4:2a–b

Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery: These are five specific examples of the sins that the people had committed. These five sins are forbidden in the Ten Commandments. If you already translated the Ten Commandments in a different book of the Bible, you should translate these five sins in a similar way here.

The statement in 4:2a–b indicates that people frequently committed sins like these. It does not indicate that people committed only these sins.

Here are some other ways to translate this statement:

You curse and lie and kill and steal and commit adultery. (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
There is cursing, lying, murdering, stealing, and adultery. (God’s Word)
-or-
Cursing, dishonesty, murder, robbery, unfaithfulness—these happen all the time. (Contemporary English Version)

4:2a

Cursing: The commandment against cursing is in Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11. Here Cursing probably means to put curses on people using God’s name as part of the curse. It does not mean to use profane or vulgar words, a common meaning of “cursing” in English.

Some English versions use expressions that refer to making a false promise. But making a false promise is also a type of lying. Since lying is the next sin listed in this verse, you should translate “cursing” in a way that clearly shows the difference between it and lying.

lying: The commandment against lying is in Exodus 20:16 and Deuteronomy 5:20. Here lying means to be dishonest in ways that are harmful to other people. This meaning includes deceiving people in order to cheat them and giving false testimony in a legal case.

Here are some other ways to translate this word:

dishonesty (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
deception (New American Standard Bible)

murder: The commandment against murder is in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17. In this context, murder refers to killing a person illegally. It does not refer to executing a criminal or killing an enemy soldier in battle. The word can refer to killing a person either intentionally or accidentally.

4:2b

stealing: The commandment against stealing is in Exodus 20:15 and Deuteronomy 5:19.

adultery: The commandment against adultery is in Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18.

4:2c

are rampant: The Hebrew verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as are rampant is literally “they have broken out.” It refers figuratively here to breaking through “moral barriers and restraints.”

There are two main ways to interpret the meaning of the verb and what it refers to:

(1) The verb means that the five sins listed in 4:2a–b have greatly increased. It implies that people commit these sins everywhere in the land. For example:

Swearing, lying, and murder, and stealing and adultery break out (New Revised Standard Version)

(2) The verb means that violence has greatly increased. It implies that people commit violent crimes everywhere in the land. For example:

You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere— (New Living Translation (2004))

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) along with most English versions.

Here is another way to translate 4:2a–c:

Cursing, lying, killing, stealing and adultery are everywhere. (New Century Version)

In some languages, it may be more natural to use a general term for the five sins. For example:

crimes increase (Good News Translation)
-or-
People break ⌊my laws ⌋ (God’s Word)

4:2d

one act of bloodshed follows another: This clause is a continuation of interpretation (1) in 4:2c. It focuses on repeated crimes that involve bloodshed in addition to the five sins that “are rampant” (4:2a–c). It means that murders and similar bloody crimes occur one after another.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

and there is one murder after another (Good News Translation)
-or-
One murder follows another. (New Century Version)

Most versions that follow this interpretation translate this clause with a word such as bloodshed or “murder,” a specific kind of bloodshed. If your language has an expression that refers to bloody crimes in general, you may want to use it here.

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