Numbers 25:2

25:2 These women invited ¹  the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ² 

Jude 1:23-25

1:23 save ³  others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy ⁴  on others, coupled with a fear of God, ⁵  hating even the clothes stained ⁶  by the flesh. ⁷ 

Final Blessing

1:24 Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, ⁸  and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, ⁹  without blemish ¹⁰  before his glorious presence, ¹¹  1:25 to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

Amos 2:8

2:8 They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral;

they do so right ¹²  beside every altar!

They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied;

they do so right in the temple ¹³  of their God! ¹⁴ 

Amos 8:10

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ¹⁵ 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ¹⁶ 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ¹⁷ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ¹⁸ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ¹⁹ 

Acts 7:41-42

7:41 At ²⁰  that time ²¹  they made an idol in the form of a calf, ²²  brought ²³  a sacrifice to the idol, and began rejoicing ²⁴  in the works of their hands. ²⁵  7:42 But God turned away from them and gave them over ²⁶  to worship the host ²⁷  of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices ²⁸  forty years in the wilderness, was it, ²⁹  house of Israel?

Acts 7:1

Stephen’s Defense Before the Council

7:1 Then the high priest said, “Are these things true?” ³⁰ 

Colossians 1:7

1:7 You learned the gospel ³¹  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ³²  – a ³³  faithful minister of Christ on our ³⁴  behalf –

Revelation 11:10

11:10 And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

[25:2]  ¹ tn The verb simply says “they called,” but it is a feminine plural. And so the women who engaged in immoral acts with Hebrew men invited them to their temple ritual.

[25:2]  ² sn What Israel experienced here was some of the debased ritual practices of the Canaanite people. The act of prostrating themselves before the pagan deities was probably participation in a fertility ritual, nothing short of cultic prostitution. This was a blatant disregard of the covenant and the Law. If something were not done, the nation would have destroyed itself.

[1:23]  ³ tn Grk “and save.”

[1:23]  ⁴ tn Grk “and have mercy.”

[1:23]  ⁵ tn Grk “with fear.” But as this contrasts with ἀφόβως (afobw") in v. 12 (without reverence), the posture of the false teachers, it most likely refers to reverence for God.

[1:23]  ⁶ sn The imagery here suggests that the things close to the sinners are contaminated by them, presumably during the process of sinning.

[1:23]  ⁷ tn Grk “hating even the tunic spotted by the flesh.” The “flesh” in this instance could refer to the body or to the sin nature. It makes little difference in one sense: Jude is thinking primarily of sexual sins, which are borne of the sin nature and manifest themselves in inappropriate deeds done with the body. At the same time, he is not saying that the body is intrinsically bad, a view held by the opponents of Christianity. Hence, it is best to see “flesh” as referring to the sin nature here and the language as metaphorical.

[1:24]  ⁸ tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “free from falling” is the adjectival complement.

[1:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “with rejoicing.” The prepositional clause is placed after “his glorious presence” in Greek, but most likely goes with “cause you to stand.”

[1:24]  ¹⁰ tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “without blemish” is the adjectival complement.

[1:24]  ¹¹ tn Or “in the presence of his glory,” “before his glory.”

[2:8]  ¹² tn The words “They do so right” are supplied twice in the translation of this verse for clarification.

[2:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “house.”

[2:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or “gods.” The Hebrew term אֱלֹהֵיהֶם (’elohehem) may be translated “their gods” (referring to pagan gods), “their god” (referring to a pagan god, cf. NAB, NIV, NLT), or “their God” (referring to the God of Israel, cf. NASB, NRSV).

[8:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).

[8:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.

[7:41]  ²⁰ tn Grk “And.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:41]  ²¹ tn Grk “In those days.”

[7:41]  ²² tn Or “a bull calf” (see Exod 32:4-6). The term μοσχοποιέω (moscopoiew) occurs only in Christian writings according to BDAG 660 s.v.

[7:41]  ²³ tn Grk “and brought,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[7:41]  ²⁴ tn The imperfect verb εὐφραίνοντο (eufrainonto) has been translated ingressively. See BDAG 414-15 s.v. εὐφραίνω 2.

[7:41]  ²⁵ tn Or “in what they had done.”

[7:42]  ²⁶ sn The expression and gave them over suggests similarities to the judgment on the nations described by Paul in Rom 1:18-32.

[7:42]  ²⁷ tn Or “stars.”

[7:42]  ²⁸ tn The two terms for sacrifices “semantically reinforce one another and are here combined essentially for emphasis” (L&N 53.20).

[7:42]  ²⁹ tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ question, “was it?”

[7:1]  ³⁰ tn Grk “If it is so concerning these things” (see BDAG 422 s.v. ἔχω 10.a for this use).

[1:7]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ 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.