Jeremiah 23:1-2

New Leaders over a Regathered Remnant

23:1 The Lord says, ¹  “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. ²  They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered. ³  23:2 So the Lord God of Israel has this to say about the leaders who are ruling over his people: “You have caused my people ⁴  to be dispersed and driven into exile. You have not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil that you have done. ⁵  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁶ 

Ezekiel 22:25-27

22:25 Her princes ⁷  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ⁸  within it. 22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ⁹  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ¹⁰  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.

Ezekiel 34:2-3

34:2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds ¹¹  of Israel; prophesy, and say to them – to the shepherds: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not shepherds feed the flock? 34:3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not feed the sheep!

Ezekiel 34:10

34:10 This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from their hand. I will no longer let them be shepherds; ¹²  the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore. I will rescue my sheep from their mouth, so that they will no longer be food for them.

Micah 3:1-3

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders

3:1 I said,

“Listen, you leaders ¹³  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ¹⁴  of Israel!

You ought to know what is just, ¹⁵ 

3:2 yet you ¹⁶  hate what is good, ¹⁷ 

and love what is evil. ¹⁸ 

You flay my people’s skin ¹⁹ 

and rip the flesh from their bones. ²⁰ 

3:3 You ²¹  devour my people’s flesh,

strip off their skin,

and crush their bones.

You chop them up like flesh in a pot ²²  –

like meat in a kettle.

Micah 3:9-12

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family ²³  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²⁴  of Israel!

You ²⁵  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

3:10 You ²⁶  build Zion through bloody crimes, ²⁷ 

Jerusalem ²⁸  through unjust violence.

3:11 Her ²⁹  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ³⁰ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ³¹  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ³² 

Disaster will not overtake ³³  us!”

3:12 Therefore, because of you, ³⁴  Zion will be plowed up like ³⁵  a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the Temple Mount ³⁶  will become a hill overgrown with brush! ³⁷ 

Matthew 23:14

23:14 [[EMPTY]] ³⁸ 

John 16:2

16:2 They will put you out of ³⁹  the synagogue, ⁴⁰  yet a time ⁴¹  is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. ⁴² 

[23:1]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:1]  ² sn Heb This particle once again introduces a judgment speech. The indictment is found in v. 1 and the announcement of judgment in v. 2. This leads into an oracle of deliverance in vv. 3-4. See also the note on the word “judged” in 22:13.

[23:1]  ³ tn Heb “Woe to the shepherds who are killing and scattering the sheep of my pasture.” See the study note on 22:13 for the significance of “Sure to be judged” (Heb “Woe”) See the study note for the significance of the metaphor introduced here.

[23:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “about the shepherds who are shepherding my people. ‘You have caused my sheep….’” For the metaphor see the study note on the previous verse.

[23:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who should be shepherding my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away and you have not taken care of them. Behold I will visit upon you the evil of your deeds.” “Therefore” announces the judgment which does not come until “Behold.” It is interrupted by the messenger formula and a further indictment. The original has been broken up to conform more to contemporary English style, the metaphors have been interpreted for clarity and the connections between the indictments and the judgments have been carried by “So.”

[23:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[22:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[22:26]  ⁹ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ¹⁰ 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).

[34:2]  ¹¹ tn The term shepherd is applied to kings in the ancient Near East. In the OT the Lord is often addressed as shepherd of Israel (Gen 49:24; Ps 8:1). The imagery of shepherds as Israel’s leaders is also employed (Jer 23:1-2).

[34:10]  ¹² tn Heb “I will cause them to cease from feeding sheep.”

[3:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “heads.”

[3:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[3:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Should you not know justice?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you should!”

[3:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the ones who.”

[3:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “good.”

[3:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “evil.”

[3:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

[3:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “who.”

[3:3]  ²² tc The MT reads “and they chop up as in a pot.” The translation assumes an emendation of כַּאֲשֶׁר (ka’asher, “as”) to כִּשְׁאֵר (kish’er, “like flesh”).

[3:9]  ²³ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).

[3:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “who.”

[3:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “bloodshed” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NLT “murder.”

[3:10]  ²⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:11]  ²⁹ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ³⁰ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ³² tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ³³ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[3:12]  ³⁴ tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.

[3:12]  ³⁵ tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).

[3:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[3:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”

[23:14]  ³⁸ tc The most important mss (א B D L Z Θ Ë¹ 33 892* pc and several versional witnesses) do not have 23:14 “Woe to you experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ property, and as a show you pray long prayers! Therefore you will receive a more severe punishment.” Part or all of the verse is contained (either after v. 12 or after v. 13) in W 0102 0107 ˹³ Ï and several versions, but it is almost certainly not original. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number as well, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations. Note also that Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47 are very similar in wording and are not disputed textually.

[16:2]  ³⁹ tn Or “expel you from.”

[16:2]  ⁴⁰ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[16:2]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:2]  ⁴² sn Jesus now refers not to the time of his return to the Father, as he has frequently done up to this point, but to the disciples’ time of persecution. They will be excommunicated from Jewish synagogues. There will even be a time when those who kill Jesus’ disciples will think that they are offering service to God by putting the disciples to death. Because of the reference to service offered to God, it is almost certain that Jewish opposition is intended here in both cases rather than Jewish opposition in the first instance (putting the disciples out of synagogues) and Roman opposition in the second (putting the disciples to death). Such opposition materializes later and is recorded in Acts: The stoning of Stephen in 7:58-60 and the slaying of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:2-3 are notable examples.