Jeremiah 7:9-11

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  7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ⁵  is to be a hideout for robbers? ⁶  You had better take note! ⁷  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

Ezekiel 33:31

33:31 They come to you in crowds, ⁸  and they sit in front of you as ⁹  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ¹⁰  them. For they talk lustfully, ¹¹  and their heart is set on ¹²  their own advantage. ¹³ 

Amos 8:5

8:5 You say,

“When will the new moon festival ¹⁴  be over, ¹⁵  so we can sell grain?

When will the Sabbath end, ¹⁶  so we can open up the grain bins? ¹⁷ 

We’re eager ¹⁸  to sell less for a higher price, ¹⁹ 

and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ²⁰ 

Matthew 15:8

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

but their heart ²¹  is far from me,

Acts 21:26-27

21:26 Then Paul took the men the next day, ²²  and after he had purified himself ²³  along with them, he went to the temple and gave notice ²⁴  of the completion of the days of purification, ²⁵  when ²⁶  the sacrifice would be offered for each ²⁷  of them. 21:27 When the seven days were almost over, ²⁸  the Jews from the province of Asia ²⁹  who had seen him in the temple area ³⁰  stirred up the whole crowd ³¹  and seized ³²  him,

[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…”

[7:11]  ⁵ 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.

[7:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

[7:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “Behold!”

[33:31]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

[33:31]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “do.”

[33:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

[33:31]  ¹² tn Heb “goes after.”

[33:31]  ¹³ 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.

[8:5]  ¹⁴ sn Apparently work was prohibited during the new moon festival, just as it was on the Sabbath.

[8:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “pass by.”

[8:5]  ¹⁶ tn The verb, though omitted in the Hebrew text, is supplied in the translation from the parallel line.

[8:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sell grain.” Here “grain” could stand by metonymy for the bins where it was stored.

[8:5]  ¹⁸ tn Here and in v. 6 the words “we’re eager” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to make small the ephah and to make great the shekel.” The “ephah” was a unit of dry measure used to determine the quantity purchased, while the “shekel” was a standard weight used to determine the purchase price. By using a smaller than standard ephah and a heavier than standard shekel, these merchants were able to increase their profit (“sell less for a higher price”) by cheating the buyer.

[8:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and to cheat with deceptive scales”; NASB, NIV “dishonest scales”; NRSV “false balances.”

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

[21:26]  ²² tn BDAG 422 s.v. ἔχω 11.b.β has “temporal, to be next, immediately following…τῇ ἐχομένῃ…on the next day Lk 13:33…Ac 20:15; w. ἡμέρᾳ added…21:26.”

[21:26]  ²³ tn That is, after he had undergone ritual cleansing. The aorist passive participle ἁγνισθείς (Jagnisqei") has been taken temporally of antecedent action.

[21:26]  ²⁴ tn Grk “entered the temple, giving notice.” The participle διαγγέλλων (diangellwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[21:26]  ²⁵ sn The days of purification refers to the days of ritual cleansing.

[21:26]  ²⁶ tn Grk “until” (BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.β.א), but since in English it is somewhat awkward to say “the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice would be offered,” the temporal clause was translated “when the sacrifice would be offered.” The point is that the sacrifice would be offered when the days were completed. Paul honored the request of the Jewish Christian leadership completely. As the following verse makes clear, the vow was made for seven days.

[21:26]  ²⁷ tn Grk “for each one.”

[21:27]  ²⁸ tn BDAG 975 s.v. συντελέω 4 has “to come to an end of a duration, come to an end, be over…Ac 21:27.”

[21:27]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.

[21:27]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in the temple.” See the note on the word “temple” in v. 28.

[21:27]  ³¹ tn Or “threw the whole crowd into consternation.” L&N 25.221 has “συνέχεον πάντα τὸν ὄχλον ‘they threw the whole crowd into consternation’ Ac 21:27. It is also possible to render the expression in Ac 21:27 as ‘they stirred up the whole crowd.’”

[21:27]  ³² tn Grk “and laid hands on.”