A very powerful wind went before the Lord, digging into the mountain and causing landslides, 6 but the Lord was not in the wind. After the windstorm there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 19:12 After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a soft whisper. 7 19:13 When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. All of a sudden 8 a voice asked him, “Why are you here, Elijah?” 19:14 He answered, “I have been absolutely loyal 9 to the Lord, the sovereign God, 10 even though the Israelites have abandoned the agreement they made with you, 11 torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and now they want to take my life.” 12
24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth
and leave it in ruins;
he will mar its surface
and scatter its inhabitants.
24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, 13
the master as well as the servant, 14
the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, 15
the seller as well as the buyer, 16
the borrower as well as the lender, 17
the creditor as well as the debtor. 18
24:3 The earth will be completely devastated
and thoroughly ransacked.
For the Lord has decreed this judgment. 19
24:4 The earth 20 dries up 21 and withers,
the world shrivels up and withers;
the prominent people of the earth 22 fade away.
24:5 The earth is defiled by 23 its inhabitants, 24
for they have violated laws,
disregarded the regulation, 25
and broken the permanent treaty. 26
24:6 So a treaty curse 27 devours the earth;
its inhabitants pay for their guilt. 28
This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, 29
and are reduced to just a handful of people. 30
8:9 “It will not be like the covenant 36 that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.
1 tn Or “very zealous.” The infinitive absolute preceding the finite verb emphasizes the degree of his zeal and allegiance.
2 tn Traditionally, “the God of hosts.”
3 tn Heb “abandoned your covenant.”
4 tn Heb “and they are seeking my life to take it.”
5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
6 tn Heb “tearing away the mountains and breaking the cliffs” (or perhaps, “breaking the stones”).
7 tn Heb “a voice, calm, soft.”
8 tn Heb “look.”
9 tn Or “very zealous.” The infinitive absolute preceding the finite verb emphasizes the degree of his zeal and allegiance.
10 tn Traditionally, “the God of hosts.”
11 tn Heb “abandoned your covenant.”
12 tn Heb “and they are seeking my life to take it.”
13 tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”
14 tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”
15 tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”
16 tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”
17 tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”
18 tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”
19 tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.”
20 tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (erets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37;12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).
21 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.
22 tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (mÿrom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (mÿrome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.
23 tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”
24 sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.
25 tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”
26 tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”
27 sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.
28 tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).
29 tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).
30 tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”
31 tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.
32 tn Heb “fathers.”
33 tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”
34 tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.
35 tn Heb “Oracle of the
36 tn Grk “not like the covenant,” continuing the description of v. 8b.