Jeremiah 32:3

32:3 For King Zedekiah ¹  had confined Jeremiah there after he had reproved him for prophesying as he did. He had asked Jeremiah, “Why do you keep prophesying these things? Why do you keep saying that the Lord says, ‘I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon? I will let him capture it. ² 

Jeremiah 38:6

38:6 So the officials ³  took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern ⁴  of Malkijah, one of the royal princes, ⁵  that was in the courtyard of the guardhouse. There was no water in the cistern, only mud. So when they lowered Jeremiah into the cistern with ropes he sank in the mud. ⁶ 

Matthew 5:12

5:12 Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.

Matthew 21:33-41

The Parable of the Tenants

21:33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner ⁷  who planted a vineyard. ⁸  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ⁹  he leased it to tenant farmers ¹⁰  and went on a journey. 21:34 When the harvest time was near, he sent his slaves ¹¹  to the tenants to collect his portion of the crop. ¹²  21:35 But the tenants seized his slaves, beat one, ¹³  killed another, and stoned another. 21:36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them the same way. 21:37 Finally he sent his son to them, ¹⁴  saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ 21:39 So ¹⁵  they seized him, ¹⁶  threw him out of the vineyard, ¹⁷  and killed him. 21:40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 21:41 They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”

Acts 7:52

7:52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors ¹⁸  not persecute? ¹⁹  They ²⁰  killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, ²¹  whose betrayers and murderers you have now become! ²² 

[32:3]  ¹ tn Heb “Zedekiah king of Judah.”

[32:3]  ² tn The translation represents an attempt to break up a very long Hebrew sentence with several levels of subordination and embedded quotations and also an attempt to capture the rhetorical force of the question “Why…” which is probably an example of what E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 953-54) calls a rhetorical question of expostulation or remonstrance (cf. the note on 26:9 and compare also the question in 36:29. In all three of these cases NJPS translates “How dare you…” which captures the force nicely). The Hebrew text reads, “For Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, ‘Why are you prophesying, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold I am giving this city into the hands of the king of Babylon and he will capture it.’”’”

[38:6]  ³ tn Heb “they.”

[38:6]  ⁴ sn A cistern was a pear-shaped pit with a narrow opening. Cisterns were cut or dug in the limestone rock and lined with plaster to prevent seepage. They were used to collect and store rain water or water carried up from a spring.

[38:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the son of the king.” See the translator’s note on Jer 36:26 for the rendering here.

[38:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “And they let Jeremiah down with ropes and in the cistern there was no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.” The clauses have been reordered and restructured to create a more natural and smoother order in English.

[21:33]  ⁷ tn The term here refers to the owner and manager of a household.

[21:33]  ⁸ sn The vineyard is a figure for Israel in the OT (Isa 5:1-7). The nation and its leaders are the tenants, so the vineyard here may well refer to the promise that resides within the nation. The imagery is like that in Rom 11:11-24.

[21:33]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[21:33]  ¹⁰ sn The leasing of land to tenant farmers was common in this period.

[21:34]  ¹¹ tn See the note on the word “slave” in 8:9.

[21:34]  ¹² tn Grk “to collect his fruits.”

[21:35]  ¹³ sn The image of the tenants mistreating the owner’s slaves pictures the nation’s rejection of the prophets and their message.

[21:37]  ¹⁴ sn The owner’s decision to send his son represents God sending Jesus.

[21:39]  ¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the tenants’ decision to kill the son in v. 38.

[21:39]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “seizing him.” The participle λαβόντες (labontes) has been translated as attendant circumstance.

[21:39]  ¹⁷ sn Throwing the heir out of the vineyard pictures Jesus’ death outside of Jerusalem.

[7:52]  ¹⁸ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:52]  ¹⁹ sn Which…persecute. The rhetorical question suggests they persecuted them all.

[7:52]  ²⁰ tn Grk “And they.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:52]  ²¹ sn The Righteous One is a reference to Jesus Christ.

[7:52]  ²² sn Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. The harsh critique has OT precedent (1 Kgs 19:10-14; Neh 9:26; 2 Chr 36:16).