Luke 6:7

6:7 The experts in the law ¹  and the Pharisees ²  watched ³  Jesus ⁴  closely to see if ⁵  he would heal on the Sabbath, ⁶  so that they could find a reason to accuse him.

Luke 11:53-54

11:53 When he went out from there, the experts in the law ⁷  and the Pharisees began to oppose him bitterly, ⁸  and to ask him hostile questions ⁹  about many things, 11:54 plotting against ¹⁰  him, to catch ¹¹  him in something he might say.

Luke 20:20

Paying Taxes to Caesar

20:20 Then ¹²  they watched him carefully and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. ¹³  They wanted to take advantage of what he might say ¹⁴  so that they could deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction ¹⁵  of the governor.

Psalms 37:32

37:32 Evil men set an ambush for the godly

and try to kill them. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 41:6

41:6 When someone comes to visit, ¹⁷  he pretends to be friendly; ¹⁸ 

he thinks of ways to defame me, ¹⁹ 

and when he leaves he slanders me. ²⁰ 

Psalms 62:4

62:4 They ²¹  spend all their time planning how to bring him ²²  down. ²³ 

They love to use deceit; ²⁴ 

they pronounce blessings with their mouths,

but inwardly they utter curses. ²⁵  (Selah)

Psalms 64:5-6

64:5 They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. ²⁶ 

They plan how to hide ²⁷  snares,

and boast, ²⁸  “Who will see them?” ²⁹ 

64:6 They devise ³⁰  unjust schemes;

they disguise ³¹  a well-conceived plot. ³² 

Man’s inner thoughts cannot be discovered. ³³ 

Proverbs 23:7

23:7 for he is ³⁴  like someone calculating the cost ³⁵  in his mind. ³⁶ 

“Eat and drink,” he says to you,

but his heart is not with you;

Isaiah 29:20-21

29:20 For tyrants will disappear,

those who taunt will vanish,

and all those who love to do wrong will be eliminated ³⁷  –

29:21 those who bear false testimony against a person, ³⁸ 

who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate ³⁹ 

and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. ⁴⁰ 

Jeremiah 20:10-11

20:10 I ⁴¹  hear many whispering words of intrigue against me.

Those who would cause me terror are everywhere! ⁴² 

They are saying, “Come on, let’s publicly denounce him!” ⁴³ 

All my so-called friends ⁴⁴  are just watching for

something that would lead to my downfall. ⁴⁵ 

They say, “Perhaps he can be enticed into slipping up,

so we can prevail over ⁴⁶  him and get our revenge on him.

20:11 But the Lord is with me to help me like an awe-inspiring warrior. ⁴⁷ 

Therefore those who persecute me will fail and will not prevail over me.

They will be thoroughly disgraced because they did not succeed.

Their disgrace will never be forgotten.

Mark 3:2

3:2 They watched ⁴⁸  Jesus ⁴⁹  closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, ⁵⁰  so that they could accuse him.

[6:7]  ¹ tn Or “The scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

[6:7]  ² sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[6:7]  ³ sn The term translated watched…closely is emotive, since it carries negative connotations. It means they were watching him out of the corner of their eye or spying on him.

[6:7]  ⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:7]  ⁵ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text; Jesus’ opponents anticipated he would do this.

[6:7]  ⁶ sn The background for this is the view that only if life was endangered should one attempt to heal on the Sabbath (see the Mishnah, m. Shabbat 6.3; 12.1; 18.3; 19.2; m. Yoma 8.6).

[11:53]  ⁷ tn Or “the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

[11:53]  ⁸ tn Or “terribly.”

[11:53]  ⁹ tn For this term see L&N 33.183.

[11:54]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “lying in ambush against,” but this is a figurative extension of that meaning.

[11:54]  ¹¹ tn This term was often used in a hunting context (BDAG 455 s.v. θηρεύω; L&N 27.30). Later examples of this appear in Luke 20.

[20:20]  ¹² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[20:20]  ¹³ tn Grk “righteous,” but in this context the point is their false sincerity.

[20:20]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “so that they might catch him in some word.”

[20:20]  ¹⁵ tn This word is often translated “authority” in other contexts, but here, in combination with ἀρχή (arch), it refers to the domain or sphere of the governor’s rule (L&N 37.36).

[37:32]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “an evil [one] watches the godly [one] and seeks to kill him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and godly individual are in view. The active participles describe characteristic behavior.

[41:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to see.”

[41:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he speaks deceitfully.”

[41:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his heart gathers sin to itself.”

[41:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he goes outside and speaks.”

[62:4]  ²¹ tn That is, the psalmist’s enemies addressed in the previous verse.

[62:4]  ²² tn That is, the generic “man” referred to in the previous verse.

[62:4]  ²³ tn Heb “only from his lofty place [or perhaps, “dignity”] they plan to drive [him] away.”

[62:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they delight [in] a lie.”

[62:4]  ²⁵ sn The enemies use deceit to bring down their victim. They make him think they are his friends by pronouncing blessings upon him, but inwardly they desire his demise.

[64:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they give strength to themselves, an evil matter [or “word”].”

[64:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “they report about hiding.”

[64:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “they say.”

[64:5]  ²⁹ tn If this is a direct quotation (cf. NASB, NIV), the pronoun “them” refers to the snares mentioned in the previous line. If it is an indirect quotation, then the pronoun may refer to the enemies themselves (cf. NEB, which is ambiguous). Some translations retain the direct quotation but alter the pronoun to “us,” referring clearly to the enemies (cf. NRSV).

[64:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “search out, examine,” which here means (by metonymy) “devise.”

