Jude 1:14

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ¹  even prophesied of them, ²  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ³  with thousands and thousands ⁴  of his holy ones,

Jude 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ⁵ 

Jude 1:13

1:13 wild sea waves, ⁶  spewing out the foam of ⁷  their shame; ⁸  wayward stars ⁹  for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness ¹⁰  have been reserved.

Jeremiah 2:28

2:28 But where are the gods you made for yourselves?

Let them save you when you are in trouble.

The sad fact is that ¹¹  you have as many gods

as you have towns, Judah.

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

[1:14]  ² tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ³ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ⁴ 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.

[1:2]  ⁵ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”

[1:13]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.

[2:28]  ¹¹ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki, “for, indeed”) contextually.