Matthew 23:25-26

23:25 “Woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, ²  so that the outside may become clean too!

Isaiah 48:1-2

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ³ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁴ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁵  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁶ 

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ⁷ 

they trust in ⁸  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 58:2

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ⁹ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

Ezekiel 33:3

33:3 He sees the sword coming against the land, blows the trumpet, ¹⁰  and warns the people, ¹¹ 

Ezekiel 33:2

33:2 “Son of man, speak to your people, ¹²  and say to them, ‘Suppose I bring a sword against the land, and the people of the land take one man from their borders and make him their watchman.

Ezekiel 3:5

3:5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech ¹³  and difficult language, ¹⁴  but ¹⁵  to the house of Israel –

Hebrews 12:15

12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up ¹⁶  and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.

Revelation 3:1

To the Church in Sardis

3:1 “To ¹⁷  the angel of the church in Sardis write the following: ¹⁸ 

“This is the solemn pronouncement of ¹⁹  the one who holds ²⁰  the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation ²¹  that you are alive, but ²²  in reality ²³  you are dead.

Revelation 3:15-16

3:15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. ²⁴  I wish you were either cold or hot! 3:16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going ²⁵  to vomit ²⁶  you out of my mouth!

[23:25]  ¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:26]  ² tc A very difficult textual problem is found here. The most important Alexandrian and Byzantine, as well as significant Western, witnesses (א B C L W 0102 0281 ˹³ 33 Ï lat co) have “and the dish” (καὶ τῆς παροψίδος, kai th" paroyido") after “cup,” while few important witnesses (D Θ Ë¹ 700 and some versional and patristic authorities) omit the phrase. On the one hand, scribes sometimes tended to eliminate redundancy; since “and the dish” is already present in v. 25, it may have been deleted in v. 26 by well-meaning scribes. On the other hand, as B. M. Metzger notes, the singular pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou, “its”) with τὸ ἐκτός (to ekto", “the outside”) in some of the same witnesses that have the longer reading (viz., B* ˹³ al) hints that their archetype lacked the words (TCGNT 50). Further, scribes would be motivated both to add the phrase from v. 25 and to change αὐτοῦ to the plural pronoun αὐτῶν (aujtwn, “their”). Although the external evidence for the shorter reading is not compelling in itself, combined with these two prongs of internal evidence, it is to be slightly preferred.

[48:1]  ³ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[48:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

[48:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

[58:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[33:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “shofar,” a ram’s horn rather than a brass instrument (so throughout the chapter).

[33:3]  ¹¹ tn Sounding the trumpet was a warning of imminent danger (Neh 4:18-20; Jer 4:19; Amos 3:6).

[33:2]  ¹² tn Heb “sons of your people.”

[3:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “deep of lip” (in the sense of incomprehensible).

[3:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “heavy of tongue.” Similar language occurs in Exod 4:10; Isa 33:19.

[3:5]  ¹⁵ tn The conjunction “but” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied from the context.

[12:15]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “that there not be any root of bitterness,” but referring figuratively to a person who causes trouble (as in Deut 29:17 [LXX] from which this is quoted).

[3:1]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated due to differences between Greek and English style.

[3:1]  ¹⁸ tn The phrase “the following” after “write” is supplied to clarify that what follows is the content of what is to be written.

[3:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “These things says [the One]…” See the note on the phrase “this is the solemn pronouncement of” in 2:1.

[3:1]  ²⁰ tn Grk “who has” (cf. 1:16).

[3:1]  ²¹ tn Grk “a name.”

[3:1]  ²² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:1]  ²³ tn The prepositional phrase “in reality” is supplied in the translation to make explicit the idea that their being alive was only an illusion.

[3:15]  ²⁴ sn Laodicea was near two other towns, each of which had a unique water source. To the north was Hierapolis which had a natural hot spring, often used for medicinal purposes. To the east was Colossae which had cold, pure waters. In contrast to these towns, Laodicea had no permanent supply of good water. Efforts to pipe water to the city from nearby springs were successful, but it would arrive lukewarm. The metaphor in the text is not meant to relate spiritual fervor to temperature. This would mean that Laodicea would be commended for being spiritually cold, but it is unlikely that Jesus would commend this. Instead, the metaphor condemns Laodicea for not providing spiritual healing (being hot) or spiritual refreshment (being cold) to those around them. It is a condemnation of their lack of works and lack of witness.

[3:16]  ²⁵ tn Or “I intend.”

[3:16]  ²⁶ tn This is the literal meaning of the Greek verb ἐμέω (emew). It is usually translated with a much weaker term like “spit out” due to the unpleasant connotations of the English verb “vomit,” as noted by L&N 23.44. The situation confronting the Laodicean church is a dire one, however, and such a term is necessary if the modern reader is to understand the gravity of the situation.