1 sn The same description of a false prophet is found in Micah 2:11.
2 sn The
3 tn Or “confirmed”; NIV “to be fulfilled”; TEV “to come true.”
4 tn Heb “What to the straw with [in comparison with] the grain?” This idiom represents an emphatic repudiation or denial of relationship. See, for example, the usage in 2 Sam 16:10 and note BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d(c).
5 tn Heb “Oracle of the
6 tn Heb “Is not my message like a fire?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer that is made explicit in the translation. The words “that purges dross” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “Is it not like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” See preceding note.
8 tn Heb “Oracle of the
9 tn Heb “Oracle of the
10 tn Heb “who are stealing my words from one another.” However, context shows that it is their own word which they claim is from the
11 tn Heb “Oracle of the
12 tn The word “The
13 tn Heb “Oracle of the
14 tn Heb “with their lies and their recklessness.” This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns (in this case a concrete and an abstract one) are joined by “and” but one is intended to be the adjectival modifier of the other.
15 sn In the light of what has been said this is a rhetorical understatement; they are not only “not helping,” they are leading them to their doom (cf. vv. 19-22). This figure of speech is known as litotes.
16 tn Heb “Oracle of the