Numbers 25:11-13

25:11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal ¹  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ²  25:12 Therefore, announce: ³  ‘I am going to give ⁴  to him my covenant of peace. ⁵  25:13 So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God, ⁶  and has made atonement ⁷  for the Israelites.’”

Deuteronomy 13:6-11

False Prophets in the Family

13:6 Suppose your own full brother, ⁸  your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend should seduce you secretly and encourage you to go and serve other gods ⁹  that neither you nor your ancestors ¹⁰  have previously known, ¹¹  13:7 the gods of the surrounding people (whether near you or far from you, from one end of the earth ¹²  to the other). 13:8 You must not give in to him or even listen to him; do not feel sympathy for him or spare him or cover up for him. 13:9 Instead, you must kill him without fail! ¹³  Your own hand must be the first to strike him, ¹⁴  and then the hands of the whole community. 13:10 You must stone him to death ¹⁵  because he tried to entice you away from the Lord your God, who delivered you from the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. 13:11 Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid; no longer will they continue to do evil like this among you. ¹⁶ 

Deuteronomy 33:9-10

33:9 He said to his father and mother, “I have not seen him,” ¹⁷ 

and he did not acknowledge his own brothers

or know his own children,

for they kept your word,

and guarded your covenant.

33:10 They will teach Jacob your ordinances

and Israel your law;

they will offer incense as a pleasant odor,

and a whole offering on your altar.

Deuteronomy 33:1

Introduction to the Blessing of Moses

33:1 This is the blessing Moses the man of God pronounced upon the Israelites before his death.

Deuteronomy 15:18-22

15:18 You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice ¹⁸  the time of a hired worker; the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Giving God the Best

15:19 You must set apart ¹⁹  for the Lord your God every firstborn male born to your herds and flocks. You must not work the firstborn of your bulls or shear the firstborn of your flocks. 15:20 You and your household must eat them annually before the Lord your God in the place he ²⁰  chooses. 15:21 If they have any kind of blemish – lameness, blindness, or anything else ²¹  – you may not offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord your God. 15:22 You may eat it in your villages, ²²  whether you are ritually impure or clean, ²³  just as you would eat a gazelle or an ibex.

Proverbs 21:3

21:3 To do righteousness and justice

is more acceptable ²⁴  to the Lord than sacrifice. ²⁵ 

Joel 2:12-14

An Appeal for Repentance

2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,

“return to me with all your heart –

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Tear your hearts, ²⁶ 

not just your garments!”

2:13 Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ²⁷  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ²⁸ 

2:14 Who knows?

Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, ²⁹ 

and leave blessing in his wake ³⁰  –

a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! ³¹ 

Zechariah 13:3

13:3 Then, if anyone prophesies in spite of this, his father and mother to whom he was born will say to him, ‘You cannot live, for you lie in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and mother to whom he was born will run him through with a sword when he prophesies. ³² 

Matthew 10:37

10:37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

[25:11]  ¹ tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.

[25:11]  ² tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.

[25:12]  ³ tn Heb “say.”

[25:12]  ⁴ tn Here too the grammar expresses an imminent future by using the particle הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle נֹתֵן (noten) – “here I am giving,” or “I am about to give.”

[25:12]  ⁵ tn Or “my pledge of friendship” (NAB), or “my pact of friendship” (NJPS). This is the designation of the leadership of the priestly ministry. The terminology is used again in the rebuke of the priests in Mal 2.

[25:13]  ⁶ tn The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.

[25:13]  ⁷ sn The atonement that he made in this passage refers to the killing of the two obviously blatant sinners. By doing this he dispensed with any animal sacrifice, for the sinners themselves died. In Leviticus it was the life of the substitutionary animal that was taken in place of the sinners that made atonement. The point is that sin was punished by death, and so God was free to end the plague and pardon the people. God’s holiness and righteousness have always been every bit as important as God’s mercy and compassion, for without righteousness and holiness mercy and compassion mean nothing.

[13:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “your brother, the son of your mother.” In a polygamous society it was not rare to have half brothers and sisters by way of a common father and different mothers.

[13:6]  ⁹ tn In the Hebrew text these words are in the form of a brief quotation: “entice you secretly saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods.’”

[13:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 17).

[13:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “which you have not known, you or your fathers.” (cf. KJV, ASV; on “fathers” cf. v. 18).

[13:7]  ¹² tn Or “land” (so NIV, NCV); the same Hebrew word can be translated “land” or “earth.”

[13:9]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with the words “without fail” (cf. NIV “you must certainly put him to death”).

[13:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to put him to death,” but this is misleading in English for such an action would leave nothing for the others to do.

[13:10]  ¹⁵ sn Execution by means of pelting the offender with stones afforded a mechanism whereby the whole community could share in it. In a very real sense it could be done not only in the name of the community and on its behalf but by its members (cf. Lev 24:14; Num 15:35; Deut 21:21; Josh 7:25).

[13:11]  ¹⁶ sn Some see in this statement an argument for the deterrent effect of capital punishment (Deut 17:13; 19:20; 21:21).

[33:9]  ¹⁷ sn This statement no doubt alludes to the Levites’ destruction of their own fellow tribesmen following the golden calf incident (Exod 32:25-29).

[15:18]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁנֶה (mishneh, “twice”) could mean “equivalent to” (cf. NRSV) or, more likely, “double” (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT). The idea is that a hired worker would put in only so many hours per day whereas a bondslave was available around the clock.

[15:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “sanctify” (תַּקְדִּישׁ, taqdish), that is, put to use on behalf of the Lord.

[15:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” The translation uses a pronoun for stylistic reasons. See note on “he” in 15:4.

[15:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “any evil blemish”; NASB “any (+ other NAB, TEV) serious defect.”

[15:22]  ²² tn Heb “in your gates.”

[15:22]  ²³ tc The LXX adds ἐν σοί (en soi, “among you”) to make clear that the antecedent is the people and not the animals. That is, the people, whether ritually purified or not, may eat such defective animals.

[21:3]  ²⁴ tn The Niphal participle בָּחַר (bakhar, “to choose”) means “choice to the Lord” or “chosen of the Lord,” meaning “acceptable to the Lord”; cf. TEV “pleases the Lord more.”

[21:3]  ²⁵ sn The Lord prefers righteousness above religious service (e.g., Prov 15:8; 21:29; 1 Sam 15:22; Ps 40:6-8; Isa 1:11-17). This is not a rejection of ritual worship; rather, religious acts are without value apart from righteous living.

[2:12]  ²⁶ sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

[2:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[2:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “turn” or “turn back.”

[2:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “leave a blessing behind him.”

[2:14]  ³¹ tn The phrase “for you to offer” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[13:3]  ³² sn Death (in this case being run…through with a sword) was the penalty required in the OT for prophesying falsely (Deut 13:6-11; 18:20-22).