Jude 1:15-16

1:15 to execute judgment on ¹  all, and to convict every person ²  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ³  that they have committed, ⁴  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ⁵  1:16 These people are grumblers and ⁶  fault-finders who go ⁷  wherever their desires lead them, ⁸  and they give bombastic speeches, ⁹  enchanting folks ¹⁰  for their own gain. ¹¹ 

Proverbs 7:11-13

7:11 (She is loud and rebellious,

she ¹²  does not remain ¹³  at home –

7:12 at one time outside, at another ¹⁴  in the wide plazas,

and by every corner she lies in wait.)

7:13 So she grabbed him and kissed him,

and with a bold expression ¹⁵  she said to him,

Proverbs 7:21

7:21 She persuaded him ¹⁶  with persuasive words; ¹⁷ 

with her smooth talk ¹⁸  she compelled him. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 3:9

3:9 The look on their faces ²⁰  testifies to their guilt; ²¹ 

like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. ²² 

Too bad for them! ²³ 

For they bring disaster on themselves.

Jeremiah 3:3

3:3 That is why the rains have been withheld,

and the spring rains have not come.

Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute. ²⁴ 

You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.

Revelation 17:1-6

The Great Prostitute and the Beast

17:1 Then ²⁵  one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me. ²⁶  “Come,” he said, “I will show you the condemnation and punishment ²⁷  of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” ²⁸  17:3 So ²⁹  he carried me away in the Spirit ³⁰  to a wilderness, ³¹  and there ³²  I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 17:4 Now ³³  the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet clothing, ³⁴  and adorned with gold, ³⁵  precious stones, and pearls. She held ³⁶  in her hand a golden cup filled with detestable things and unclean things from her sexual immorality. ³⁷  17:5 On ³⁸  her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ³⁹  “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.” 17:6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of those who testified to Jesus. ⁴⁰  I ⁴¹  was greatly astounded ⁴²  when I saw her.

[1:15]  ¹ tn Grk “against” (κατά [kata] + genitive). English usage is satisfied with “on” at this point, but the parallel is lost in the translation to some degree, for the end of v. 15 says that this judgment is meted out on these sinners because they spoke against him (κατά + genitive).

[1:15]  ² tn Or “soul.”

[1:15]  ³ tn Grk “of all their works of ungodliness.” The adverb “thoroughly” is part of the following verb “have committed.” See note on verb “committed” later in this verse.

[1:15]  ⁴ tn The verb in Greek does not simply mean “have committed,” but “have committed in an ungodly way.” The verb ἀσεβέω (asebew) is cognate to the noun ἀσέβεια (asebeia, “ungodliness”). There is no easy way to express this in English, since English does not have a single word that means the same thing. Nevertheless, the tenor of v. 15 is plainly seen, regardless of the translation.

[1:15]  ⁵ sn An apparent quotation from 1 En. 1:9. There is some doubt as to whether Jude is actually quoting from the text of 1 Enoch; the text here in Jude differs in some respects from the extant text of this pseudepigraphic book. It is sometimes suggested that Jude may instead have been quoting from oral tradition which had roots older than the written text.

[1:16]  ⁶ tn “And” is not in Greek, but is supplied for the sake of English style.

[1:16]  ⁷ tn Or “going.” Though the participle is anarthrous, so also is the subject. Thus, the participle could be either adverbial or adjectival.

[1:16]  ⁸ tn Grk “(who go/going) according to their own lusts.”

[1:16]  ⁹ tn Grk “and their mouth speaks bombastic things.”

[1:16]  ¹⁰ sn Enchanting folks (Grk “awing faces”) refers to the fact that the speeches of these false teachers are powerful and seductive.

[1:16]  ¹¹ tn Or “to their own advantage.”

[7:11]  ¹² tn Heb “her feet.” This is a synecdoche, a part for the whole; the point is that she never stays home, but is out and about all the time.

[7:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “dwell” or “settle”; NAB “her feet cannot rest.”

[7:12]  ¹⁴ tn The repetition of the noun “time, step,” usually translated “now, this time,” signifies here “at one time…at another time” (BDB 822 s.v. פַּעַם 3.e).

[7:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “she makes bold her face.” The Hiphil perfect of עָזַז (’azar, “to be strong”) means she has an impudent face (cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV), a bold or brazen expression (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT).

