Psalms 81:11-12

81:11 But my people did not obey me; ¹ 

Israel did not submit to me. ² 

81:12 I gave them over to their stubborn desires; ³ 

they did what seemed right to them. ⁴ 

Psalms 109:17

109:17 He loved to curse ⁵  others, so those curses have come upon him. ⁶ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ⁷ 

Isaiah 29:9-14

God’s People are Spiritually Insensitive

29:9 You will be shocked and amazed! ⁸ 

You are totally blind! ⁹ 

They are drunk, ¹⁰  but not because of wine;

they stagger, ¹¹  but not because of beer.

29:10 For the Lord has poured out on you

a strong urge to sleep deeply. ¹² 

He has shut your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

29:11 To you this entire prophetic revelation ¹³  is like words in a sealed scroll. When they hand it to one who can read ¹⁴  and say, “Read this,” he responds, “I can’t, because it is sealed.” 29:12 Or when they hand the scroll to one who can’t read ¹⁵  and say, “Read this,” he says, “I can’t read.” ¹⁶ 

29:13 The sovereign master ¹⁷  says,

“These people say they are loyal to me; ¹⁸ 

they say wonderful things about me, ¹⁹ 

but they are not really loyal to me. ²⁰ 

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual. ²¹ 

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed. ²² 

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.” ²³ 

John 12:39-43

12:39 For this reason they could not believe, ²⁴  because again Isaiah said,

12:40 “He has blinded their eyes

and hardened their heart, ²⁵ 

so that they would not see with their eyes

and understand with their heart, ²⁶ 

and turn to me, ²⁷  and I would heal them.” ²⁸ 

12:41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s ²⁹  glory, and spoke about him.

12:42 Nevertheless, even among the rulers ³⁰  many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees ³¹  they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, ³²  so that they would not be put out of ³³  the synagogue. ³⁴  12:43 For they loved praise ³⁵  from men more than praise ³⁶  from God.

Romans 1:21-25

1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ³⁷  were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed ³⁸  to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings ³⁹  or birds or four-footed animals ⁴⁰  or reptiles.

1:24 Therefore God gave them over ⁴¹  in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor ⁴²  their bodies among themselves. ⁴³  1:25 They ⁴⁴  exchanged the truth of God for a lie ⁴⁵  and worshiped and served the creation ⁴⁶  rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:28

1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ⁴⁷  God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. ⁴⁸ 

[81:11]  ¹ tn Heb “did not listen to my voice.”

[81:11]  ² tn The Hebrew expression אָבָה לִי (’avah liy) means “submit to me” (see Deut 13:8).

[81:12]  ³ tn Heb “and I sent him away in the stubbornness of their heart.”

[81:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “they walked in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite (“walked”) or a customary imperfect (“were walking”).

[109:17]  ⁵ sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

[29:9]  ⁸ tn The form הִתְמַהְמְהוּ (hitmahmÿhu) is a Hitpalpel imperative from מָהַהּ (mahah, “hesitate”). If it is retained, one might translate “halt and be amazed.” The translation assumes an emendation to הִתַּמְּהוּ (hittammÿhu), a Hitpael imperative from תָּמַה (tamah, “be amazed”). In this case, the text, like Hab 1:5, combines the Hitpael and Qal imperatival forms of תָּמַה (tamah). A literal translation might be “Shock yourselves and be shocked!” The repetition of sound draws attention to the statement. The imperatives here have the force of an emphatic assertion. On this use of the imperative in Hebrew, see GKC 324 §110.c and IBHS 572 §34.4c.

[29:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “Blind yourselves and be blind!” The Hitpalpel and Qal imperatival forms of שָׁעַע (sha’a’, “be blind”) are combined to draw attention to the statement. The imperatives have the force of an emphatic assertion.

[29:9]  ¹⁰ tc Some prefer to emend the perfect form of the verb to an imperative (e.g., NAB, NCV, NRSV), since the people are addressed in the immediately preceding and following contexts.

