Psalms 50:17-18

50:17 For you hate instruction

and reject my words. ¹ 

50:18 When you see a thief, you join him; ² 

you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives. ³ 

Isaiah 1:23

1:23 Your officials are rebels, ⁴ 

they associate with ⁵  thieves.

All of them love bribery,

and look for ⁶  payoffs. ⁷ 

They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ⁸ 

or defend the rights of the widow. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 7:11

7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ¹⁰  is to be a hideout for robbers? ¹¹  You had better take note! ¹²  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

Ezekiel 22:13

22:13 “‘See, I strike my hands together ¹³  at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed ¹⁴  they have done among you.

Ezekiel 22:27

22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit.

Ezekiel 22:29

22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ¹⁵ 

Matthew 21:19

21:19 After noticing a fig tree ¹⁶  by the road he went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “Never again will there be fruit from you!” And the fig tree withered at once.

Matthew 23:14

23:14 [[EMPTY]] ¹⁷ 

Matthew 23:33

23:33 You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ¹⁸ 

John 12:6

12:6 (Now Judas ¹⁹  said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money box, ²⁰  he used to steal what was put into it.) ²¹ 

Ephesians 4:28

4:28 The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with the one who has need.

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²²  urge you to live ²³  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ²⁴ 

Ephesians 4:6

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

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²⁵  urge you to live ²⁶  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ²⁷ 

Ephesians 4:15

4:15 But practicing the truth in love, ²⁸  we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head.

[50:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”

[50:18]  ² tn Heb “you run with him.”

[50:18]  ³ tn Heb “and with adulterers [is] your portion.”

[1:23]  ⁴ tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”

[1:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”

[1:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”

[1:23]  ⁷ sn Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts (שַׁלְמוֹנִים, shalmonim; a hapax legomena here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness (שָׁלוֹם, shalom), they sought after payoffs (שַׁלְמוֹנִים).

[1:23]  ⁸ sn See the note at v. 17.

[1:23]  ⁹ sn The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.

[7:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

[7:11]  ¹² tn Heb “Behold!”

[22:13]  ¹³ sn This gesture apparently expresses mourning and/or anger (see 6:11; 21:14, 17).

[22:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the blood which was in you.”

[22:29]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

[21:19]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “one fig tree.”

[23:14]  ¹⁷ tc The most important mss (א B D L Z Θ Ë¹ 33 892* pc and several versional witnesses) do not have 23:14 “Woe to you experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ property, and as a show you pray long prayers! Therefore you will receive a more severe punishment.” Part or all of the verse is contained (either after v. 12 or after v. 13) in W 0102 0107 ˹³ Ï and several versions, but it is almost certainly not original. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number as well, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations. Note also that Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47 are very similar in wording and are not disputed textually.

[23:33]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.”

[12:6]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Judas) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:6]  ²⁰ tn Grk “a thief, and having the money box.” Dividing the single Greek sentence improves the English style.

[12:6]  ²¹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. This is one of the indications in the gospels that Judas was of bad character before the betrayal of Jesus. John states that he was a thief and had responsibility for the finances of the group. More than being simply a derogatory note about Judas’ character, the inclusion of the note at this particular point in the narrative may be intended to link the frustrated greed of Judas here with his subsequent decision to betray Jesus for money. The parallel accounts in Matthew and Mark seem to indicate that after this incident Judas went away immediately and made his deal with the Jewish authorities to deliver up Jesus. Losing out on one source of sordid gain, he immediately went out and set up another.

[4:1]  ²² tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ²³ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ²⁴ 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.

[4:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ²⁷ 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.

[4:15]  ²⁸ tn The meaning of the participle ἀληθεύοντες (alhqeuonte"; from the verb ἀληθεύω [alhqeuw]) is debated. In classical times the verb could mean “to speak the truth,” or “to be true, to prove true.” In the LXX it appears five times (Gen 20:16; 42:16; Prov 21:3; Isa 44:26; Sir 34:4) and translates four different Hebrew words; there it is an ethical term used of proving or being true, not with the idea of speaking the truth. In the NT the only other place the verb appears is in Gal 4:16 where it means “to speak the truth.” However, in Ephesians the concept of “being truthful” is the best sense of the word. In contrast to the preceding verse, where there are three prepositional phrases to denote falsehood and deceit, the present word speaks of being real or truthful in both conduct and speech. Their deceit was not only in their words but also in their conduct. In other words, the believers’ conduct should be transparent, revealing the real state of affairs, as opposed to hiding or suppressing the truth through cunning and deceit. See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 564-65, and R. Bultmann, TDNT 1:251.