5:6 Seek the Lord so you can live!
Otherwise he will break out 1 like fire against Joseph’s 2 family; 3
the fire 4 will consume
and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. 5
5:7 The Israelites 6 turn justice into bitterness; 7
they throw what is fair and right 8 to the ground. 9
5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;
he can turn the darkness into morning
and daylight 10 into night.
He summons the water of the seas
and pours it out on the earth’s surface.
The Lord is his name!
5:9 He flashes 11 destruction down upon the strong
so that destruction overwhelms 12 the fortified places.)
1 tn Heb “rush.” The verb depicts swift movement.
2 sn Here Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.
3 tn Heb “house.”
4 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “to/for Bethel.” The translation assumes that the preposition indicates advantage, “on behalf of.” Another option is to take the preposition as vocative, “O Bethel.”
6 tn Heb “Those who”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity. In light of vv. 11-13, it is also possible that the words are directed at a more limited group within the nation – those with social and economic power.
7 tn There is an interesting wordplay here with the verb הָפַךְ (hafakh, “overturn, turn”). Israel “turns” justice into wormwood (cf. 6:12), while the Lord “turns” darkness into morning (v. 8; cf. 4:11; 8:10). Israel’s turning is for evil, whereas the Lord’s is to demonstrate his absolute power and sovereignty.
8 tn Heb “they throw righteousness.”
9 sn In v. 7 the prophet begins to describe the guilty Israelites, but then interrupts his word picture with a parenthetical, but powerful, description of the judge they must face (vv. 8-9). He resumes his description of the sinners in v. 10.
10 tn Heb “darkens the day into night.”
11 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew verb בָּלַג (balag, translated here “flashes”) is uncertain.
12 tn Heb “comes upon.” Many prefer to repoint the verb as Hiphil and translate, “he brings destruction upon the fortified places.”