[64:6]  ³¹ tc The MT has תַּמְנוּ (tamnu, “we are finished”), a Qal perfect first common plural form from the verbal root תָּמַם (tamam). Some understand this as the beginning of a quotation of the enemies’ words and translate, “we have completed,” but the Hiphil would seem to be required in this case. The present translation follows many medieval Hebrew mss in reading טָמְנוּ (tomnu, “they hide”), a Qal perfect third common plural form from the verbal root טָמַן (taman).

[64:6]  ³² tn Heb “a searched-out search,” which is understood as referring here to a thoroughly planned plot to destroy the psalmist.

[64:6]  ³³ tn Heb “and the inner part of man, and a heart [is] deep.” The point seems to be that a man’s inner thoughts are incapable of being discovered. No one is a mind reader! Consequently the psalmist is vulnerable to his enemies’ well-disguised plots.

[23:7]  ³⁴ tc The line is difficult; it appears to mean that the miser is the kind of person who has calculated the cost of everything in his mind as he offers the food. The LXX has: “Eating and drinking with him is as if one should swallow a hair; do not introduce him to your company nor eat bread with him.” The Hebrew verb “to calculate” (שָׁעַר, sha’ar) with a change of vocalization and of sibilant would yield “hair” (שֵׂעָר, se’ar) – “like a hair in the throat [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh], so is he.” This would picture an irritating experience. The Instruction of Amenemope uses “blocking the throat” in a similar saying (chapt. 11, 14:7 [ANET 423]). The suggested change is plausible and is followed by NRSV; but the rare verb “to calculate” in the MT would be easier to defend on the basis of the canons of textual criticism because it is the more difficult reading.

[23:7]  ³⁵ tn The phrase “the cost” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the verb; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[23:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “soul.”

[29:20]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and all the watchers of wrong will be cut off.”

[29:21]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the ones who make a man a sinner with a word.” The Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) here has a delocutive sense: “declare a man sinful/guilty.”

[29:21]  ³⁹ sn Legal disputes were resolved at the city gate, where the town elders met. See Amos 5:10.

[29:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and deprive by emptiness the innocent.”

[20:10]  ⁴¹ tn It would be difficult to render accurately the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this verse without lengthening the English line unduly. It probably means something like “This is true even though I…,” i.e., the particle is concessive (cf. BDB s.v. כִּי 2.c). No other nuance seems appropriate. The particle is left out of the translation, but its presence is acknowledged here.

[20:10]  ⁴² tn The phrase translated “Those who would cause me terror are everywhere” has already occurred in 6:25 in the context of the terror caused by the enemy from the north and in 20:3 in reference to the curse pronounced on Pashhur who would experience it first hand. Some have seen the phrase here not as Jeremiah’s ejaculation of terror but of his assailant’s taunts of his message or even their taunting nickname for him. But comparison of this passage with the first two lines of Ps 31:13 (31:14 HT) which are word for word the same as these two will show that it refers to the terror inspired by the plots of his enemies to do away with him. It is also clear from the context of that passage and the following context here that the “whispering of many” (the literal translation of “many whispering words of intrigue against me) refers to intrigues to take vengeance on him and do away with him.

[20:10]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Denounce and let us denounce him.” The verb which is translated “denounce” (נָגַד, nagad) does not take an accusative object of person as it does here very often. When it does it usually means to inform someone. The only relevant passage appears to be Job 17:5 where it means something like “denounce.” What is probably involved here are the attempts to portray Jeremiah as a traitor (Jer 26:10) and a false prophet (see his conflict with Hananiah in Jer 28).

[20:10]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the men of my peace [who are concerned about my welfare].” For this phrase compare Ps 41:9 (41:10 HT); Jer 38:22. It is generally agreed that irony is being invoked here, hence “so-called” is supplied in the translation to bring out the irony.

[20:10]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “watching my stumbling [for me to stumble].” Metaphorically they were watching for some slip-up that would lead to his downfall. Compare the use in Pss 35:15 and 38:17 (38:18 HT).

[20:10]  ⁴⁶ tn All the text says literally is “Perhaps he can be enticed so that we can prevail over him.” However the word “enticed” needs some qualification. As W. McKane (Jeremiah [ICC], 1:479) notes it should probably be read in the context of the “stumbling” (= “something that would lead to my downfall”). Hence “slipping up” has been supplied as an object. It is vague enough to avoid specifics as the original text does but suggests some reference to “something that would lead to my downfall.”

[20:11]  ⁴⁷ sn This line has some interesting ties with Jer 15:20-21 where Jeremiah is assured by God that he is indeed with him as he promised him when he called him (1:8, 19) and will deliver him from the clutches of wicked and violent people. The word translated here “awe-inspiring” is the same as the word “violent people” there. Jeremiah is confident that his “awe-inspiring” warrior will overcome “violent people.” The statement of confidence here is, by the way, a common element in the psalms of petition in the Psalter. The common elements of that type of psalm are all here: invocation (v. 7), lament (vv. 7-10), confession of trust/confidence in being heard (v. 11), petition (v. 12), thanksgiving or praise (v. 13). For some examples of this type of psalm see Pss 3, 7, 26.

[3:2]  ⁴⁸ sn The term translated watched…closely is emotive, since it carries negative connotations. It means they were watching him out of the corner of their eye or spying on him.

[3:2]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ⁵⁰ sn The background for this is the view that only if life was endangered should one attempt to heal on the Sabbath (see the Mishnah, m. Shabbat 6.3; 12.1; 18.3; 19.2; m. Yoma 8.6).