Jeremiah 13:1

An Object Lesson from Ruined Linen Shorts

13:1 The Lord said to me, “Go and buy some linen shorts ¹  and put them on. ²  Do not put them in water.” ³ 

Jeremiah 19:1-2

An Object Lesson from a Broken Clay Jar

19:1 The Lord told Jeremiah, ⁴  “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. ⁵  Take with you ⁶  some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders ⁷  of the priests. 19:2 Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. ⁸  Announce there what I tell you. ⁹ 

Isaiah 20:2

20:2 At that time the Lord announced through ¹⁰  Isaiah son of Amoz: “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.” He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments ¹¹  and barefoot.

Ezekiel 4:1--5:1

Ominous Object Lessons

4:1 “And you, son of man, take a brick ¹²  and set it in front of you. Inscribe ¹³  a city on it – Jerusalem. 4:2 Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp ¹⁴  against it! Post soldiers outside it ¹⁵  and station battering rams around it. 4:3 Then for your part take an iron frying pan ¹⁶  and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign ¹⁷  for the house of Israel.

4:4 “Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity ¹⁸  of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 4:5 I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days ¹⁹  for you – 390 days. ²⁰  So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ²¹ 

4:6 “When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days ²²  – I have assigned one day for each year. 4:7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 4:8 Look here, I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege. ²³ 

4:9 “As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, ²⁴  put them in a single container, and make food ²⁵  from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side – 390 days ²⁶  – you will eat it. 4:10 The food you eat will be eight ounces ²⁷  a day by weight; you must eat it at fixed ²⁸  times. 4:11 And you must drink water by measure, a pint and a half; ²⁹  you must drink it at fixed times. 4:12 And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” ³⁰  4:13 And the Lord said, “This is how the people of Israel will eat their unclean food among the nations ³¹  where I will banish them.”

4:14 And I said, “Ah, sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat ³²  has never entered my mouth.”

4:15 So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”

4:16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply ³³  in Jerusalem. ³⁴  They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 4:17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity. ³⁵ 

5:1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. ³⁶  Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. ³⁷  Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off.

Amos 7:7

7:7 He showed me this: I saw ³⁸  the sovereign One ³⁹  standing by a tin ⁴⁰  wall holding tin in his hand.

Hebrews 1:1

Introduction: God Has Spoken Fully and Finally in His Son

1:1 After God spoke long ago ⁴¹  in various portions ⁴²  and in various ways ⁴³  to our ancestors ⁴⁴  through the prophets,

[13:1]  ¹ tn The term here (אֵזוֹר, ’ezor) has been rendered in various ways: “girdle” (KJV, ASV), “waistband” (NASB), “waistcloth” (RSV), “sash” (NKJV), “belt” (NIV, NCV, NLT), and “loincloth” (NAB, NRSV, NJPS, REB). The latter is more accurate according to J. M. Myers, “Dress and Ornaments,” IDB 1:870, and W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:399. It was a short, skirt-like garment reaching from the waist to the knees and worn next to the body (cf. v. 9). The modern equivalent is “shorts” as in TEV/GNB, CEV.

[13:1]  ² tn Heb “upon your loins.” The “loins” were the midriff of the body from the waist to the knees. For a further discussion including the figurative uses see, IDB, “Loins,” 3:149.

[13:1]  ³ tn Or “Do not ever put them in water,” i.e., “Do not even wash them.”

[19:1]  ⁴ tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text. Some Hebrew mss and some of the versions have “to me.” This section, 19:1–20:6 appears to be one of the biographical sections of the book of Jeremiah where incidents in his life are reported in third person. See clearly 9:14 and 20:1-3. The mss and versions do not represent a more original text but are translational or interpretive attempts to fill in a text which had no referent. They are like the translational addition that has been supplied on the basis of contextual indicators.

[19:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “an earthenware jar of the potter.”

[19:1]  ⁶ tc The words “Take with you” follow the reading of the Syriac version and to a certain extent the reading of the Greek version (the latter does not have “with you”). The Hebrew text does not have these words but they are undoubtedly implicit.

[19:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “elders” both here and before “of the people.”

[19:2]  ⁸ sn The exact location of the Potsherd Gate is unknown since it is nowhere else mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. It is sometimes identified with the Dung Gate mentioned in Neh 2:13; 3:13-14; 12:31 on the basis of the Jerusalem Targum. It is probably called “Potsherd Gate” because that is where the potter threw out the broken pieces of pottery which were no longer of use to him. The Valley of Ben Hinnom has already been mentioned in 7:31-32 in connection with the illicit religious practices, including child sacrifice, which took place there. The Valley of Ben Hinnom (or sometimes Valley of Hinnom) runs along the west and south sides of Jerusalem.

[19:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “the words that I will speak to you.”

[20:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “spoke by the hand of.”

[20:2]  ¹¹ tn The word used here (עָרוֹם, ’arom) sometimes means “naked,” but here it appears to mean simply “lightly dressed,” i.e., stripped to one’s undergarments. See HALOT 883 s.v. עָרוֹם. The term also occurs in vv. 3, 4.

