Psalms 50:16-22

50:16 God says this to the evildoer: ¹ 

“How can you declare my commands,

and talk about my covenant? ² 

50:17 For you hate instruction

and reject my words. ³ 

50:18 When you see a thief, you join him; ⁴ 

you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives. ⁵ 

50:19 You do damage with words, ⁶ 

and use your tongue to deceive. ⁷ 

50:20 You plot against your brother; ⁸ 

you slander your own brother. ⁹ 

50:21 When you did these things, I was silent, ¹⁰ 

so you thought I was exactly like you. ¹¹ 

But now I will condemn ¹²  you

and state my case against you! ¹³ 

50:22 Carefully consider this, you who reject God! ¹⁴ 

Otherwise I will rip you to shreds ¹⁵ 

and no one will be able to rescue you.

Isaiah 11:4

11:4 He will treat the poor fairly, ¹⁶ 

and make right decisions ¹⁷  for the downtrodden of the earth. ¹⁸ 

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, ¹⁹ 

and order the wicked to be executed. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 66:6

66:6 The sound of battle comes from the city;

the sound comes from the temple!

It is the sound of the Lord paying back his enemies.

Matthew 22:7

22:7 The ²¹  king was furious! He sent his soldiers, and they put those murderers to death ²²  and set their city ²³  on fire.

Matthew 23:33-36

23:33 You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ²⁴ 

23:34 “For this reason I ²⁵  am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, ²⁶  some of whom you will kill and crucify, ²⁷  and some you will flog ²⁸  in your synagogues ²⁹  and pursue from town to town, 23:35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ³⁰  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 23:36 I tell you the truth, ³¹  this generation will be held responsible for all these things! ³² 

Luke 19:27

19:27 But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, ³³  bring them here and slaughter ³⁴  them ³⁵  in front of me!’”

Luke 19:43-44

19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build ³⁶  an embankment ³⁷  against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 19:44 They will demolish you ³⁸  – you and your children within your walls ³⁹  – and they will not leave within you one stone ⁴⁰  on top of another, ⁴¹  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ⁴² 

Revelation 1:16

1:16 He held ⁴³  seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword extended out of his mouth. His ⁴⁴  face shone like the sun shining at full strength.

Revelation 19:15

19:15 From his mouth extends a sharp sword, so that with it he can strike the nations. ⁴⁵  He ⁴⁶  will rule ⁴⁷  them with an iron rod, ⁴⁸  and he stomps the winepress ⁴⁹  of the furious ⁵⁰  wrath of God, the All-Powerful. ⁵¹ 

[50:16]  ¹ tn Heb “evil [one].” The singular adjective is used here in a representative sense; it refers to those within the larger covenant community who have blatantly violated the Lord’s commandments. In the psalms the “wicked” (רְשָׁעִים, rÿsha’im) are typically proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander, and cheat others (Ps 37:21).

[50:16]  ² tn Heb “What to you to declare my commands and lift up my covenant upon your mouth?” The rhetorical question expresses sarcastic amazement. The Lord is shocked that such evildoers would give lip-service to his covenantal demands, for their lifestyle is completely opposed to his standards (see vv. 18-20).

[50:17]  ³ tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”

[50:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “you run with him.”

[50:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “and with adulterers [is] your portion.”

[50:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “your mouth you send with evil.”

[50:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “and your tongue binds together [i.e., “frames”] deceit.”

[50:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “you sit, against your brother you speak.” To “sit” and “speak” against someone implies plotting against that person (see Ps 119:23).

[50:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “against the son of your mother you give a fault.”

[50:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “these things you did and I was silent.” Some interpret the second clause (“and I was silent”) as a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer, “[When you do these things], should I keep silent?” (cf. NEB). See GKC 335 §112.cc.

[50:21]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew infinitive construct (הֱיוֹת, heyot) appears to function like the infinitive absolute here, adding emphasis to the following finite verbal form (אֶהְיֶה, ’ehyeh). See GKC 339-40 §113.a. Some prefer to emend הֱיוֹת (heyot) to the infinitive absolute form הָיוֹ (hayo).

[50:21]  ¹² tn Or “rebuke” (see v. 8).

[50:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “and I will set in order [my case against you] to your eyes.” The cohortative form expresses the Lord’s resolve to accuse and judge the wicked.

[50:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[you who] forget God.” “Forgetting God” here means forgetting about his commandments and not respecting his moral authority.

