Jeremiah 13:27

13:27 People of Jerusalem, ¹  I have seen your adulterous worship,

your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods. ² 

I have seen your disgusting acts of worship ³ 

on the hills throughout the countryside.

You are doomed to destruction! ⁴ 

How long will you continue to be unclean?’”

Jeremiah 16:17

16:17 For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 23:23-24

23:23 Do you people think ⁶  that I am some local deity

and not the transcendent God?” ⁷  the Lord asks. ⁸ 

23:24 “Do you really think anyone can hide himself

where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. ⁹ 

“Do you not know that I am everywhere?” ¹⁰ 

the Lord asks. ¹¹ 

Proverbs 5:21

5:21 For the ways of a person ¹²  are in front of the Lord’s eyes,

and the Lord ¹³  weighs ¹⁴  all that person’s ¹⁵  paths.

Malachi 2:14

2:14 Yet you ask, “Why?” The Lord is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young, ¹⁶  to whom you have become unfaithful even though she is your companion and wife by law. ¹⁷ 

Malachi 3:5

3:5 “I ¹⁸  will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, ¹⁹  and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, ²⁰  who refuse to help ²¹  the immigrant ²²  and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Hebrews 4:13

4:13 And no creature is hidden from God, ²³  but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.

Revelation 1:5

1:5 and from Jesus Christ – the faithful ²⁴  witness, ²⁵  the firstborn from among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has set us free ²⁶  from our sins at the cost of ²⁷  his own blood

Revelation 3:14

To the Church in Laodicea

3:14 “To ²⁸  the angel of the church in Laodicea write the following: ²⁹ 

“This is the solemn pronouncement of ³⁰  the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator ³¹  of God’s creation:

[13:27]  ¹ tn Heb “Jerusalem.” This word has been pulled up from the end of the verse to help make the transition. The words “people of” have been supplied in the translation here to ease the difficulty mentioned earlier of sustaining the personification throughout.

[13:27]  ² tn Heb “[I have seen] your adulteries, your neighings, and your shameless prostitution.” The meanings of the metaphorical references have been incorporated in the translation for the sake of clarity for readers of all backgrounds.

[13:27]  ³ tn Heb “your disgusting acts.” This word is almost always used of idolatry or of the idols themselves. See BDB 1055 s.v. שִׁקֻּוּץ and Deut 29:17 and Jer 4:1; 7:30.

[13:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe to you!”

[16:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “For my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from before me. And their sin is not hidden away from before my eyes.”

[23:23]  ⁶ tn The words “Do you people think” at the beginning of this verse and “Do you really think” at the beginning of the next verse are not in the text but are a way of trying to convey the nature of the rhetorical questions which expect a negative answer. They are also a way of trying to show that the verses are still connected with the preceding discussion addressed to the people (cf. 23:16, 20).

[23:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “Am I a god nearby and not a god far off?” The question is sometimes translated as though there is an alternative being given in v. 23, one that covers both the ideas of immanence and transcendence (i.e., “Am I only a god nearby and not also a god far off?”). However, the hey interrogative (הַ) at the beginning of this verse and the particle (אִם, ’im) at the beginning of the next show that the linkage is between the question in v. 23 and that in v. 24a. According to BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.d both questions in this case expect a negative answer.

[23:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ¹⁰ tn The words “Don’t you know” are not in the text. They are a way of conveying the idea that the question which reads literally “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” expects a positive answer. They follow the pattern used at the beginning of the previous two questions and continue that thought. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[5:21]  ¹² tn Heb “man.”

[5:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:21]  ¹⁴ tn BDB 814 s.v. פָּלַס 2 suggests that the participle מְפַּלֵּס (mÿpalles) means “to make level [or, straight].” As one’s ways are in front of the eyes of the Lord, they become straight or right. It could be translated “weighs” since it is a denominative from the noun for “balance, scale”; the Lord weighs or examines the actions.

[5:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all his”; the referent (the person mentioned in the first half of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord is a witness between you and [between] the wife of your youth.”

[2:14]  ¹⁷ sn Though there is no explicit reference to marriage vows in the OT (but see Job 7:13; Prov 2:17; Ezek 16:8), the term law (Heb “covenant”) here asserts that such vows or agreements must have existed. References to divorce documents (e.g., Deut 24:1-3; Jer 3:8) also presuppose the existence of marriage documents.

[3:5]  ¹⁸ tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the Lord) indicates that the Lord himself now speaks (see also v. 1). The prophet speaks in vv. 2-4 (see also 2:17).

