Jeremiah 25:4

25:4 Over and over again ¹  the Lord has sent ²  his servants the prophets to you. But you have not listened or paid attention. ³ 

Isaiah 21:11

Bad News for Seir

21:11 Here is a message about Dumah: ⁴ 

Someone calls to me from Seir, ⁵ 

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?” ⁶ 

Isaiah 56:10

56:10 All their watchmen ⁷  are blind,

they are unaware. ⁸ 

All of them are like mute dogs,

unable to bark.

They pant, ⁹  lie down,

and love to snooze.

Ezekiel 3:17-21

3:17 “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman ¹⁰  for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must give them a warning from me. 3:18 When I say to the wicked, “You will certainly die,” ¹¹  and you do not warn him – you do not speak out to warn the wicked to turn from his wicked deed and wicked lifestyle so that he may live – that wicked person will die for his iniquity, ¹²  but I will hold you accountable for his death. ¹³  3:19 But as for you, if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wicked deed and from his wicked lifestyle, he will die for his iniquity but you will have saved your own life. ¹⁴ 

3:20 “When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle ¹⁵  before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death. 3:21 However, if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he ¹⁶  does not sin, he will certainly live because he was warned, and you will have saved your own life.”

Ezekiel 33:2-9

33:2 “Son of man, speak to your people, ¹⁷  and say to them, ‘Suppose I bring a sword against the land, and the people of the land take one man from their borders and make him their watchman. 33:3 He sees the sword coming against the land, blows the trumpet, ¹⁸  and warns the people, ¹⁹  33:4 but there is one who hears the sound of the trumpet yet does not heed the warning. Then the sword comes and sweeps him away. He will be responsible for his own death. ²⁰  33:5 He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, so he is responsible for himself. ²¹  If he had heeded the warning, he would have saved his life. 33:6 But suppose the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people. Then the sword comes and takes one of their lives. He is swept away for his iniquity, ²²  but I will hold the watchman accountable for that person’s death.’ ²³ 

33:7 “As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman ²⁴  for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them on my behalf. 33:8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you must certainly die,’ ²⁵  and you do not warn ²⁶  the wicked about his behavior, ²⁷  the wicked man will die for his iniquity, but I will hold you accountable for his death. ²⁸  33:9 But if you warn the wicked man to change his behavior, ²⁹  and he refuses to change, ³⁰  he will die for his iniquity, but you have saved your own life.

Habakkuk 2:1

2:1 I will stand at my watch post;

I will remain stationed on the city wall. ³¹ 

I will keep watching, so I can see what he says to me

and can know ³²  how I should answer

when he counters my argument. ³³ 

Acts 20:27-31

20:27 For I did not hold back from ³⁴  announcing ³⁵  to you the whole purpose ³⁶  of God. 20:28 Watch out for ³⁷  yourselves and for all the flock of which ³⁸  the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, ³⁹  to shepherd the church of God ⁴⁰  that he obtained ⁴¹  with the blood of his own Son. ⁴²  20:29 I know that after I am gone ⁴³  fierce wolves ⁴⁴  will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 20:30 Even from among your own group ⁴⁵  men ⁴⁶  will arise, teaching perversions of the truth ⁴⁷  to draw the disciples away after them. 20:31 Therefore be alert, ⁴⁸  remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning ⁴⁹  each one of you with tears.

Hebrews 13:17

13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. ⁵⁰  Let them do this ⁵¹  with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.

[25:4]  ¹ tn For the idiom involved here see the notes at 7:13 and 11:7.

[25:4]  ² tn The vav consecutive with the perfect in a past narrative is a little unusual. Here it is probably indicating repeated action in past time in keeping with the idiom that precedes and follows it. See GKC 332 §112.f for other possible examples.

[25:4]  ³ tn Heb “inclined your ear to hear.” This is idiomatic for “paying attention.” It is often parallel with “listen” as here or with “pay attention” (see, e.g., Prov 4:20; 51:1).

[21:11]  ⁴ tn The noun דּוּמָה (dumah) means “silence,” but here it is a proper name, probably referring to a site in northern Arabia or to the nation of Edom. See BDB 189 s.v. II דּוּמָה. If Dumah was an area in northern Arabia, it would be of interest to the Edomites because of its strategic position on trade routes which they used. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:398.

[21:11]  ⁵ sn Seir is another name for Edom. See BDB 973 s.v. שֵׂעִיר.

