 5:2.

[2:7]  ¹⁸ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[2:8]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.