Luke 13:32

13:32 But ¹  he said to them, “Go ²  and tell that fox, ³  ‘Look, I am casting out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day ⁴  I will complete my work. ⁵ 

Psalms 38:13-14

38:13 But I am like a deaf man – I hear nothing;

I am like a mute who cannot speak. ⁶ 

38:14 I am like a man who cannot hear

and is incapable of arguing his defense. ⁷ 

Psalms 39:1-2

Psalm 39 ⁸ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

39:1 I decided, ⁹  “I will watch what I say

and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. ¹⁰ 

I will put a muzzle over my mouth

while in the presence of an evil man.” ¹¹ 

39:2 I was stone silent; ¹² 

I held back the urge to speak. ¹³ 

My frustration grew; ¹⁴ 

Psalms 39:9

39:9 I am silent and cannot open my mouth

because of what you have done. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 53:7

53:7 He was treated harshly and afflicted, ¹⁶ 

but he did not even open his mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block,

like a sheep silent before her shearers,

he did not even open his mouth. ¹⁷ 

Matthew 7:6

7:6 Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces. ¹⁸ 

Matthew 27:14

27:14 But he did not answer even one accusation, so that the governor was quite amazed.

Acts 8:32

8:32 Now the passage of scripture the man ¹⁹  was reading was this:

“He was led like a sheep to slaughter,

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he did ²⁰  not open his mouth.

Acts 8:1

8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing ²¹  him.

Saul Begins to Persecute the Church

Now on that day a great ²²  persecution began ²³  against the church in Jerusalem, ²⁴  and all ²⁵  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ²⁶  of Judea and Samaria.

Acts 2:23

2:23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed ²⁷  by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. ²⁸ 

[13:32]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[13:32]  ² tn The participle πορευθέντες (poreuqente") has been taken as indicating attendant circumstance.

[13:32]  ³ sn That fox. This is not fundamentally a figure for cleverness as in modern western culture, but could indicate (1) an insignificant person (Neh 4:3; 2 Esd 13:35 LXX); (2) a deceiver (Song Rabbah 2.15.1 on 2:15); or someone destructive, a destroyer (Ezek 13:4; Lam 5:18; 1 En. 89:10, 42-49, 55). Luke’s emphasis seems to be on destructiveness, since Herod killed John the Baptist, whom Luke calls “the greatest born of women” (Luke 7:28) and later stands opposed to Jesus (Acts 4:26-28). In addition, “a person who is designated a fox is an insignificant or base person. He lacks real power and dignity, using cunning deceit to achieve his aims” (H. W. Hoehner, Herod Antipas [SNTSMS], 347).

[13:32]  ⁴ sn The third day is a figurative reference to being further on in time, not a reference to three days from now. Jesus is not even in Jerusalem yet, and the events of the last days in Jerusalem take a good week.

[13:32]  ⁵ tn Or “I reach my goal.” The verb τελειόω (teleiow) is a key NT term for the completion of God’s plan: See Luke 12:50; 22:37; John 19:30; and (where it has the additional component of meaning “to perfect”) Heb 2:10; 5:8-9; 7:28.

[38:13]  ⁶ sn I am like a deaf man…like a mute. The psalmist is like a deaf mute; he is incapable of defending himself and is vulnerable to his enemies’ deception (see v. 14).

[38:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “and there is not in his mouth arguments.”

[39:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 39. The psalmist laments his frailty and mortality as he begs the Lord to take pity on him and remove his disciplinary hand.

[39:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “I said.”

[39:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”

[39:1]  ¹¹ sn The psalmist wanted to voice a lament to the Lord (see vv. 4-6), but he hesitated to do so in the presence of evil men, for such words might be sinful if they gave the wicked an occasion to insult God. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 1:345.

[39:2]  ¹² tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”

[39:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.

[39:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.

[39:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “because you acted.” The psalmist has in mind God’s disciplinary measures (see vv. 10-13).

[53:7]  ¹⁶ tn The translation assumes the Niphal is passive; another option is take the clause (note the subject + verb pattern) as concessive and the Niphal as reflexive, “though he humbled himself.”

[53:7]  ¹⁷ sn This verse emphasizes the servant’s silent submission. The comparison to a sheep does not necessarily suggest a sacrificial metaphor. Sheep were slaughtered for food as well as for sacrificial rituals, and טֶבַח (tevakh) need not refer to sacrificial slaughter (see Gen 43:16; Prov 7:22; 9:2; Jer 50:27; note also the use of the related verb in Exod 21:37; Deut 28:31; 1 Sam 25:11).

[7:6]  ¹⁸ tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs…turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs…trample them under their feet”).

[8:32]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:32]  ²⁰ tn Grk “does.” The present tense here was translated as a past tense to maintain consistency with the first line of the quotation (“he was led like a sheep to slaughter”), which has an aorist passive verb normally translated as a past tense in English.

[8:1]  ²¹ tn The term ἀναίρεσις (anairesi") can refer to murder (BDAG 64 s.v.; 2 Macc 5:13; Josephus, Ant. 5.2.12 [5.165]).

[8:1]  ²² tn Or “severe.”

[8:1]  ²³ tn Grk “Now there happened on that day a great persecution.” It is less awkward to say in English “Now on that day a great persecution began.”

[8:1]  ²⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:1]  ²⁵ sn All. Given that the Jerusalem church is still active after this and that the Hellenists are the focus of Acts 6-8, it is possible to argue that only the Hellenistic Christians were forced to scatter.

[8:1]  ²⁶ tn Or “countryside.”

[2:23]  ²⁷ tn Or “you killed.”

[2:23]  ²⁸ tn Grk “at the hands of lawless men.” At this point the term ἄνομος (anomo") refers to non-Jews who live outside the Jewish (Mosaic) law, rather than people who broke any or all laws including secular laws. Specifically it is a reference to the Roman soldiers who carried out Jesus’ crucifixion.