Numbers 24:16

24:16 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God,

and who knows the knowledge of the Most High,

who sees a vision from the Almighty,

although falling flat on the ground with eyes open:

Isaiah 29:13

29:13 The sovereign master ¹  says,

“These people say they are loyal to me; ² 

they say wonderful things about me, ³ 

but they are not really loyal to me. ⁴ 

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual. ⁵ 

Isaiah 48:1

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ⁶ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁷ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁸  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁹ 

Isaiah 58:2

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ¹⁰ 

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 33:31

33:31 They come to you in crowds, ¹¹  and they sit in front of you as ¹²  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ¹³  them. For they talk lustfully, ¹⁴  and their heart is set on ¹⁵  their own advantage. ¹⁶ 

Hosea 8:2-3

8:2 Israel cries out to me,

“My God, we acknowledge you!”

8:3 But Israel has rejected what is morally good;

so an enemy will pursue him.

Romans 2:18-24

2:18 and know his will ¹⁷  and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, ¹⁸  2:19 and if you are convinced ¹⁹  that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth – 2:21 therefore ²⁰  you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor ²¹  idols, do you rob temples? 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” ²² 

Romans 2:2

2:2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth ²³  against those who practice such things.

Romans 3:5-8

3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ²⁴  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ²⁵  (I am speaking in human terms.) ²⁶  3:6 Absolutely not! For otherwise how could God judge the world? 3:7 For if by my lie the truth of God enhances ²⁷  his glory, why am I still actually being judged as a sinner? 3:8 And why not say, “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”? – as some who slander us allege that we say. ²⁸  (Their ²⁹  condemnation is deserved!)

Jude 1:4

1:4 For certain men ³⁰  have secretly slipped in among you ³¹  – men who long ago ³²  were marked out ³³  for the condemnation I am about to describe ³⁴  – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil ³⁵  and who deny our only Master ³⁶  and Lord, ³⁷  Jesus Christ.

[29:13]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[29:13]  ² tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”

[29:13]  ³ tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”

[29:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “but their heart is far from me.” The heart is viewed here as the seat of the will, from which genuine loyalty derives.

[29:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”

[48:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[58:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[33:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “as people come.” Apparently this is an idiom indicating that they come in crowds. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:264.

[33:31]  ¹² tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

[33:31]  ¹³ tn Heb “do.”

[33:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

[33:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “goes after.”

[33:31]  ¹⁶ tn The present translation understands the term often used for “unjust gain” in a wider sense, following M. Greenberg, who also notes that the LXX uses a term which can describe either sexual or ritual pollution. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:687.

[2:18]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the will.”

[2:18]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”

[2:19]  ¹⁹ tn This verb is parallel to the verbs in vv. 17-18a, so it shares the conditional meaning even though the word “if” is not repeated.

[2:21]  ²⁰ tn The structure of vv. 21-24 is difficult. Some take these verses as the apodosis of the conditional clauses (protases) in vv. 17-20; others see vv. 17-20 as an instance of anacoluthon (a broken off or incomplete construction).

[2:22]  ²¹ tn Or “detest.”

[2:24]  ²² sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.

[2:2]  ²³ tn Or “based on truth.”

[3:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “shows clearly.”

[3:5]  ²⁵ tn Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is he?”

[3:5]  ²⁶ sn The same expression occurs in Gal 3:15, and similar phrases in Rom 6:19 and 1 Cor 9:8.

[3:7]  ²⁷ tn Grk “abounded unto.”

[3:8]  ²⁸ tn Grk “(as we are slandered and some affirm that we say…).”

[3:8]  ²⁹ tn Grk “whose.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, this relative clause was rendered as a new sentence in the translation.

[1:4]  ³⁰ tn Grk “people.” However, if Jude is indeed arguing that Peter’s prophecy about false teachers has come true, these are most likely men in the original historical and cultural setting. See discussion of this point in the note on the phrase “these men” in 2 Pet 2:12.

[1:4]  ³¹ tn “Among you” is not in the Greek text, but is obviously implied.

[1:4]  ³² tn Or “in the past.” The adverb πάλαι (palai) can refer to either, though the meaning “long ago” is more common.

[1:4]  ³³ tn Grk “written about.”

[1:4]  ³⁴ tn Grk “for this condemnation.” τοῦτο (touto) is almost surely a kataphoric demonstrative pronoun, pointing to what follows in vv. 5-18. Otherwise, the condemnation is only implied (in v. 3b) or is merely a statement of their sinfulness (“ungodly” in v. 4b), not a judgment of it.

[1:4]  ³⁵ tn Grk “debauchery.” This is the same word Peter uses to predict what the false teachers will be like (2 Pet 2:2, 7, 18).

[1:4]  ³⁶ tc Most later witnesses (P Ψ Ï sy) have θεόν (qeon, “God”) after δεσπότην (despothn, “master”), which appears to be a motivated reading in that it explicitly links “Master” to “God” in keeping with the normal NT pattern (see Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; 2 Tim 2:21; Rev 6:10). In patristic Greek, δεσπότης (despoth") was used especially of God (cf. BDAG 220 s.v. 1.b.). The earlier and better witnesses (Ì^72,78 א A B C 0251 33 81 323 1241 1739 al co) lack θεόν; the shorter reading is thus preferred on both internal and external grounds.

[1:4]  ³⁷ tn The terms “Master and Lord” both refer to the same person. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. For more discussion see ExSyn 270-78. See also Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1