[4:1]  ¹² sn Ancient Near Eastern bricks were 10 to 24 inches long and 6 to 13 1/2 inches wide.

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Or perhaps “draw.”

[4:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “a barricade.”

[4:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “set camps against it.”

[4:3]  ¹⁶ tn Or “a griddle,” that is, some sort of plate for cooking.

[4:3]  ¹⁷ tn That is, a symbolic object lesson.

[4:4]  ¹⁸ tn Or “punishment” (also in vv. 5, 6).

[4:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I have assigned for you that the years of their iniquity be the number of days.” Num 14:33-34 is an example of the reverse, where the days were converted into years, the number of days spying out the land becoming the number of years of the wilderness wanderings.

[4:5]  ²⁰ tc The LXX reads “190 days.”

[4:5]  ²¹ tn Or “When you have carried the iniquity of the house of Israel,” and continuing on to the next verse.

[4:6]  ²² sn The number 40 may refer in general to the period of Judah’s exile using the number of years Israel was punished in the wilderness. In this case, however, one would need to translate, “you will bear the punishment of the house of Judah.”

[4:8]  ²³ sn The action surely refers to a series of daily acts rather than to a continuous period.

[4:9]  ²⁴ sn Wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. All these foods were common in Mesopotamia where Ezekiel was exiled.

[4:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “bread.”

[4:9]  ²⁶ tc The LXX reads “190 days.”

[4:10]  ²⁷ sn Eight ounces (Heb “twenty shekels”). The standards for weighing money varied considerably in the ancient Near East, but the generally accepted weight for the shekel is 11.5 grams (0.4 ounce). This makes the weight of grain about 230 grams here (8 ounces).

[4:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “from time to time.”

[4:11]  ²⁹ sn A pint and a half [Heb “one-sixth of a hin”]. One-sixth of a hin was a quantity of liquid equal to about 1.3 pints or 0.6 liters.

[4:12]  ³⁰ sn Human waste was to remain outside the camp of the Israelites according to Deut 23:15.

[4:13]  ³¹ sn Unclean food among the nations. Lands outside of Israel were considered unclean (Josh 22:19; Amos 7:17).

[4:14]  ³² tn The Hebrew term refers to sacrificial meat not eaten by the appropriate time (Lev 7:18; 19:7).

[4:16]  ³³ tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support.

[4:16]  ³⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:17]  ³⁵ tn Or “in their punishment.” Ezek 4:16-17 alludes to Lev 26:26, 39. The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here, 3:18, 19; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”

[5:1]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[5:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb, “pass (it) over your head and your beard.”

[7:7]  ³⁸ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:7]  ³⁹ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here and in the following verse is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[7:7]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew word אֲנָךְ (’anakh, “tin”) occurs only in this passage (twice in this verse and twice in the following verse). (Its proposed meaning is based on an Akkadian cognate annaku.) The tin wall of the vision, if it symbolizes Israel, may suggest weakness and vulnerability to judgment. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 233-35. The symbolic significance of God holding tin in his hand and then placing tin among the people is unclear. Possibly the term אֲנָךְ in v. 8b is a homonym meaning “grief” (this term is attested in postbiblical Hebrew). In this case there is a wordplay, the אֲנָךְ (“tin”) of the vision suggesting the אֲנָךְ (“grief”) that judgment will bring upon the land. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos (AB), 759. Another option is to maintain the meaning “tin” and understand that the Lord has ripped off a piece of the tin wall and placed it in front of all to see. Their citadels, of which the nation was so proud and confident, are nothing more than tin fortresses. The traditional interpretation of these verses (reflected in many English versions) understands the term אֲנָךְ to mean “lead,” and by extension, “plumb line.” In this case, one may translate: “I saw the sovereign one standing by a wall built true to plumb holding a plumb line in his hand. The Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I said, ‘A plumb line.’ The sovereign one then said, ‘Look, I am about to place a plumb line among my people…’” According to this view, the plumb line symbolizes God’s moral standards by which he will measure Israel to see if they are a straight or crooked wall.

[1:1]  ⁴¹ tn Or “spoke formerly.”

[1:1]  ⁴² tn Or “parts.” The idea is that God’s previous revelation came in many parts and was therefore fragmentary or partial (L&N 63.19), in comparison with the final and complete revelation contained in God’s Son. However, some interpret πολυμερῶς (polumerw") in Heb 1:1 to mean “on many different occasions” and would thus translate “many times” (L&N 67.11). This is the option followed by the NIV: “at many times and in various ways.” Finally, this word is also understood to refer to the different manners in which something may be done, and would then be translated “in many different ways” (L&N 89.81). In this last case, the two words πολυμερῶς and πολυτρόπως (polutropw") mutually reinforce one another (“in many and various ways,” NRSV).

[1:1]  ⁴³ tn These two phrases are emphasized in Greek by being placed at the beginning of the sentence and by alliteration.

[1:1]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “to the fathers.”