Jeremiah 1:17

1:17 “But you, Jeremiah, ¹  get yourself ready! ²  Go and tell these people everything I instruct you to say. Do not be terrified of them, or I will give you good reason to be terrified of them. ³ 

Jeremiah 20:7

Jeremiah Complains about the Reaction to His Ministry

20:7 Lord, you coerced me into being a prophet,

and I allowed you to do it.

You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me. ⁴ 

Now I have become a constant laughingstock.

Everyone ridicules me.

Jeremiah 20:9

20:9 Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message.

I will not speak as his messenger ⁵  any more.”

But then ⁶  his message becomes like a fire

locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. ⁷ 

I grow weary of trying to hold it in;

I cannot contain it.

Amos 3:8

3:8 A lion has roared! ⁸  Who is not afraid?

The sovereign Lord has spoken! Who can refuse to prophesy? ⁹ 

Amos 7:15

7:15 Then the Lord took me from tending ¹⁰  flocks and gave me this commission, ¹¹  ‘Go! Prophesy to my people Israel!’

Acts 4:20

4:20 for it is impossible ¹²  for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 9:6

9:6 But stand up ¹³  and enter the city and you will be told ¹⁴  what you must do.”

Acts 9:15

9:15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, because this man is my chosen instrument ¹⁵  to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel. ¹⁶ 

Acts 26:16-20

26:16 But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance ¹⁷  as a servant and witness ¹⁸  to the things ¹⁹  you have seen ²⁰  and to the things in which I will appear to you. 26:17 I will rescue ²¹  you from your own people ²²  and from the Gentiles, to whom ²³  I am sending you 26:18 to open their eyes so that they turn ²⁴  from darkness to light and from the power ²⁵  of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share ²⁶  among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

26:19 “Therefore, King Agrippa, ²⁷  I was not disobedient ²⁸  to the heavenly ²⁹  vision, 26:20 but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, ³⁰  and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, ³¹  performing deeds consistent with ³²  repentance.

Romans 1:14

1:14 I am a debtor ³³  both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

[1:17]  ¹ tn The name “Jeremiah” is not in the text. The use of the personal pronoun followed by the proper name is an attempt to reflect the correlative emphasis between Jeremiah’s responsibility noted here and the Lord’s promise noted in the next verse. The emphasis in the Hebrew text is marked by the presence of the subject pronouns at the beginning of each of the two verses.

[1:17]  ² tn Heb “gird up your loins.” For the literal use of this idiom to refer to preparation for action see 2 Kgs 4:29; 9:1. For the idiomatic use to refer to spiritual and emotional preparation as here, see Job 38:3, 40:7, and 1 Pet 1:13 in the NT.

[1:17]  ³ tn Heb “I will make you terrified in front of them.” There is a play on words here involving two different forms of the same Hebrew verb and two different but related prepositional phrases, “from before/of,” a preposition introducing the object of a verb of fearing, and “before, in front of,” a preposition introducing a spatial location.

[20:7]  ⁴ tn The translation is admittedly interpretive but so is every other translation that tries to capture the nuance of the verb rendered here “coerced.” Here the Hebrew text reads: “You [ – ]ed me and I let myself be [ – ]ed. You overpowered me and prevailed.” The value one assigns to [ – ] is in every case interpretive based on what one thinks the context is referring to. The word is rendered “deceived” or “tricked” by several English versions (see, e.g., KJV, NASB, TEV, ICV) as though God had misled him. It is rendered “enticed” by some (see, e.g., NRSV, NJPS) as though God had tempted him with false hopes. Some go so far as to accuse Jeremiah of accusing God of metaphorically “raping” him. It is true that the word is used of “seducing” a virgin in Exod 22:15 and that it is used in several places to refer to “deceiving” someone with false words (Prov 24:28; Ps 78:36). It is also true that it is used of “coaxing” someone to reveal something he does not want to (Judg 14:15; 16:5) and of “enticing” someone to do something on the basis of false hopes (1 Kgs 22:20-22; Prov 1:10). However, it does not always have negative connotations or associations. In Hos 2:14 (2:16 HT) God “charms” or “woos” Israel, his estranged ‘wife,’ into the wilderness where he hopes to win her back to himself. What Jeremiah is alluding to here is crucial for translating and interpreting the word. There is no indication in this passage that Jeremiah is accusing God of misleading him or raising false hopes; God informed him at the outset that he would encounter opposition (1:17-19). Rather, he is alluding to his call to be a prophet, a call which he initially resisted but was persuaded to undertake because of God’s persistence (Jer 1:7-10). The best single word to translate ‘…’ with is thus “persuaded” or “coerced.” The translation spells out the allusion explicitly so the reader is not left wondering about what is being alluded to when Jeremiah speaks of being “coerced.” The translation “I let you do it” is a way of rendering the Niphal of the same verb which must be tolerative rather than passive since the normal passive for the Piel would be the Pual (See IBHS 389-90 §23.4g for discussion and examples.). The translation “you overcame my resistance” is based on allusion to the same context (1:7-10) and the parallel use of חָזַק (khazaq) as a transitive verb with a direct object in 1 Kgs 16:22.

[20:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “speak in his name.” This idiom occurs in passages where someone functions as the messenger under the authority of another. See Exod 5:23; Deut 18:19, 29:20; Jer 14:14. The antecedent in the first line is quite commonly misidentified as being “him,” i.e., the Lord. Comparison, however, with the rest of the context, especially the consequential clause “then it becomes” (וְהָיָה, vÿhayah), and Jer 23:36 shows that it is “the word of the Lord.”

