Psalms 32:9

32:9 Do not be ¹  like an unintelligent horse or mule, ² 

which will not obey you

unless they are controlled by a bridle and bit. ³ 

Psalms 73:22

73:22 I was ignorant ⁴  and lacked insight; ⁵ 

I was as senseless as an animal before you. ⁶ 

Psalms 94:8

94:8 Take notice of this, ⁷  you ignorant people! ⁸ 

You fools, when will you ever understand?

Proverbs 30:2

30:2 Surely ⁹  I am more brutish ¹⁰  than any other human being, ¹¹ 

and I do not have human understanding; ¹² 

Isaiah 1:3

1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,

a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; ¹³ 

but Israel does not recognize me, ¹⁴ 

my people do not understand.”

Jeremiah 10:14

10:14 All these idolaters ¹⁵  will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham. ¹⁶ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 10:1

The Lord, not Idols, is the Only Worthy Object of Worship

10:1 You people of Israel, ¹⁸  listen to what the Lord has to say to you.

Colossians 2:14

2:14 He has destroyed ¹⁹  what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness ²⁰  expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

[32:9]  ¹ tn The verb form is plural (i.e., “do not all of you be”); the psalmist addresses the whole group.

[32:9]  ² tn Heb “like a horse, like a mule without understanding.”

[32:9]  ³ tn Heb “with a bridle and bit, its [?] to hold, not to come near to you.” The meaning of the Hebrew noun עֲדִי (’adiy) is uncertain. Normally the word refers to “jewelry,” so some suggest the meaning “trappings” here (cf. NASB). Some emend the form to לְחֵיהֶם (lÿkhehem, “their jawbones”) but it is difficult to see how the present Hebrew text, even if corrupt, could have derived from this proposed original reading. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 265) takes the form from an Arabic root and translates “whose gallop.” Cf. also NRSV “whose temper must be curbed.”

[73:22]  ⁴ tn Or “brutish, stupid.”

[73:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “and I was not knowing.”

[73:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “an animal I was with you.”

[94:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “understand.” The verb used in v. 7 is repeated here for rhetorical effect. The people referred to here claim God is ignorant of their actions, but the psalmist corrects their faulty viewpoint.

[94:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”

[30:2]  ⁹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) functions in an asseverative sense, “surely; indeed; truly” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §449).

[30:2]  ¹⁰ tn The noun בַּעַר (ba’ar) means “brutishness”; here it functions as a predicate adjective. It is followed by מֵאִישׁ (me’ish) expressing comparative degree: “more than a man” or “more than any man,” with “man” used in a generic sense. He is saying that he has fallen beneath the level of mankind. Cf. NRSV “I am too stupid to be human.”

[30:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “than man.” The verse is using hyperbole; this individual feels as if he has no intelligence at all, that he is more brutish than any other human. Of course this is not true, or he would not be able to speculate on the God of the universe at all.

[30:2]  ¹² tn Heb “the understanding of a man,” with “man” used attributively here.

[1:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[1:3]  ¹⁴ tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).

[10:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

[10:14]  ¹⁶ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.

[10:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[2:14]  ¹⁹ tn The participle ἐξαλείψας (exaleiyas) is a temporal adverbial participle of contemporaneous time related to the previous verb συνεζωοποίησεν (sunezwopoihsen), but has been translated as a finite verb because of the complexity of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences. For the meaning “destroy” see BDAG 344-45 s.v. ἐξαλείφω 2.

[2:14]  ²⁰ tn On the translation of χειρόγραφον (ceirografon), see BDAG 1083 s.v. which refers to it as “a certificate of indebtedness.”