Psalms 74:20

74:20 Remember your covenant promises, ¹ 

for the dark regions of the earth are full of places where violence rules. ² 

Proverbs 12:10

12:10 A righteous person cares for ³  the life of his animal,

but even the most compassionate acts ⁴  of the wicked are cruel.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

9:3 This is the unfortunate fact ⁵  about everything that happens on earth: ⁶ 

the same fate awaits ⁷  everyone.

In addition to this, the hearts of all people ⁸  are full of evil,

and there is folly in their hearts during their lives – then they die. ⁹ 

Mark 15:15-20

15:15 Because he wanted to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them. Then, ¹⁰  after he had Jesus flogged, ¹¹  he handed him over ¹²  to be crucified.

Jesus is Mocked

15:16 So ¹³  the soldiers led him into the palace (that is, the governor’s residence) ¹⁴  and called together the whole cohort. ¹⁵  15:17 They put a purple cloak ¹⁶  on him and after braiding ¹⁷  a crown of thorns, ¹⁸  they put it on him. 15:18 They began to salute him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹  15:19 Again and again ²⁰  they struck him on the head with a staff ²¹  and spit on him. Then they knelt down and paid homage to him. 15:20 When they had finished mocking ²²  him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes back on him. Then ²³  they led him away to crucify him. ²⁴ 

Luke 23:40-41

23:40 But the other rebuked him, saying, ²⁵  “Don’t ²⁶  you fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ²⁷  23:41 And we rightly so, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did, but this man has done nothing ²⁸  wrong.”

[74:20]  ¹ tc Heb “look at the covenant.” The LXX reads “your covenant,” which seems to assume a second person pronominal suffix. The suffix may have been accidentally omitted by haplography. Note that the following word (כִּי) begins with kaf (כ).

[74:20]  ² tn Heb “for the dark places of the earth are full of dwelling places of violence.” The “dark regions” are probably the lands where the people have been exiled (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:157). In some contexts “dark regions” refers to Sheol (Ps 88:6) or to hiding places likened to Sheol (Ps 143:3; Lam 3:6).

[12:10]  ³ tn Heb “knows”; NLT “concerned for the welfare of.” The righteous take care of animals, not just people.

[12:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “but the mercies.” The additional words appear in the translation for the sake of clarification. The line can be interpreted in two ways: (1) when the wicked exhibit a kind act, they do it in a cruel way, or (2) even the kindest of their acts is cruel by all assessments, e.g., stuffing animals with food to fatten them for market – their “kindness” is driven by ulterior motives (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 129).

[9:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “evil.”

[9:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[9:3]  ⁷ tn The term “awaits” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness and stylistic reasons.

[9:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “also the heart of the sons of man.” Here “heart” is a collective singular.

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and after that [they go] to [the place of] the dead.”

[15:15]  ¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[15:15]  ¹¹ tn The Greek term φραγελλόω (fragellow) refers to flogging. BDAG 1064 s.v. states, “flog, scourge, a punishment inflicted on slaves and provincials after a sentence of death had been pronounced on them. So in the case of Jesus before the crucifixion…Mt 27:26; Mk 15:15.”

[15:15]  ¹² tn Or “delivered him up.”

[15:16]  ¹³ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “So” to indicate that the soldiers’ action is in response to Pilate’s condemnation of the prisoner in v. 15.

[15:16]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “(that is, the praetorium).”

[15:16]  ¹⁵ sn A Roman cohort was a tenth of a legion, about 500-600 soldiers.

[15:17]  ¹⁶ sn The purple cloak probably refers to a military garment which had the color of royal purple, and thus resembled a king’s robe. The soldiers did this to Jesus as a form of mockery in view of the charges that he was a king (cf. 15:2).

[15:17]  ¹⁷ tn Or “weaving.”

[15:17]  ¹⁸ sn The crown may have been made from palm spines or some other thorny plant common in Israel. In placing the crown of thorns on his head, the soldiers were unwittingly symbolizing God’s curse on humanity (cf. Gen 3:18) being placed on Jesus. Their purpose would have been to mock Jesus’ claim to be a king; the crown of thorns would have represented the “radiant corona” portrayed on the heads of rulers on coins and other artifacts in the 1st century.

[15:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Long live the King of the Jews!”

[15:19]  ²⁰ tn The verb here has been translated as an iterative imperfect.

[15:19]  ²¹ tn Or “a reed.” The Greek term can mean either “staff” or “reed.” See BDAG 502 s.v. κάλαμος 2.

[15:20]  ²² tn The aorist tense is taken consummatively here.

[15:20]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[15:20]  ²⁴ sn See the note on Crucify in 15:13.

[23:40]  ²⁵ tn Grk “But answering, the other rebuking him, said.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation.

[23:40]  ²⁶ tn The particle used here (οὐδέ, oude), which expects a positive reply, makes this a rebuke – “You should fear God and not speak!”

[23:40]  ²⁷ tn The words “of condemnation” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[23:41]  ²⁸ sn This man has done nothing wrong is yet another declaration that Jesus was innocent of any crime.