Psalms 56:2

56:2 Those who anticipate my defeat ¹  attack me all day long.

Indeed, ²  many are fighting against me, O Exalted One. ³ 

Psalms 83:18

83:18 Then they will know ⁴  that you alone are the Lord, ⁵ 

the sovereign king ⁶  over all the earth.

Psalms 102:26-27

102:26 They will perish,

but you will endure. ⁷ 

They will wear out like a garment;

like clothes you will remove them and they will disappear. ⁸ 

102:27 But you remain; ⁹ 

your years do not come to an end.

Exodus 18:11

18:11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly against them he has destroyed them.” ¹⁰ 

Ecclesiastes 5:8

Government Corruption

5:8 If you see the extortion ¹¹  of the poor,

or the perversion ¹²  of justice and fairness in the government, ¹³ 

do not be astonished by the matter.

For the high official is watched by a higher official, ¹⁴ 

and there are higher ones over them! ¹⁵ 

Daniel 4:34-35

4:34 But at the end of the appointed time ¹⁶  I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up ¹⁷  toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me.

I extolled the Most High,

and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever.

For his authority is an everlasting authority,

and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ¹⁸ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ¹⁹  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

Acts 12:1

James is Killed and Peter Imprisoned

12:1 About that time King Herod ²⁰  laid hands on ²¹  some from the church to harm them. ²² 

Acts 12:22-24

12:22 But the crowd ²³  began to shout, ²⁴  “The voice of a god, ²⁵  and not of a man!” 12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ²⁶  struck ²⁷  Herod ²⁸  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ²⁹  12:24 But the word of God ³⁰  kept on increasing ³¹  and multiplying.

[56:2]  ¹ tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 59:10.

[56:2]  ² tn Or “for.”

[56:2]  ³ tn Some take the Hebrew term מָרוֹם (marom, “on high; above”) as an adverb modifying the preceding participle and translate, “proudly” (cf. NASB; NIV “in their pride”). The present translation assumes the term is a divine title here. The Lord is pictured as enthroned “on high” in Ps 92:8. (Note the substantival use of the term in Isa 24:4 and see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:34), who prefer to place the term at the beginning of the next verse.)

[83:18]  ⁴ tn After the preceding jussives (v. 17), the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose (“so that they may know”) or result.

[83:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “that you, your name [is] the Lord, you alone.”

[83:18]  ⁶ tn Traditionally “the Most High.”

[102:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “stand.”

[102:26]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb חָלַף (khalaf) occurs twice in this line, once in the Hiphil (“you will remove them”) and once in the Qal (“they will disappear”). The repetition draws attention to the statement.

[102:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “you [are] he,” or “you [are] the one.” The statement may echo the Lord’s affirmation “I am he” in Isa 41:4; 43:10, 13; 46:10; 48:12. In each of these passages the affirmation emphasizes the fact that the Lord transcends time limitations, the very point being made in Ps 102:27.

[18:11]  ¹⁰ tn The end of this sentence seems not to have been finished, or it is very elliptical. In the present translation the phrase “he has destroyed them” is supplied. Others take the last prepositional phrase to be the completion and supply only a verb: “[he was] above them.” U. Cassuto (Exodus, 216) takes the word “gods” to be the subject of the verb “act proudly,” giving the sense of “precisely (כִּי, ki) in respect of these things of which the gods of Egypt boasted – He is greater than they (עֲלֵיהֶם, ‘alehem).” He suggests rendering the clause, “excelling them in the very things to which they laid claim.”

[5:8]  ¹¹ tn Alternately, “oppression.” The term עֹשֶׁק (’osheq) has a basic two-fold range of meaning: (1) “oppression; brutality” (e.g., Isa 54:14); and (2) “extortion” (e.g., Ps 62:11); see HALOT 897 s.v. עֹשֶׁק; BDB 799 s.v. עֹשֶׁק. The LXX understands the term as “oppression,” as the translation συκοφαντίαν (sukofantian, “oppression”) indicates. Likewise, HALOT 897 s.v. עֹשֶׁק 1 classifies this usage as “oppression” against the poor. However, the context of 5:8-9 [7-8 HT] focuses on corrupt government officials robbing people of the fruit of their labor through extortion and the perversion of justice.

[5:8]  ¹² tn Heb “robbery.” The noun גֵזֶל (gezel, “robbery”) refers to the wrestling away of righteousness or the perversion of justice (HALOT 186 s.v. גֵּזֶל). The related forms of the root גזל mean “to rob; to loot” (HALOT 186 s.v. גֵּזֶל). The term “robbery” is used as a figure for the perversion of justice (hypocatastasis): just as a thief robs his victims through physical violence, so corrupt government officials “rob” the poor through the perversion of justice.

[5:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the province.”

[5:8]  ¹⁴ tn The word “official” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:8]  ¹⁵ sn And there are higher ones over them! This may describe a corrupt system of government in which each level of hierarchy exploits its subordinates, all the way down to the peasants: “Set in authority over the people is an official who enriches himself at their expense; he is watched by a more authoritative governor who also has his share of the spoils; and above them are other officers of the State who likewise have to be satisfied”; see A. Cohen, The Five Megilloth (SoBB), 141.

[4:34]  ¹⁶ tn Aram “days.”

[4:34]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “lifted up my eyes.”

[4:35]  ¹⁸ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

[4:35]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “strikes against.”

[12:1]  ²⁰ sn King Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great). His mediocre career is summarized in Josephus, Ant. 18-19. This event took place in a.d. 42 or 43.

[12:1]  ²¹ tn Or “King Herod had some from the church arrested.”

[12:1]  ²² tn Or “to cause them injury.”

[12:22]  ²³ tn The translation “crowd” is given by BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος; the word often means a gathering of citizens to conduct public business. Here it is simply the group of people gathered to hear the king’s speech.

[12:22]  ²⁴ tn The imperfect verb ἐπεφώνει (epefwnei) is taken ingressively in the sequence of events. Presumably the king had started his speech when the crowd began shouting.

[12:22]  ²⁵ sn The voice of a god. Contrast the response of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:13-15.

[12:23]  ²⁶ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ²⁷ sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

[12:23]  ²⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ²⁹ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).

[12:24]  ³⁰ sn A metonymy for the number of adherents to God’s word.

[12:24]  ³¹ tn Or “spreading.”