[50:22]  ¹⁵ sn Elsewhere in the psalms this verb is used (within a metaphorical framework) of a lion tearing its prey (see Pss 7:2; 17:12; 22:13).

[11:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “with justice” (so NAB) or “with righteousness” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[11:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “make decisions with rectitude”; cf. ASV, NRSV “and decide with equity.”

[11:4]  ¹⁸ tn Or “land” (NAB, NCV, CEV). It is uncertain if the passage is picturing universal dominion or focusing on the king’s rule over his covenant people. The reference to God’s “holy mountain” in v. 9 and the description of renewed Israelite conquests in v. 14 suggest the latter, though v. 10 seems to refer to a universal kingdom (see 2:2-4).

[11:4]  ¹⁹ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and he will strike the earth with the scepter of his mouth.” Some have suggested that in this context אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) as an object of judgment seems too broad in scope. The parallelism is tighter if one emends the word to ץ(י)עָרִ (’arits, “potentate, tyrant”). The phrase “scepter of his mouth” refers to the royal (note “scepter”) decrees that he proclaims with his mouth. Because these decrees will have authority and power (see v. 2) behind them, they can be described as “striking” the tyrants down. Nevertheless, the MT reading may not need emending. Isaiah refers to the entire “earth” as the object of God’s judgment in several places without specifying the wicked as the object of the judgment (Isa 24:17-21; 26:9, 21; 28:22; cf. 13:11).

[11:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.” The “breath of his lips” refers to his speech, specifically in this context his official decrees that the wicked oppressors be eliminated from his realm. See the preceding note.

[22:7]  ²¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[22:7]  ²² tn Grk “he sent his soldiers, destroyed those murderers.” The verb ἀπώλεσεν (apwlesen) is causative, indicating that the king was the one behind the execution of the murderers. In English the causative idea is not expressed naturally here; either a purpose clause (“he sent his soldiers to put those murderers to death”) or a relative clause (“he sent his soldier who put those murderers to death”) is preferred.

[22:7]  ²³ tn The Greek text reads here πόλις (polis), which could be translated “town” or “city.” The prophetic reference is to the city of Jerusalem, so “city” is more appropriate here.

[23:33]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.”

[23:34]  ²⁵ tn Grk “behold I am sending.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[23:34]  ²⁶ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:34]  ²⁷ sn See the note on crucified in 20:19.

[23:34]  ²⁸ tn BDAG 620 s.v. μαστιγόω 1.a states, “of flogging as a punishment decreed by the synagogue (Dt 25:2f; s. the Mishna Tractate Sanhedrin-Makkoth, edited w. notes by SKrauss ’33) w. acc. of pers. Mt 10:17; 23:34.”

[23:34]  ²⁹ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

[23:35]  ³⁰ sn Spelling of this name (Βαραχίου, Baraciou) varies among the English versions: “Barachiah” (RSV, NRSV); “Berechiah” (NASB); “Berachiah” (NIV).

[23:36]  ³¹ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[23:36]  ³² tn Grk “all these things will come on this generation.”

[19:27]  ³³ tn Grk “to rule over them.”

[19:27]  ³⁴ tn This term, when used of people rather than animals, has some connotations of violence and mercilessness (L&N 20.72).

[19:27]  ³⁵ sn Slaughter them. To reject the king is to face certain judgment from him.

[19:43]  ³⁶ sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.

[19:43]  ³⁷ sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

[19:44]  ³⁸ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  ³⁹ tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

[19:44]  ⁴⁰ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ⁴² tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.

[1:16]  ⁴³ tn Grk “and having.” In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence, but because contemporary English style employs much shorter sentences, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronoun “he.”

[1:16]  ⁴⁴ tn This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[19:15]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[19:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[19:15]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “will shepherd.”

[19:15]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “scepter.” The Greek term ῥάβδος (rJabdo") can mean either “rod” or “scepter.”

[19:15]  ⁴⁹ sn He stomps the winepress. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process), and Rev 14:20.

[19:15]  ⁵⁰ tn The genitive θυμοῦ (qumou) has been translated as an attributed genitive. Following BDAG 461 s.v. θυμός 2, the combination of the genitives of θυμός (qumos) and ὀργή (orgh) in Rev 16:19 and 19:15 are taken to be a strengthening of the thought as in the OT and Qumran literature (Exod 32:12; Jer 32:37; Lam 2:3; CD 10:9).

[19:15]  ⁵¹ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”