[3:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”

[3:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”

[3:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “those who turn aside.”

[3:5]  ²² tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”

[4:13]  ²³ tn Grk “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “Jesus Christ – the faithful one, the witness…” Some take ὁ πιστός (Jo pistos) as a second substantive in relation to ὁ μάρτυς (Jo martus). In the present translation, however, ὁ πιστός was taken as an adjective in attributive position to ὁ μάρτυς. The idea of martyrdom and faithfulness are intimately connected. See BDAG 820 s.v. πιστός 1.a.α: “ὁ μάρτυς μου ὁ πιστός μου Rv 2:13 (μάρτυς 3); in this ‘book of martyrs’ Christ is ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστὸς (καὶ ὁ ἀληθινός) 1:5; 3:14; cp. 19:11 (the combination of ἀληθινός and πιστός in the last two passages is like 3 Macc 2:11). Cp. Rv 17:14.”

[1:5]  ²⁵ sn The Greek term translated witness can mean both “witness” and “martyr.”

[1:5]  ²⁶ tc The reading “set free” (λύσαντι, lusanti) has better ms support (̹⁸ א A C 1611 2050 2329 2351 Ï^A sy) than its rival, λούσαντι (lousanti, “washed”; found in P 1006 1841 1854 2053 2062 Ï^K lat bo). Internally, it seems that the reading “washed” could have arisen in at least one of three ways: (1) as an error of hearing (both “released” and “washed” are pronounced similarly in Greek); (2) an error of sight (both “released” and “washed” look very similar – a difference of only one letter – which could have resulted in a simple error during the copying of a ms); (3) through scribal inability to appreciate that the Hebrew preposition ב can be used with a noun to indicate the price paid for something. Since the author of Revelation is influenced significantly by a Semitic form of Greek (e.g., 13:10), and since the Hebrew preposition “in” (ב) can indicate the price paid for something, and is often translated with the preposition “in” (ἐν, en) in the LXX, the author may have tried to communicate by the use of ἐν the idea of a price paid for something. That is, John was trying to say that Christ delivered us at the price of his own blood. This whole process, however, may have been lost on a later scribe, who being unfamiliar with Hebrew, found the expression “delivered in his blood” too difficult, and noticing the obvious similarities between λύσαντι and λούσαντι, assumed an error and then proceeded to change the text to “washed in his blood” – a thought more tolerable in his mind. Both readings, of course, are true to scripture; the current question is what the author wrote in this verse.

[1:5]  ²⁷ tn The style here is somewhat Semitic, with the use of the ἐν (en) + the dative to mean “at the price of.” The addition of “own” in the English is stylistic and is an attempt to bring out the personal nature of the statement and the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ death – a frequent refrain in the Apocalypse.

[3:14]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated due to differences between Greek and English style.

[3:14]  ²⁹ tn The phrase “the following” after “write” is supplied to clarify that what follows is the content of what is to be written.

[3:14]  ³⁰ tn Grk “These things says [the One]…” See the note on the phrase “this is the solemn pronouncement of” in 2:1.

[3:14]  ³¹ tn Or “the beginning of God’s creation”; or “the ruler of God’s creation.” From a linguistic standpoint all three meanings for ἀρχή (arch) are possible. The term is well attested in both LXX (Gen 40:13, 21; 41:13) and intertestamental Jewish literature (2 Macc 4:10, 50) as meaning “ruler, authority” (BDAG 138 s.v. 6). Some have connected this passage to Paul’s statements in Col 1:15, 18 which describe Christ as ἀρχή and πρωτότοκος (prwtotoko"; e.g., see R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 124) but the term ἀρχή has been understood as either “beginning” or “ruler” in that passage as well. The most compelling connection is to be found in the prologue to John’s Gospel (1:2-4) where the λόγος (logos) is said to be “in the beginning (ἀρχή) with God,” a temporal reference connected with creation, and then v. 3 states that “all things were made through him.” The connection with the original creation suggests the meaning “originator” for ἀρχή here. BDAG 138 s.v. 3 gives the meaning “the first cause” for the word in Rev 3:14, a term that is too philosophical for the general reader, so the translation “originator” was used instead. BDAG also notes, “but the mng. beginning = ‘first created’ is linguistically probable (s. above 1b and Job 40:19; also CBurney, Christ as the ᾿Αρχή of Creation: JTS 27, 1926, 160-77).” Such a meaning is unlikely here, however, since the connections described above are much more probable.