Jeremiah 42:20

42:20 You are making a fatal mistake. ¹  For you sent me to the Lord your God and asked me, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us. Tell us what the Lord our God says and we will do it.’ ² 

Isaiah 29:13

29:13 The sovereign master ³  says,

“These people say they are loyal to me; ⁴ 

they say wonderful things about me, ⁵ 

but they are not really loyal to me. ⁶ 

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual. ⁷ 

Isaiah 48:1

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ⁸ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁹ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ¹⁰  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 58:1-2

The Lord Desires Genuine Devotion

58:1 “Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet!

Yell as loud as a trumpet!

Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; ¹² 

confront Jacob’s family with their sin! ¹³ 

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ¹⁴ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

Ezekiel 14:3-4

14:3 “Son of man, these men have erected their idols in their hearts and placed the obstacle leading to their iniquity ¹⁵  right before their faces. Should I really allow them to seek ¹⁶  me? 14:4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When any one from the house of Israel erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally according to the enormity of his idolatry. ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 20:1-3

Israel’s Rebellion

20:1 In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, ¹⁸  some of the elders ¹⁹  of Israel came to seek ²⁰  the Lord, and they sat down in front of me. 20:2 The word of the Lord came to me: 20:3 “Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you coming to seek me? As surely as I live, I will not allow you to seek me, ²¹  declares the sovereign Lord.’

Ezekiel 33:31

33:31 They come to you in crowds, ²²  and they sit in front of you as ²³  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ²⁴  them. For they talk lustfully, ²⁵  and their heart is set on ²⁶  their own advantage. ²⁷ 

Matthew 15:8

15:8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart ²⁸  is far from me,

[42:20]  ¹ tn Heb “you are erring at the cost of your own lives” (BDB 1073 s.v. תָּעָה Hiph.3 and HALOT 1626 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4, and cf. BDB 90 s.v. בְּ 3 and see parallels in 1 Kgs 2:23; 2 Sam 23:17 for the nuance of “at the cost of your lives”). This fits the context better than “you are deceiving yourselves” (KBL 1035 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4). The reading here follows the Qere הִתְעֵיתֶם (hit’etem) rather than the Kethib which has a metathesis of י (yod) and ת (tav), i.e., הִתְעֵתֶים. The Greek text presupposes הֲרֵעֹתֶם (hare’otem, “you have done evil”), but that reading is generally rejected as secondary.

[42:20]  ² tn Heb “According to all which the Lord our God says so tell us and we will do.” The restructuring of the sentence is intended to better reflect contemporary English style.

[29:13]  ³ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[29:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”

[29:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”

[29:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “but their heart is far from me.” The heart is viewed here as the seat of the will, from which genuine loyalty derives.

[29:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”

[48:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[58:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “declare to my people their rebellion.”

[58:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and to the house of Jacob their sin.” The verb “declare” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[58:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[14:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the stumbling block of their iniquity.” This phrase is unique to the prophet Ezekiel.

[14:3]  ¹² tn Or “I will not reveal myself to them.” The Hebrew word is used in a technical sense here of seeking an oracle from a prophet (2 Kgs 1:16; 3:11; 8:8).

[14:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “in accordance with the multitude of his idols.”

[20:1]  ¹⁵ sn The date would be August 14th, 591 b.c. The seventh year is the seventh year of Jehoiachin’s exile.

[20:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “men from the elders.”

[20:1]  ¹⁷ tn See the note at 14:3.

[20:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”

[33:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “as people come.” Apparently this is an idiom indicating that they come in crowds. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:264.

[33:31]  ²⁰ tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

[33:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “do.”

[33:31]  ²² tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

[33:31]  ²³ tn Heb “goes after.”

[33:31]  ²⁴ tn The present translation understands the term often used for “unjust gain” in a wider sense, following M. Greenberg, who also notes that the LXX uses a term which can describe either sexual or ritual pollution. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:687.

[15:8]  ²¹ tn The term “heart” is a collective singular in the Greek text.