[29:9]  ¹¹ tc Some prefer to emend the perfect form of the verb to an imperative (e.g., NAB, NCV, NRSV), since the people are addressed in the immediately preceding and following contexts.

[29:10]  ¹² tn Heb “a disposition [or “spirit”] of deep sleep.” Through this mixed metaphor (sleep is likened to a liquid which one pours and in turn symbolizes spiritual dullness) the prophet emphasizes that God himself has given the people over to their spiritual insensitivity as a form of judgment.

[29:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “vision” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[29:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one who knows a/the scroll.”

[29:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and if the scroll is handed to one who does not know a scroll.”

[29:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I do not know a scroll.”

[29:13]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[29:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”

[29:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”

[29:13]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”

[29:14]  ²² tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.

[29:14]  ²³ tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”

[12:39]  ²⁴ sn The author explicitly states here that Jesus’ Jewish opponents could not believe, and quotes Isa 6:10 to show that God had in fact blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. This OT passage was used elsewhere in the NT to explain Jewish unbelief: Paul’s final words in Acts (28:26-27) are a quotation of this same passage, which he uses to explain why the Jewish people have not accepted the gospel he has preached. A similar passage (Isa 29:10) is quoted in a similar context in Rom 11:8.

[12:40]  ²⁵ tn Or “closed their mind.”

[12:40]  ²⁶ tn Or “their mind.”

[12:40]  ²⁷ tn One could also translate στραφῶσιν (strafwsin) as “repent” or “change their ways,” but both of these terms would be subject to misinterpretation by the modern English reader. The idea is one of turning back to God, however. The words “to me” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[12:40]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 6:10.

[12:41]  ²⁹ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent supplied here is “Christ” rather than “Jesus” because it involves what Isaiah saw. It is clear that the author presents Isaiah as having seen the preincarnate glory of Christ, which was the very revelation of the Father (see John 1:18; John 14:9).

[12:42]  ³⁰ sn The term rulers here denotes members of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews. Note the same word (“ruler”) is used to describe Nicodemus in 3:1.

[12:42]  ³¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[12:42]  ³² tn The words “Jesus to be the Christ” are not in the Greek text, but are implied (see 9:22). As is often the case in Greek, the direct object is omitted for the verb ὡμολόγουν (Jwmologoun). Some translators supply an ambiguous “it,” or derive the implied direct object from the previous clause “believed in him” so that the rulers would not confess “their faith” or “their belief.” However, when one compares John 9:22, which has many verbal parallels to this verse, it seems clear that the content of the confession would have been “Jesus is the Christ (i.e., Messiah).”

[12:42]  ³³ tn Or “be expelled from.”

[12:42]  ³⁴ sn Compare John 9:22. See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[12:43]  ³⁵ tn Grk “the glory.”

[12:43]  ³⁶ tn Grk “the glory.”

[1:21]  ³⁷ tn Grk “heart.”

[1:22]  ³⁸ tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.

[1:23]  ³⁹ tn Grk “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God in likeness of an image of corruptible man.” Here there is a wordplay on the Greek terms ἄφθαρτος (afqarto", “immortal, imperishable, incorruptible”) and φθαρτός (fqarto", “mortal, corruptible, subject to decay”).

[1:23]  ⁴⁰ sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 106:19-20.

[1:24]  ⁴¹ sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 81:12.

[1:24]  ⁴² tn The genitive articular infinitive τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι (tou atimazesqai, “to dishonor”) has been taken as (1) an infinitive of purpose; (2) an infinitive of result; or (3) an epexegetical (i.e., explanatory) infinitive, expanding the previous clause.

[1:24]  ⁴³ tn Grk “among them.”

[1:25]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:25]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “the lie.”

[1:25]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “creature, created things.”

[1:28]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”

[1:28]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “the things that are improper.”