Zechariah 11:7

11:7 So I ¹  began to shepherd the flock destined for slaughter, the most afflicted ²  of all the flock. Then I took two staffs, ³  calling one “Pleasantness” ⁴  and the other “Binders,” ⁵  and I tended the flock.

Psalms 50:2

50:2 From Zion, the most beautiful of all places, ⁶ 

God comes in splendor. ⁷ 

Psalms 90:17

90:17 May our sovereign God extend his favor to us! ⁸ 

Make our endeavors successful!

Yes, make them successful! ⁹ 

Ezekiel 7:20-22

7:20 They rendered the beauty of his ornaments into pride, ¹⁰  and with it they made their abominable images – their detestable idols. Therefore I will render it filthy to them. 7:21 I will give it to foreigners as loot, to the world’s wicked ones as plunder, and they will desecrate it. 7:22 I will turn my face away from them and they will desecrate my treasured place. ¹¹  Vandals will enter it and desecrate it. ¹² 

Ezekiel 24:21

24:21 Say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Realize I am about to desecrate my sanctuary – the source of your confident pride, ¹³  the object in which your eyes delight, ¹⁴  and your life’s passion. ¹⁵  Your very own sons and daughters whom you have left behind will die ¹⁶  by the sword.

Daniel 9:26

9:26 Now after the sixty-two weeks,

an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. ¹⁷ 

As for the city and the sanctuary,

the people of the coming prince will destroy ¹⁸  them.

But his end will come speedily ¹⁹  like a flood. ²⁰ 

Until the end of the war that has been decreed

there will be destruction.

Luke 21:5-6

The Signs of the End of the Age

21:5 Now ²¹  while some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned ²²  with beautiful stones and offerings, ²³  Jesus ²⁴  said, 21:6 “As for these things that you are gazing at, the days will come when not one stone will be left on another. ²⁵  All will be torn down!” ²⁶ 

Luke 21:32

21:32 I tell you the truth, ²⁷  this generation ²⁸  will not pass away until all these things take place.

Acts 6:13-14

6:13 They brought forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop saying things against this holy place ²⁹  and the law. ³⁰  6:14 For we have heard him saying that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs ³¹  that Moses handed down to us.”

Romans 9:3-5

9:3 For I could wish ³²  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, ³³  my fellow countrymen, ³⁴  9:4 who are Israelites. To them belong ³⁵  the adoption as sons, ³⁶  the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, ³⁷  and the promises. 9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, ³⁸  and from them, ³⁹  by human descent, ⁴⁰  came the Christ, ⁴¹  who is God over all, blessed forever! ⁴²  Amen.

[11:7]  ¹ sn The first person pronoun refers to Zechariah himself who, however, is a “stand-in” for the Lord as the actions of vv. 8-14 make clear. The prophet, like others before him, probably performed actions dramatizing the account of God’s past dealings with Israel and Judah (cf. Hos 1-3; Isa 20:2-4; Jer 19:1-15; 27:2-11; Ezek 4:1-3).

[11:7]  ² tc For the MT reading לָכֵן עֲנִיֵּי (lakhen ’aniyyey, “therefore the [most] afflicted of”) the LXX presupposes לִכְנַעֲנֵיּי (“to the merchants of”). The line would then read “So I began to shepherd the flock destined for slaughter for the sheep merchants” (cf. NAB). This helps to explain the difficult לָכֵן (lakhen) here but otherwise has no attestation or justification, so the MT is followed by most modern English versions.

[11:7]  ³ sn The two staffs represent the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. For other examples of staffs representing tribes or nations see Num 17:1-11; Ezek 37:15-23.

[11:7]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term נֹעַם (no’am) is frequently translated “Favor” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. KJV “Beauty”; CEV “Mercy.”

[11:7]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term חֹבְלִים (khovlim) is often translated “Union” (so NASB, NIV, NLT); cf. KJV, ASV “Bands”; NAB “Bonds”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “Unity”).

[50:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the perfection of beauty.”

[50:2]  ⁷ tn Or “shines forth.”

[90:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “and may the delight of the Master, our God, be on us.” The Hebrew term נֹעַם (no’am, “delight”) is used in Ps 27:4 of the Lord’s “beauty,” but here it seems to refer to his favor (see BDB 653 s.v.) or kindness (HALOT 706 s.v.).

[90:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the work of our hands establish over us, and the work of our hands, establish it.”

[7:20]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “he set up the beauty of his ornament as pride.” The verb may be repointed as plural without changing the consonantal text. The Syriac reads “their ornaments” (plural), implying עֶדְיָם (’edyam) rather than עֶדְיוֹ (’edyo) and meaning “they were proud of their beautiful ornaments.” This understands “ornaments” in the common sense of women’s jewelry, which then were used to make idols. The singular suffix “his ornaments” would refer to using items from the temple treasury to make idols. D. I. Block points out the foreshadowing of Ezek 16:17 which, with Rashi and the Targum, supports the understanding that this is a reference to temple items. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:265.

