Psalms 9:15

9:15 The nations fell ¹  into the pit they had made;

their feet were caught in the net they had hidden. ² 

Psalms 54:3

54:3 For foreigners ³  attack me; ⁴ 

ruthless men, who do not respect God, seek my life. ⁵  (Selah)

Isaiah 1:10

1:10 Listen to the Lord’s word,

you leaders of Sodom! ⁶ 

Pay attention to our God’s rebuke, ⁷ 

people of Gomorrah!

Amos 9:7

9:7 “You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight,” ⁸  says the Lord.

“Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt,

but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor ⁹  and the Arameans from Kir. ¹⁰ 

Romans 2:28-29

2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 2:29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart ¹¹  by the Spirit ¹²  and not by the written code. ¹³  This person’s ¹⁴  praise is not from people but from God.

Romans 9:6

9:6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, ¹⁵ 

[9:15]  ¹ tn Heb “sank down.”

[9:15]  ² sn The hostility of the nations against God’s people is their downfall, for it prompts God to intervene and destroy them. See also Ps 7:15-16.

[54:3]  ³ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read זֵדִים (zedim, “proud ones”) rather than זָרִים (zarim, “foreigners”). (No matter which reading one chooses as original, dalet-resh confusion accounts for the existence of the variant.) The term זֵדִים (“proud ones”) occurs in parallelism with עָרִיצִים (’aritsim, “violent ones”) in Ps 86:14 and Isa 13:11. However, זָרִים (zarim, “foreigners”) is parallel to עָרִיצִים (’aritsim, “violent ones”) in Isa 25:5; 29:5; Ezek 28:7; 31:12.

[54:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “rise against me.”

[54:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and ruthless ones seek my life, they do not set God in front of them.”

[1:10]  ⁶ sn Building on the simile of v. 9, the prophet sarcastically addresses the leaders and people of Jerusalem as if they were leaders and residents of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. The sarcasm is appropriate, for if the judgment is comparable to Sodom’s, that must mean that the sin which prompted the judgment is comparable as well.

[1:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “to the instruction of our God.” In this context, which is highly accusatory and threatening, תּוֹרָה (torah, “law, instruction”) does not refer to mere teaching, but to corrective teaching and rebuke.

[9:7]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text has a rhetorical question, “Are you children of Israel not like the Cushites to me?” The rhetorical question has been converted to an affirmative statement in the translation for clarity. See the comment at 8:8.

[9:7]  ⁹ sn Caphtor may refer to the island of Crete.

[9:7]  ¹⁰ tn The second half of v. 7 is also phrased as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text, “Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?” The translation converts the rhetorical question into an affirmation for clarity.

[2:29]  ¹¹ sn On circumcision is of the heart see Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Ezek 44:9.

[2:29]  ¹² tn Some have taken the phrase ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati, “by/in [the] S/spirit”) not as a reference to the Holy Spirit, but referring to circumcision as “spiritual and not literal” (RSV).

[2:29]  ¹³ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “whose.” The relative pronoun has been replaced by the phrase “this person’s” and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation.

[9:6]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “For not all those who are from Israel are Israel.”