Psalms 78:59-62

78:59 God heard and was angry;

he completely rejected Israel.

78:60 He abandoned ¹  the sanctuary at Shiloh,

the tent where he lived among men.

78:61 He allowed the symbol of his strong presence to be captured; ² 

he gave the symbol of his splendor ³  into the hand of the enemy. ⁴ 

78:62 He delivered his people over to the sword,

and was angry with his chosen nation. ⁵ 

Jude 1:14

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ⁶  even prophesied of them, ⁷  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ⁸  with thousands and thousands ⁹  of his holy ones,

Jude 1:20

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁰ 

Jude 1:8

1:8 Yet these men, ¹¹  as a result of their dreams, ¹²  defile the flesh, reject authority, ¹³  and insult ¹⁴  the glorious ones. ¹⁵ 

Nehemiah 9:27-38

9:27 Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who oppressed them. But in the time of their distress they called to you, and you heard from heaven. In your abundant compassion you provided them with deliverers to rescue them from ¹⁶  their adversaries.

9:28 “Then, when they were at rest again, they went back to doing evil before you. Then you abandoned them to ¹⁷  their enemies, and they gained dominion over them. When they again cried out to you, in your compassion you heard from heaven and rescued them time and again. 9:29 And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances – those by which an individual, if he obeys them, ¹⁸  will live. They boldly turned from you; ¹⁹  they rebelled ²⁰  and did not obey. 9:30 You prolonged your kindness ²¹  with them for many years, and you solemnly admonished them by your Spirit through your prophets. Still they paid no attention, ²²  so you delivered them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. ²³  9:31 However, due to your abundant mercy you did not do away with them altogether; you did not abandon them. For you are a merciful and compassionate God.

9:32 “So now, our God – the great, powerful, and awesome God, who keeps covenant fidelity ²⁴  – do not regard as inconsequential ²⁵  all the hardship that has befallen us – our kings, our leaders, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people – from the days of the kings of Assyria until this very day! 9:33 You are righteous with regard to all that has happened to us, for you have acted faithfully. ²⁶  It is we who have been in the wrong! 9:34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law. They have not paid attention to your commandments or your testimonies by which you have solemnly admonished them. 9:35 Even when they were in their kingdom and benefiting from your incredible ²⁷  goodness that you had lavished ²⁸  on them in the spacious and fertile land you had set ²⁹  before them, they did not serve you, nor did they turn from their evil practices.

9:36 “So today we are slaves! In the very land you gave to our ancestors to eat its fruit and to enjoy ³⁰  its good things – we are slaves! 9:37 Its abundant produce goes to the kings you have placed over us due to our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they see fit, ³¹  and we are in great distress!

The People Pledge to be Faithful

9:38 (10:1) ³²  “Because of all of this we are entering into a binding covenant ³³  in written form; ³⁴  our leaders, our Levites, and our priests have affixed their names ³⁵  on the sealed document.”

[78:60]  ¹ tn Or “rejected.”

[78:61]  ² tn Heb “and he gave to captivity his strength.” The expression “his strength” refers metonymically to the ark of the covenant, which was housed in the tabernacle at Shiloh.

[78:61]  ³ tn Heb “and his splendor into the hand of an enemy.” The expression “his splendor” also refers metonymically to the ark of the covenant.

[78:61]  ⁴ sn Verses 60-61 refer to the Philistines’ capture of the ark in the days of Eli (1 Sam 4:1-11).

[78:62]  ⁵ tn Heb “his inheritance.”

[1:14]  ⁶ tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

[1:14]  ⁷ tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ⁸ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ⁹ tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

[1:20]  ¹⁰ tn The participles in v. 20 have been variously interpreted. Some treat them imperativally or as attendant circumstance to the imperative in v. 21 (“maintain”): “build yourselves up…pray.” But they do not follow the normal contours of either the imperatival or attendant circumstance participles, rendering this unlikely. A better option is to treat them as the means by which the readers are to maintain themselves in the love of God. This both makes eminently good sense and fits the structural patterns of instrumental participles elsewhere.

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn The reference is now to the false teachers.

[1:8]  ¹² tn Grk “dreaming.” The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι (enupniazomenoi, “dreaming”) is adverbial to the pronoun οὗτοι (|outoi, “these”), though the particular relationship is not clear. It could mean, “while dreaming,” “by dreaming,” or “because of dreaming.” This translation has adopted the last option as Jude’s meaning, partially for syntactical reasons (the causal participle usually precedes the main verb) and partially for contextual reasons (these false teachers must derive their authority from some source, and the dreams provide the most obvious base). The participle ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι was sometimes used of apocalyptic visions, both of true and false prophets. This seems to be the meaning here.

[1:8]  ¹³ tn Most likely, the authority of the Lord is in view. This verse, then, echoes the indictment of v. 4: “they deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

[1:8]  ¹⁴ tn The construction with the three verbs (“defile, “reject,” and “insult”) involves the particles μέν, δέ, δέ (men, de, de). A more literal (and pedantic) translation would be: “on the one hand, they defile the flesh, on the other hand, they reject authority, and on another hand, they insult the glorious ones.”

[1:8]  ¹⁵ sn The glorious ones refers to angelic beings rather than mere human beings, just as in 2 Pet 2:10 (on which this passage apparently depends). Whether the angelic beings are good or evil, however, is difficult to tell (hence, the translation is left ambiguous). However, both in 2 Pet 2:11 and here, in Jude 9, the wicked angels seem to be in view (for not even Michael insults them).

[9:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from the hand of” (so NASB, NIV); NAB “from the power of.”

[9:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the hand of” (so KJV, ASV); NAB “to the power of.”

[9:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “if a man keep.” See note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[9:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they gave a stubborn shoulder.”

[9:29]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck.”

[9:30]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew expression here is elliptical. The words “your kindness” are not included in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:30]  ²² tn Heb “did not give ear to.”

[9:30]  ²³ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

[9:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the covenant and loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys. The second noun retains its full nominal sense, while the first functions adjectivally: “the covenant and loyalty” = covenant fidelity.

[9:32]  ²⁵ tn Heb “do not let it seem small in your sight.”

[9:33]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you have done truth.”

[9:35]  ²⁷ tn Heb “great.”

[9:35]  ²⁸ tn Heb “given them.”

[9:35]  ²⁹ tn Heb “given.”

[9:36]  ³⁰ tn The expression “to enjoy” is not included in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:37]  ³¹ tn Heb “according to their desire.”

[9:38]  ³² sn Beginning with 9:38, the verse numbers through 10:39 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:38 ET = 10:1 HT, 10:1 ET = 10:2 HT, 10:2 ET = 10:3 HT, etc., through 10:39 ET = 10:40 HT. Beginning with 11:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[9:38]  ³³ tn Heb “we are cutting.”

[9:38]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and writing.”

[9:38]  ³⁵ tn Heb “our leaders, our Levites, and our priests on the sealed document.” The Hebrew text is elliptical here; the words “have affixed their names” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons. Cf. v. 2.