Malachi 2:11

2:11 Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. ¹  For Judah has profaned ²  the holy things that the Lord loves and has turned to a foreign god! ³ 

Malachi 2:14-15

2:14 Yet you ask, “Why?” The Lord is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young, ⁴  to whom you have become unfaithful even though she is your companion and wife by law. ⁵  2:15 No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. ⁶  What did our ancestor ⁷  do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 9:4-5

9:4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.

He must not even trust any of his relatives. ⁹ 

For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. ¹⁰ 

And all of his friends will tell lies about him.

9:5 One friend deceives another

and no one tells the truth.

These people have trained themselves ¹¹  to tell lies.

They do wrong and are unable to repent.

Micah 7:2-6

7:2 Faithful men have disappeared ¹²  from the land;

there are no godly men left. ¹³ 

They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ¹⁴ 

they hunt their own brother with a net. ¹⁵ 

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ¹⁶ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ¹⁷ 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ¹⁸ 

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹⁹ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²⁰ 

and then you will experience confusion. ²¹ 

7:5 Do not rely on a friend;

do not trust a companion!

Don’t even share secrets with the one who lies in your arms! ²² 

7:6 For a son thinks his father is a fool,

a daughter challenges ²³  her mother,

and a daughter-in-law her mother-in-law;

a man’s enemies are his own servants. ²⁴ 

Matthew 10:21

10:21 “Brother ²⁵  will hand over brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise against ²⁶  parents and have them put to death.

Matthew 22:16

22:16 They sent to him their disciples along with the Herodians, ²⁷  saying, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful, and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ²⁸  You do not court anyone’s favor because you show no partiality. ²⁹ 

Acts 7:26

7:26 The next day Moses ³⁰  saw two men ³¹  fighting, and tried to make peace between ³²  them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why are you hurting one another?’

Acts 7:1

Stephen’s Defense Before the Council

7:1 Then the high priest said, “Are these things true?” ³³ 

Colossians 1:6-8

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ³⁴  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ³⁵  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 1:7 You learned the gospel ³⁶  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ³⁷  – a ³⁸  faithful minister of Christ on our ³⁹  behalf – 1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:25

4:25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, ⁴⁰  for we are members of one another.

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ⁴¹  urge you to live ⁴²  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ⁴³ 

Ephesians 4:6

4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

[2:11]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:11]  ² tn Or perhaps “secularized”; cf. NIV “desecrated”; TEV, NLT “defiled”; CEV “disgraced.”

[2:11]  ³ tn Heb “has married the daughter of a foreign god.” Marriage is used here as a metaphor to describe Judah’s idolatry, that is, her unfaithfulness to the Lord and “remarriage” to pagan gods. But spiritual intermarriage found expression in literal, physical marriage as well, as vv. 14-16 indicate.

[2:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord is a witness between you and [between] the wife of your youth.”

[2:14]  ⁵ sn Though there is no explicit reference to marriage vows in the OT (but see Job 7:13; Prov 2:17; Ezek 16:8), the term law (Heb “covenant”) here asserts that such vows or agreements must have existed. References to divorce documents (e.g., Deut 24:1-3; Jer 3:8) also presuppose the existence of marriage documents.

[2:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and not one has done, and a remnant of the spirit to him.” The very elliptical nature of the statement suggests it is proverbial. The present translation represents an attempt to clarify the meaning of the statement (cf. NASB).

[2:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one.” This is an oblique reference to Abraham who sought to obtain God’s blessing by circumventing God’s own plan for him by taking Hagar as wife (Gen 16:1-6). The result of this kind of intermarriage was, of course, disastrous (Gen 16:11-12).

[2:15]  ⁸ sn The wife he took in his youth probably refers to the first wife one married (cf. NCV “the wife you married when you were young”).

[9:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “Be on your guard…Do not trust.” The verbs are second masculine plural of direct address and there seems no way to translate literally and not give the mistaken impression that Jeremiah is being addressed. This is another example of the tendency in Hebrew style to turn from description to direct address (a figure of speech called apostrophe).

[9:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”

[9:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “their tongues.” However, this is probably not a natural idiom in contemporary English and the tongue may stand as a part for the whole anyway.

[7:2]  ¹² tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”

[7:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”

[7:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”

[7:2]  ¹⁵ sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.

[7:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ¹⁸ tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.

[7:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[7:5]  ²² tn Heb “from the one who lies in your arms, guard the doors of your mouth.”

[7:6]  ²³ tn Heb “rises up against.”

[7:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the enemies of a man are the men of his house.”

[10:21]  ²⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:21]  ²⁶ tn Or “will rebel against.”

[22:16]  ²⁷ sn The Herodians are mentioned in the NT only once in Matt (22:16 = Mark 12:13) and twice in Mark (3:6; 12:13; some mss also read “Herodians” instead of “Herod” in Mark 8:15). It is generally assumed that as a group the Herodians were Jewish supporters of the Herodian dynasty (or of Herod Antipas in particular). In every instance they are linked with the Pharisees. This probably reflects agreement regarding political objectives (nationalism as opposed to submission to the yoke of Roman oppression) rather than philosophy or religious beliefs.

[22:16]  ²⁸ sn Teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Very few comments are as deceitful as this one; they did not really believe this at all. The question of the Pharisees and Herodians was specifically designed to trap Jesus.

[22:16]  ²⁹ tn Grk “And it is not a concern to you about anyone because you do not see the face of men.”

[7:26]  ³⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:26]  ³¹ tn Grk “saw them”; the context makes clear that two individuals were involved (v. 27).

[7:26]  ³² tn Or “tried to reconcile” (BDAG 964-65 s.v. συναλλάσσω).

[7:1]  ³³ tn Grk “If it is so concerning these things” (see BDAG 422 s.v. ἔχω 10.a for this use).

[1:6]  ³⁴ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ³⁵ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[1:7]  ³⁶ tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ³⁷ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:7]  ³⁸ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ³⁹ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.

[4:25]  ⁴⁰ sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.

[4:1]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ⁴² tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ⁴³ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.