[7:22]  ¹¹ sn My treasured place probably refers to the temple (however, cf. NLT “my treasured land”).

[7:22]  ¹² sn Since the pronouns “it” are both feminine, they do not refer to the masculine “my treasured place”; instead they probably refer to Jerusalem or the land, both of which are feminine in Hebrew.

[24:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “the pride of your strength” means “your strong pride.”

[24:21]  ¹⁴ sn Heb “the delight of your eyes.” Just as Ezekiel was deprived of his beloved wife (v. 16, the “desire” of his “eyes”) so the Lord would be forced to remove the object of his devotion, the temple, which symbolized his close relationship to his covenant people.

[24:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the object of compassion of your soul.” The accentuation in the traditional Hebrew text indicates that the descriptive phrases (“the source of your confident pride, the object in which your eyes delight, and your life’s passion”) modify the preceding “my sanctuary.”

[24:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “fall.”

[9:26]  ¹⁷ sn The expression have nothing is difficult. Presumably it refers to an absence of support or assistance for the anointed one at the time of his “cutting off.” The KJV rendering “but not for himself,” apparently suggesting a vicarious death, cannot be defended.

[9:26]  ¹⁸ tc Some witnesses (e.g., the Syriac) understand a passive verb and the preposition עִם (’im, “with) rather than the noun עַם (’am, “people”), thus reading “the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed with the coming prince.”

[9:26]  ¹⁹ tn The words “will come speedily” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.

[9:26]  ²⁰ sn Flood here is a metaphor for sudden destruction.

[21:5]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[21:5]  ²² sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 (15.380-425); J. W. 5.5 (5.184-227) and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.

[21:5]  ²³ tn For the translation of ἀνάθημα (anaqhma) as “offering” see L&N 53.18.

[21:5]  ²⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:6]  ²⁵ sn With the statement days will come when not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.

[21:6]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down.”

[21:32]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[21:32]  ²⁸ sn This is one of the hardest verses in the gospels to interpret. Various views exist for what generation means. (1) Some take it as meaning “race” and thus as an assurance that the Jewish race (nation) will not pass away. But it is very questionable that the Greek term γενεά (genea) can have this meaning. Two other options are possible. (2) Generation might mean “this type of generation” and refer to the generation of wicked humanity. Then the point is that humanity will not perish, because God will redeem it. Or (3) generation may refer to “the generation that sees the signs of the end” (vv. 25-26), who will also see the end itself. In other words, once the movement to the return of Christ starts, all the events connected with it happen very quickly, in rapid succession.

[6:13]  ²⁹ sn This holy place is a reference to the temple.

[6:13]  ³⁰ sn The law refers to the law of Moses. It elaborates the nature of the blasphemy in v. 11. To speak against God’s law in Torah was to blaspheme God (Deut 28:15-19). On the Jewish view of false witnesses, see Exod 19:16-18; 20:16; m. Sanhedrin 3.6; 5.1-5. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 may indicate why the temple was mentioned.

[6:14]  ³¹ tn Or “practices.”

[9:3]  ³² tn Or “For I would pray.” The implied condition is “if this could save my fellow Jews.”

[9:3]  ³³ tn Grk “brothers.” See BDAG 18-19 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.b.

[9:3]  ³⁴ tn Grk “my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

[9:4]  ³⁵ tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:4]  ³⁶ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[9:4]  ³⁷ tn Or “cultic service.”

[9:5]  ³⁸ tn Grk “of whom are the fathers.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:5]  ³⁹ tn Grk “from whom.” Here the relative pronoun has been replaced by a personal pronoun.

[9:5]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ⁴¹ tn Or “Messiah.” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed.”)

[9:5]  ⁴² tn Or “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever,” or “the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” or “the Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!” The translational difficulty here is not text-critical in nature, but is a problem of punctuation. Since the genre of these opening verses of Romans 9 is a lament, it is probably best to take this as an affirmation of Christ’s deity (as the text renders it). Although the other renderings are possible, to see a note of praise to God at the end of this section seems strangely out of place. But for Paul to bring his lament to a crescendo (that is to say, his kinsmen had rejected God come in the flesh), thereby deepening his anguish, is wholly appropriate. This is also supported grammatically and stylistically: The phrase ὁ ὢν (Jo wn, “the one who is”) is most naturally taken as a phrase which modifies something in the preceding context, and Paul’s doxologies are always closely tied to the preceding context. For a detailed examination of this verse, see B. M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, 95-112; and M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 144-72.