Isaiah 9:14-16

9:14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,

both the shoots and stalk ¹  in one day.

9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people ²  are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

9:16 The leaders of this nation were misleading people,

and the people being led were destroyed. ³ 

Isaiah 24:2

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ⁴ 

the master as well as the servant, ⁵ 

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ⁶ 

the seller as well as the buyer, ⁷ 

the borrower as well as the lender, ⁸ 

the creditor as well as the debtor. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ¹⁰ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 8:10-12

8:10 ¹² So I will give their wives to other men

and their fields to new owners.

For from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all practice deceit.

8:11 They offer only superficial help

for the hurt my dear people ¹³  have suffered. ¹⁴ 

They say, “Everything will be all right!”

But everything is not all right! ¹⁵ 

8:12 Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things?

No, they are not at all ashamed!

They do not even know how to blush!

So they will die just like others have died. ¹⁶ 

They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:11-12

23:11 Moreover, ¹⁷  the Lord says, ¹⁸ 

“Both the prophets and priests are godless.

I have even found them doing evil in my temple!

23:12 So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.

They will stumble and fall headlong.

For I will bring disaster on them.

A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ¹⁹ 

The Lord affirms it! ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 22:26-31

22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ²¹  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ²²  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst. 22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ²³  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ²⁴ 

22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ²⁵  22:31 So I have poured my anger on them, and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I hereby repay them for what they have done, ²⁶  declares the sovereign Lord.”

Matthew 15:14

15:14 Leave them! They are blind guides. ²⁷  If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, ²⁸  both will fall into a pit.”

[9:14]  ¹ sn The metaphor in this line is that of a reed being cut down.

[9:15]  ² tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

[9:16]  ³ tn Heb “and the ones being led were swallowed up.” Instead of taking מְבֻלָּעִים (mÿbulla’im) from בָּלַע (bala’, “to swallow”), HALOT 134 s.v. בלע proposes a rare homonymic root בלע (“confuse”) here.

[24:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”

[24:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”

[24:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”

[24:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”

[24:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”

[24:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”

[5:31]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[8:10]  ¹² sn See Jer 6:12-15 for parallels to 8:10-12. The words of Jeremiah to the people may have been repeated on more than one occasion or have been found appropriate to more than one of his collection of messages in written and edited form. See Jer 36:4 and Jer 36:28 for reference to at least two of these collections.

[8:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “They heal the wound of my people lightly.”

[8:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”

[8:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “They will fall among the fallen.”

[23:11]  ¹⁷ tn The particle כִּי (ki) which begins this verse is parallel to the one at the beginning of the preceding verse. However, the connection is too distant to render it “for.” “Moreover” is intended to draw the parallel. The words “the Lord says” (Heb “Oracle of the Lord”) have been drawn up to the front to introduce the shift in speaker from Jeremiah, who describes his agitated state, to God, who describes the sins of the prophets and priests and his consequent judgment on them.

[23:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:12]  ¹⁹ tn For the last two lines see 11:23 and the notes there.

[23:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[22:26]  ²¹ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ²² tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

[22:28]  ²³ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[22:29]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

[22:30]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I did not find.”

[22:31]  ²⁶ tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”

[15:14]  ²⁷ tc ‡ Most mss, some of which are significant, read “They are blind guides of the blind” (א¹ C L W Z Θ Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat). The shorter reading is read by א*^,2 B D 0237 Epiph. There is a distinct possibility of omission due to homoioarcton in א*; this manuscript has a word order variation which puts the word τυφλοί (tufloi, “blind”) right before the word τυφλῶν (tuflwn, “of the blind”). This does not explain the shorter reading, however, in the other witnesses, of which B and D are quite weighty. Internal considerations suggest that the shorter reading is original: “of the blind” was likely added by scribes to balance this phrase with Jesus’ following statement about the blind leading the blind, which clearly has two groups in view. A decision is difficult, but internal considerations here along with the strength of the witnesses argue that the shorter reading is more likely original. NA²⁷ places τυφλῶν in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[15:14]  ²⁸ tn Grk “If blind leads blind.”