Jeremiah 7:9-10

7:9 You steal. ¹  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ²  other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ³  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ⁴ 

Jeremiah 23:14

23:14 But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ⁵ 

doing something just as shocking.

They are unfaithful to me

and continually prophesy lies. ⁶ 

So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,

with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ⁷ 

I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom,

and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 23:21

23:21 I did not send those prophets.

Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. ⁹ 

I did not tell them anything.

Yet they prophesied anyway.

Psalms 50:16-18

50:16 God says this to the evildoer: ¹⁰ 

“How can you declare my commands,

and talk about my covenant? ¹¹ 

50:17 For you hate instruction

and reject my words. ¹² 

50:18 When you see a thief, you join him; ¹³ 

you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives. ¹⁴ 

Zephaniah 3:4

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ¹⁵ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ¹⁶ 

they break God’s laws. ¹⁷ 

Zephaniah 3:2

3:2 She is disobedient; ¹⁸ 

she refuses correction. ¹⁹ 

She does not trust the Lord;

she does not seek the advice of ²⁰  her God.

Zephaniah 2:10

2:10 This is how they will be repaid for their arrogance, ²¹ 

for they taunted and verbally harassed ²²  the people of the Lord who commands armies.

Jude 1:8-11

1:8 Yet these men, ²³  as a result of their dreams, ²⁴  defile the flesh, reject authority, ²⁵  and insult ²⁶  the glorious ones. ²⁷  1:9 But even ²⁸  when Michael the archangel ²⁹  was arguing with the devil and debating with him ³⁰  concerning Moses’ body, he did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” 1:10 But these men do not understand the things they slander, and they are being destroyed by the very things that, like irrational animals, they instinctively comprehend. ³¹  1:11 Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path, ³²  and because of greed ³³  have abandoned themselves ³⁴  to ³⁵  Balaam’s error; hence, ³⁶  they will certainly perish ³⁷  in Korah’s rebellion.

[7:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ² tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:10]  ³ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:10]  ⁴ tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”

[23:14]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[23:14]  ⁶ tn Or “they commit adultery and deal falsely.” The word “shocking” only occurs here and in 5:30 where it is found in the context of prophesying lies. This almost assures that the reference to “walking in lies” (Heb “in the lie”) is referring to false prophesy. Moreover the references to the prophets in 5:13 and in 14:13-15 are all in the context of false prophesy as are the following references in this chapter in 23:24, 26, 32 and in 28:15. This appears to be the theme of this section. This also makes it likely that the reference to adultery is not literal adultery, though two of the false prophets in Babylon were guilty of this (29:23). The reference to “encouraging those who do evil” that follows also makes more sense if they were preaching messages of comfort rather than messages of doom. The verbs here are infinitive absolutes in place of the finite verb, probably used to place greater emphasis on the action (cf. Hos 4:2 in a comparable judgment speech.)

[23:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “So they strengthen the hands of those doing evil so that they do not turn back from their evil.” For the use of the figure “strengthen the hands” meaning “encourage” see Judg 9:24; Ezek 13:22 (and cf. BDB 304 s.v. חָזַק Piel.2). The vav consecutive on the front of the form gives the logical consequence equivalent to “so” in the translation.

[23:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “All of them are to me like Sodom and its [Jerusalem’s] inhabitants like Gomorrah.”

[23:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “Yet they ran.”

[50:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “evil [one].” The singular adjective is used here in a representative sense; it refers to those within the larger covenant community who have blatantly violated the Lord’s commandments. In the psalms the “wicked” (רְשָׁעִים, rÿsha’im) are typically proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander, and cheat others (Ps 37:21).

[50:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “What to you to declare my commands and lift up my covenant upon your mouth?” The rhetorical question expresses sarcastic amazement. The Lord is shocked that such evildoers would give lip-service to his covenantal demands, for their lifestyle is completely opposed to his standards (see vv. 18-20).

[50:17]  ¹² tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”

[50:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “you run with him.”

[50:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and with adulterers [is] your portion.”

[3:4]  ¹⁵ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ¹⁶ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”

[3:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “she does not hear a voice” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.

[3:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “she does not receive correction.” The Hebrew phrase, when negated, refers elsewhere to rejecting verbal advice (Jer 17:23; 32:33; 35:13) and refusing to learn from experience (Jer 2:30; 5:3).

[3:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “draw near to.” The present translation assumes that the expression “draw near to” refers to seeking God’s will (see 1 Sam 14:36).

[2:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “this is for them in place of their arrogance.”

[2:10]  ²² tn Heb “made great [their mouth?] against” (cf. the last phrase of v. 8).

[1:8]  ²³ tn The reference is now to the false teachers.

[1:8]  ²⁴ tn Grk “dreaming.” The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι (enupniazomenoi, “dreaming”) is adverbial to the pronoun οὗτοι (|outoi, “these”), though the particular relationship is not clear. It could mean, “while dreaming,” “by dreaming,” or “because of dreaming.” This translation has adopted the last option as Jude’s meaning, partially for syntactical reasons (the causal participle usually precedes the main verb) and partially for contextual reasons (these false teachers must derive their authority from some source, and the dreams provide the most obvious base). The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι was sometimes used of apocalyptic visions, both of true and false prophets. This seems to be the meaning here.

[1:8]  ²⁵ tn Most likely, the authority of the Lord is in view. This verse, then, echoes the indictment of v. 4: “they deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

[1:8]  ²⁶ tn The construction with the three verbs (“defile, “reject,” and “insult”) involves the particles μέν, δέ, δέ (men, de, de). A more literal (and pedantic) translation would be: “on the one hand, they defile the flesh, on the other hand, they reject authority, and on another hand, they insult the glorious ones.”

[1:8]  ²⁷ sn The glorious ones refers to angelic beings rather than mere human beings, just as in 2 Pet 2:10 (on which this passage apparently depends). Whether the angelic beings are good or evil, however, is difficult to tell (hence, the translation is left ambiguous). However, both in 2 Pet 2:11 and here, in Jude 9, the wicked angels seem to be in view (for not even Michael insults them).

[1:9]  ²⁸ tn The word “even” is not in Greek; it is implied by the height of the contrast.

[1:9]  ²⁹ sn According to Jewish intertestamental literature (such as 1 En. 20), Michael was one of seven archangels.

[1:9]  ³⁰ tn The sentence structure is a bit different in Greek. Literally it reads: “But Michael the archangel, when arguing with the devil and disputing.”

[1:10]  ³¹ tn Or “they should naturally comprehend.” The present tense in this context may have a conative force.

[1:11]  ³² tn Or “they have gone the way of Cain.”

[1:11]  ³³ tn Grk “for wages.”

[1:11]  ³⁴ tn The verb ἐκχέω (ekcew) normally means “pour out.” Here, in the passive, it occasionally has a reflexive idea, as BDAG 312 s.v. 3. suggests (with extra-biblical examples).

[1:11]  ³⁵ tn Or “in.”

[1:11]  ³⁶ tn Grk “and.” See note on “perish” later in this verse.

[1:11]  ³⁷ tn The three verbs in this verse are all aorist indicative (“have gone down,” “have abandoned,” “have perished”). Although the first and second could be considered constative or ingressive, the last is almost surely proleptic (referring to the certainty of their future judgment). Although it may seem odd that a proleptic aorist is so casually connected to other aorists with a different syntactical force, it is not unparalleled (cf. Rom 8:30).