[21:11]  ⁶ sn The “night” probably here symbolizes distress and difficult times. See BDB 539 s.v. לַיְלָה.

[56:10]  ⁷ sn The “watchmen” are probably spiritual leaders, most likely prophets and priests, responsible for giving the people moral direction.

[56:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “they do not know”; KJV “they are all ignorant”; NIV “they all lack knowledge.”

[56:10]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text has הֹזִים (hozim), which appears to be derived from an otherwise unattested verbal root הָזָה (hazah). On the basis of alleged cognates, BDB 223 s.v. הָזָה offers the definition “dream, rave” while HALOT 243 s.v. הזה lists “pant.” In this case the dog metaphor of the preceding lines continues. The reference to dogs at the beginning of v. 11 favors the extension of the metaphor. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חזים (“seers”) here. In this case the “watchmen” are directly identified as prophets and depicted as lazy.

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn The literal role of a watchman is described in 2 Sam 18:24; 2 Kgs 9:17.

[3:18]  ¹¹ sn Even though the infinitive absolute is used to emphasize the warning, the warning is still implicitly conditional, as the following context makes clear.

[3:18]  ¹² tn Or “in his punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and v. 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”

[3:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “his blood I will seek from your hand.” The expression “seek blood from the hand” is equivalent to requiring the death penalty (2 Sam 4:11-12).

[3:19]  ¹⁴ tn Verses 17-19 are repeated in Ezek 33:7-9.

[3:20]  ¹⁵ tn Or “stumbling block.” The Hebrew term refers to an obstacle in the road in Lev 19:14.

[3:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the righteous man.”

[33:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sons of your people.”

[33:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “shofar,” a ram’s horn rather than a brass instrument (so throughout the chapter).

[33:3]  ¹⁹ tn Sounding the trumpet was a warning of imminent danger (Neh 4:18-20; Jer 4:19; Amos 3:6).

[33:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his blood will be on his own head.”

[33:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “his blood will be on him.”

[33:6]  ²² tn Or “in his punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in vv. 8 and 9; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.

[33:6]  ²³ tn Heb “his blood from the hand of the watchman I will seek.”

[33:7]  ²⁴ sn Jeremiah (Jer 6:17) and Habakkuk (Hab 2:1) also served in the role of a watchman.

[33:8]  ²⁵ tn The same expression occurs in Gen 2:17.

[33:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and you do not speak to warn.”

[33:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “way.”

[33:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and his blood from your hand I will seek.”

[33:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “from his way to turn from it.”

[33:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and he does not turn from his way.”

[2:1]  ³¹ sn Habakkuk compares himself to a watchman stationed on the city wall who keeps his eyes open for approaching messengers or danger.

[2:1]  ³² tn The word “know” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:1]  ³³ tn Heb “concerning my correction [or, “reproof”].”

[20:27]  ³⁴ tn Or “did not avoid.” BDAG 1041 s.v. ὑποστέλλω 2.b has “shrink from, avoid implying fear…οὐ γὰρ ὑπεστειλάμην τοῦ μὴ ἀναγγεῖλαι I did not shrink from proclaiming Ac 20:27”; L&N 13.160 has “to hold oneself back from doing something, with the implication of some fearful concern – ‘to hold back from, to shrink from, to avoid’…‘for I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God’ Ac 20:27.”

[20:27]  ³⁵ tn Or “proclaiming,” “declaring.”

[20:27]  ³⁶ tn Or “plan.”

[20:28]  ³⁷ tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.

[20:28]  ³⁸ tn Grk “in which.”

[20:28]  ³⁹ tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.

[20:28]  ⁴⁰ tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì⁷⁴ A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule mss conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] qeou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou {aimato" tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see tn below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic.

[20:28]  ⁴¹ tn Or “acquired.”

[20:28]  ⁴² tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.

[20:29]  ⁴³ tn Grk “after my departure.”

[20:29]  ⁴⁴ tn That is, people like fierce wolves. See BDAG 167-68 s.v. βαρύς 4 on the term translated “fierce.” The battle that will follow would be a savage one.

[20:30]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “from among yourselves.”

[20:30]  ⁴⁶ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.

[20:30]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 s.v. διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.”

[20:31]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “be watchful.”

[20:31]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “admonishing.”

[13:17]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “as ones who will give an account”; Grk “as giving an account.”

[13:17]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “that they may do this.”