[7:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “she turned him aside.” This expression means that she persuaded him. This section now begins the description of the capitulation, for the flattering speech is finished.

[7:21]  ¹⁷ sn The term לֶקַח (leqakh) was used earlier in Proverbs for wise instruction; now it is used ironically for enticement to sin (see D. W. Thomas, “Textual and Philological Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 280-92).

[7:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “smooth of her lips”; cf. NAB “smooth lips”; NASB “flattering lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause representing what she says.

[7:21]  ¹⁹ tn The verb means “to impel; to thrust; to banish,” but in this stem in this context “to compel; to force” into some action. The imperfect tense has the nuance of progressive imperfect to parallel the characteristic perfect of the first colon.

[3:9]  ²⁰ sn This refers to their proud, arrogant demeanor.

[3:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “answers against them”; NRSV “bears witness against them.”

[3:9]  ²² tn Heb “their sin, like Sodom, they declare, they do not conceal [it].”

[3:9]  ²³ tn Heb “woe to their soul.”

[3:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “you have the forehead of a prostitute.”

[17:1]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[17:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “with me.” The translation “with me” implies that John was engaged in a dialogue with the one speaking to him (e.g., Jesus or an angel) when in reality it was a one-sided conversation, with John doing all the listening. For this reason, μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ (met’ emou, “with me”) was translated as “to me.”

[17:1]  ²⁷ tn Here one Greek term, κρίμα (krima), has been translated by the two English terms “condemnation” and “punishment.” See BDAG 567 s.v. 4.b, “mostly in an unfavorable sense, of the condemnatory verdict and sometimes the subsequent punishment itself 2 Pt 2:3; Jd 4…τὸ κ. τῆς πόρνης the condemnation and punishment of the prostitute Rv 17:1.”

[17:2]  ²⁸ tn This is the same word translated “sexual immorality” earlier in the verse, but here the qualifier “sexual” has not been repeated for stylistic reasons.

[17:3]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s invitation to witness the fate of the prostitute.

[17:3]  ³⁰ tn Or “in the spirit.” “Spirit” could refer either to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but in either case John was in “a state of spiritual exaltation best described as a trance” (R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 75).

[17:3]  ³¹ tn Or “desert.”

[17:3]  ³² tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.

[17:4]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the detailed description of the woman, which is somewhat parenthetical in nature.

[17:4]  ³⁴ tn The word “clothing” is supplied to clarify that the words “purple” and “scarlet” refer to cloth or garments rather than colors.

[17:4]  ³⁵ tn Grk “gilded with gold” (an instance of semantic reinforcement, see L&N 49.29).

[17:4]  ³⁶ tn Grk “pearls, having in her hand.” Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[17:4]  ³⁷ tc Several mss (including 1611 1854 2053 Ï^K pc) read “sexual immorality on/of the earth” (πορνείας τῆς γῆς, porneia" th" gh") instead of “her sexual immorality.” Other mss (א sy^h** [co]) read “her sexual immorality and the earth’s” (πορνείας αὐτῆς καὶ τῆς γῆς, porneia" aujth" kai th" gh"). The translation is a rendering of πορνείας αὐτῆς, found in {A 1006 2344 al}. It seems that the first reading “sexuality immorality on/of the earth” was a scribal mistake in which letters may have been confused (auths would have been read as thsghs), or was perhaps influenced by the presence of “of the world” (τῆς γῆς) at the end of v. 5. The original wording seems to be “her sexual immorality”; codex א has conflated the two readings.

[17:5]  ³⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[17:5]  ³⁹ tn Some translations consider the word μυστήριον (musthrion, “mystery”) a part of the name written (“Mystery Babylon the Great,” so KJV, NIV), but the gender of both ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) and μυστήριον are neuter, while the gender of “Babylon” is feminine. This strongly suggests that μυστήριον should be understood as an appositive to ὄνομα (“a name, i.e., a mystery”).

[17:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “of the witnesses to Jesus.” Here the genitive ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou) is taken as an objective genitive; Jesus is the object of their testimony.

[17:6]  ⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[17:6]  ⁴² tn Grk “I marveled a great marvel” (an idiom for great astonishment).