Jude 1:13-14

1:13 wild sea waves, ¹  spewing out the foam of ²  their shame; ³  wayward stars ⁴  for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness ⁵  have been reserved.

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ⁶  even prophesied of them, ⁷  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ⁸  with thousands and thousands ⁹  of his holy ones,

Lamentations 4:16

פ (Pe)

4:16 The Lord himself ¹⁰  has scattered them;

he no longer watches over them.

They did not honor the priests; ¹¹ 

they did not show favor to the elders. ¹² 

Amos 5:22

5:22 Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, ¹³  I will not be satisfied;

I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves. ¹⁴ 

Malachi 2:13

2:13 You also do this: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears ¹⁵  as you weep and groan, because he no longer pays any attention to the offering nor accepts it favorably from you.

[1:13]  ¹ tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”

[1:13]  ² tn Grk “foaming, causing to foam.” The verb form is intensive and causative. BDAG 360 s.v. ἐπαφρίζω suggests the meaning “to cause to splash up like froth, cause to foam,” or, in this context, “waves casting up their own shameless deeds like (dirty) foam.”

[1:13]  ³ tn Grk “shames, shameful things.” It is uncertain whether shameful deeds or shameful words are in view. Either way, the picture has taken a decided turn: Though waterless clouds and fruitless trees may promise good things, but deliver nothing, wild sea-waves are portents of filth spewed forth from the belly of the sea.

[1:13]  ⁴ sn The imagery of a star seems to fit the nautical theme that Jude is developing. Stars were of course the guides to sailors at night, just as teachers are responsible to lead the flock through a benighted world. But false teachers, as wayward stars, are not fixed and hence offer unreliable, even disastrous guidance. They are thus both the dangerous reefs on which the ships could be destroyed and the false guides, leading them into these rocks. There is a special irony that these lights will be snuffed out, reserved for the darkest depths of eternal darkness.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.

[1:14]  ⁶ tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

[1:14]  ⁷ tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ⁸ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ⁹ tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

[4:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the face of the Lord.” The term פָּנֶה (paneh, “face”) is a synecdoche of part (= face) for the whole person (= the Lord himself). The phrase is often translated “the presence of the Lord.” The term “face” also functions anthropomorphically, depicting the invisible spirit God as though he had a physical face.

[4:16]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads the plural verb לֹא נָשָׂאוּ (lo’ nasa’u, “they did not lift up”), Qal perfect 3rd person common plural from נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to lift up” the face); however, the ancient versions (LXX, Aramaic Targum, Latin Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta) have singular verbs, reflecting a Vorlage of לֹא נָשָׂא (lo’ nasa’, “he did not lift up”), Qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular from נָשָׂא (nasa’). D. R. Hillers suggests that the MT plural is an intentional scribe change, to avoid the appearance that God brought about evil on the priests and elders. Equally possible is that consonantal לא חננו (l’ khnnv) should be revocalized as Qal passive perfect 3rd person common plural, and that כֹהֲנִים (kohanim, “the priests”) functions as the subject of a passive verb rather than the accusative direct object of an active verb: “(the faces of ) the priests were not lifted up.”

[4:16]  ¹² tc The MT reads the plural verb לֹא חָנָנוּ (lo’ khananu, “they did not show favor”), Qal perfect 3rd person common plural from חָנַן (khanan, “to show favor, be merciful”); however, the ancient versions (LXX, Aramaic Targum, Latin Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta) have singular verbs, reflecting a Vorlage of לֹא חָנַן (lo’ khanan, “he did not show favor”), Qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular from חָנַן (khanan). D. R. Hillers suggests that the MT plural is an intentional scribe change, to avoid the appearance that God brought about evil on the priests and elders. Equally possible is that consonantal לא חננו (l’ khnnv) should be revocalized as Qal passive perfect 3rd person common plural, and that זְקֵנִים (zÿqenim, “the elders”) functions as the subject of a passive verb rather than the accusative direct object of an active verb: “the elders were not shown favor/mercy.”

[5:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “burnt offerings and your grain offerings.”

[5:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Peace offering[s], your fattened calves, I will not look at.”

[2:13]  ¹⁵ sn You cover the altar of the Lord with tears. These tears are the false tears of hypocrisy, not genuine tears of repentance. The people weep because the Lord will not hear them, not because of their sin.