Ezekiel 21:2

21:2 “Son of man, turn toward ¹  Jerusalem ²  and speak out against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel

Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ³ 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Job 29:22

29:22 After I had spoken, they did not respond;

my words fell on them drop by drop. ⁴ 

Amos 7:16

7:16 So now listen to the Lord’s message! You say, ‘Don’t prophesy against Israel! Don’t preach ⁵  against the family of Isaac!’

Micah 2:6

2:6 ‘Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,’ they say excitedly. ⁶ 

‘These prophets should not preach of such things;

we will not be overtaken by humiliation.’ ⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “set your face toward.”

² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³ tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

⁴ tn The verb simply means “dropped,” but this means like the rain. So the picture of his words falling on them like the gentle rain, drop by drop, is what is intended (see Deut 32:2).

⁵ tn The verb, which literally means “to drip,” appears to be a synonym of “to prophesy,” but it might carry a derogatory tone here, perhaps alluding to the impassioned, frenzied way in which prophets sometimes delivered their messages. If so, one could translate, “to drivel; to foam at the mouth” (see HALOT 694 s.v. נטף).

⁶ tn Heb “‘Do not foam at the mouth,’ they foam at the mouth.” The verb נָטַף (nataf) means “to drip.” When used of speech it probably has the nuance “to drivel, to foam at the mouth” (HALOT 694 s.v. נטף). The sinful people tell the Lord’s prophets not to “foam at the mouth,” which probably refers in a derogatory way to their impassioned style of delivery. But the Lord (who is probably still speaking here, see v. 3) sarcastically refers to their impassioned exhortation as “foaming at the mouth.”

⁷ tc If one follows the MT as it stands, it would appear that the Lord here condemns the people for their “foaming at the mouth” and then announces that judgment is inevitable. The present translation assumes that this is a continuation of the quotation of what the people say. In this case the subject of “foam at the mouth” is the Lord’s prophets. In the second line יִסַּג (yissag, a Niphal imperfect from סוּג, sug, “to remove”) is emended to יַסִּגֵנוּ (yassigenu; a Hiphil imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג, nasag/nasag, “to reach; to overtake”).