[20:9]  ⁶ tn The English sentence has again been restructured for the sake of English style. The Hebrew construction involves two vav consecutive perfects in a condition and consequence relation, “If I say to myself…then it [his word] becomes.” See GKC 337 §112.kk for the construction.

[20:9]  ⁷ sn Heb “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.” In addition to standing as part for the whole, the “bones” for the person (e.g., Ps 35:10), the bones were associated with fear (e.g., Job 4:14) and with pain (e.g., Job 33:19, Ps 102:3 [102:4 HT]) and joy or sorrow (e.g., Ps 51:8 [51:10 HT]). As has been mentioned several times, the heart was connected with intellectual and volitional concerns.

[3:8]  ⁸ sn The roar of the lion is here a metaphor for impending judgment (see 1:2; cf. 3:4, 12). Verses 7-8 justify Amos’ prophetic ministry and message of warning and judgment. The people should expect a prophetic message prior to divine action.

[3:8]  ⁹ sn Who can refuse to prophesy? When a message is revealed, the prophet must speak, and the news of impending judgment should cause people to fear.

[7:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from [following] after.”

[7:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the Lord said to me.”

[4:20]  ¹² tn Grk “for we are not able not to speak about what we have seen and heard,” but the double negative, which cancels out in English, is emphatic in Greek. The force is captured somewhat by the English translation “it is impossible for us not to speak…” although this is slightly awkward.

[9:6]  ¹³ tn Or “But arise.”

[9:6]  ¹⁴ tn Literally a passive construction, “it will be told to you.” This has been converted to another form of passive construction in the translation.

[9:15]  ¹⁵ tn Or “tool.”

[9:15]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the sons of Israel.” In Acts, Paul is a minister to all nations, including Israel (Rom 1:16-17).

[26:16]  ¹⁷ tn L&N 30.89 has “‘to choose in advance, to select beforehand, to designate in advance.’”

[26:16]  ¹⁸ sn As a servant and witness. The commission is similar to Acts 1:8 and Luke 1:2. Paul was now an “eyewitness” of the Lord.

[26:16]  ¹⁹ tn BDAG 719 s.v. ὁράω A.1.b states, “W. attraction of the relative ὧν = τούτων ἅ Lk 9:36; Ac 22:15. The attraction may be due to colloq. breviloquence in μάρτυρα ὧν τε εἶδες με ὧν τε ὀφθήσομαί σοι a witness to the things in which you saw me and to those in which I shall appear to you Ac 26:16b.”

[26:16]  ²⁰ tc ‡ Some mss read “of the things in which you have seen me.” The accusative object με (me, “me”) is found after εἶδές (eide") in B C*^vid 614 945 1175 1505 1739 1891 2464 pc sy sa; it is lacking in Ì⁷⁴ א A C² E Ψ 096 Ï latt bo. The external evidence is relatively evenly divided, though there is a slight preference for the omission. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

[26:17]  ²¹ tn Grk “rescuing.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the participle ἐξαιρούμενος (exairoumeno") has been translated as a finite verb and a new sentence started in the translation at the beginning of v. 17.

[26:17]  ²² tn That is, from the Jewish people. Grk “the people”; the words “your own” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.

[26:17]  ²³ tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is probably both the Jews (“your own people”) and the Gentiles, indicating the comprehensive commission Paul received.

[26:18]  ²⁴ sn To open their eyes so that they turn… Here is Luke’s most comprehensive report of Paul’s divine calling. His role was to call humanity to change their position before God and experience God’s forgiveness as a part of God’s family. The image of turning is a key one in the NT: Luke 1:79; Rom 2:19; 13:12; 2 Cor 4:6; 6:14; Eph 5:8; Col 1:12; 1 Thess 5:5. See also Luke 1:77-79; 3:3; 24:47.

[26:18]  ²⁵ tn BDAG 352-53 s.v. ἐξουσία 2 states, “Also of Satan’s power Ac 26:18.” It is also possible to translate this “the domain of Satan” (cf. BDAG 353 s.v. 6)

[26:18]  ²⁶ tn Or “and an inheritance.”

[26:19]  ²⁷ sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.

[26:19]  ²⁸ sn I was not disobedient. Paul’s defense is that he merely obeyed the risen Jesus. He was arrested for obeying heavenly direction and preaching the opportunity to turn to God.

[26:19]  ²⁹ tn According to L&N 1.5, “In Ac 26:19 the adjective οὐράνιος could be interpreted as being related simply to the meaning of οὐρανός^a ‘sky,’ but it seems preferable to regard οὐράνιος in this context as meaning simply ‘from heaven’ or ‘heavenly.’”

[26:20]  ³⁰ tn BDAG 1093-94 s.v. χώρα 2.b states, “of the provincial name (1 Macc 8:3) ἡ χώρα τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας Ac 26:20.”

[26:20]  ³¹ sn That they should repent and turn to God. This is the shortest summary of Paul’s message that he preached.

[26:20]  ³² tn BDAG 93 s.v. ἄξιος 1.b, “καρποὶ ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας fruits in keeping with your repentance…Lk 3:8; Mt 3:8. For this ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα Ac 26:20.” Note how Paul preached the gospel offer and the issue of response together, side by side.

[1:14]  ³³ tn Or “obligated.”