Job 15:25-26

15:25 for he stretches out his hand against God, ¹ 

and vaunts himself ²  against the Almighty,

15:26 defiantly charging against him ³ 

with a thick, strong shield! ⁴ 

Job 40:9

40:9 Do you have an arm as powerful as God’s, ⁵ 

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

Isaiah 45:9

The Lord Gives a Warning

45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ⁶ 

one who is like a mere ⁷  shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter, ⁸ 

“What in the world ⁹  are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 50:24

50:24 I set a trap for you, Babylon;

you were caught before you knew it.

You fought against me.

So you were found and captured. ¹¹ 

Acts 5:39

5:39 but if ¹²  it is from God, you will not be able to stop them, or you may even be found ¹³  fighting against God.” He convinced them, ¹⁴ 

Acts 9:4-5

9:4 He ¹⁵  fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, ¹⁶  why are you persecuting me?” ¹⁷  9:5 So he said, “Who are you, Lord?” He replied, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting!

[15:25]  ¹ sn The symbol of the outstretched hand is the picture of attempting to strike someone, or shaking a fist at someone; it is a symbol of a challenge or threat (see Isa 5:25; 9:21; 10:4).

[15:25]  ² tn The Hitpael of גָּבַר (gavar) means “to act with might” or “to behave like a hero.” The idea is that the wicked boldly vaunts himself before the Lord.

[15:26]  ³ tn Heb “he runs against [or upon] him with the neck.” The RSV takes this to mean “with a stiff neck.” Several commentators, influenced by the LXX’s “insolently,” have attempted to harmonize with some idiom for neck (“outstretched neck,” for example). Others have made more extensive changes. Pope and Anderson follow Tur-Sinai in accepting “with full battle armor.” But the main idea seems to be that of a headlong assault on God.

[15:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “with the thickness of the bosses of his shield.” The bosses are the convex sides of the bucklers, turned against the foe. This is a defiant attack on God.

[40:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “do you have an arm like God?” The words “as powerful as” have been supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.

[45:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”

[45:9]  ⁷ tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[45:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”

[45:9]  ⁹ tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.

[45:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your work, there are no hands for it,” i.e., “your work looks like something made by a person who has no hands.”

[50:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “You were found [or found out] and captured because you fought against the Lord.” The same causal connection is maintained by the order of the translation but it puts more emphasis on the cause and connects it also more closely with the first half of the verse. The first person is used because the Lord is speaking of himself first in the first person “I set” and then in the third. The first person has been maintained throughout. Though it would be awkward, perhaps one could retain the reference to the Lord by translating, “I, the Lord.”

[5:39]  ¹² tn This is expressed in a first class condition, in contrast to the condition in v. 38b, which is third class. As such, v. 39 is rhetorically presented as the more likely option.

[5:39]  ¹³ tn According to L&N 39.32, the verb εὑρεθῆτε (Jeureqhte, an aorist passive subjunctive) may also be translated “find yourselves” – “lest you find yourselves fighting against God.” The Jewish leader Gamaliel is shown contemplating the other possible alternative about what is occurring.

[5:39]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “They were convinced by him.” This passive construction was converted to an active one (“He convinced them”) in keeping with contemporary English style. The phrase “He convinced them” is traditionally placed in Acts 5:40 by most English translations; the standard Greek critical text (represented by NA²⁷ and UBS⁴) places it at the end of v. 39.

[9:4]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “and he.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

[9:4]  ¹⁶ tn The double vocative suggests emotion.

[9:4]  ¹⁷ sn Persecuting me. To persecute the church is to persecute Jesus.