24:6 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:
Woe to the city of bloodshed,
the pot whose rot 1 is in it,
whose rot has not been removed 2 from it!
Empty it piece by piece.
No lot has fallen on it. 3
3:1 Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed! 4
She is full of lies; 5
she is filled with plunder; 6
she has hoarded her spoil! 7
2:12 The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead 8 –
he who starts 9 a town by unjust deeds.
16:6 because they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets,
so 21 you have given them blood to drink. They got what they deserved!” 22
1 tn Or “rust.”
2 tn Heb “has not gone out.”
3 tn Here “lot” may refer to the decision made by casting lots; it is not chosen at all.
4 tn Heb “of bloods.” The plural noun דָּמִים (damim, “bloods”) connotes “bloodshed” or “blood guilt” (BDB 196-97 s.v. דָּם 2.f; HALOT 224-25 s.v. דָּם 5; DCH 2:443-47 s.v. דָּם). Human blood in its natural state in the body is generally designated by the singular form דָּם (dam, “blood”); after it has been spilled, the plural form is used to denote the abundance of blood in quantity (IBHS 119-20 §7.4.1; BDB 196-97 s.v. דָּם 2.f). The plural is often used with the verb שָׁפַךְ (shafakh, “to spill, to shed”) to connote bloodshed (Gen 9:6; 37:22; Lev 17:4; Num 35:33; Deut 21:7; 1 Sam 25:31; 1 Kgs 18:28; 2 Kgs 21:16; 24:4; 1 Chr 22:8; Ezek 16:38; 22:4, 6, 9, 12, 27; 23:45; 33:25; 36:18; Prov 1:16). The plural often denotes bloodshed (Gen 4:10; 2 Sam 3:27, 28; 16:8; 20:12; 1 Kgs 2:5; 2 Kgs 9:7, 26, 33; 2 Chr 24:25; Job 16:18; Isa 1:15; 4:4; 9:4; 26:21; 33:15; 34:3, 6, 7; Ezek 7:23; 16:6, 9, 36; 21:37; 22:13; 24:8; Hos 1:4; 4:2; Hab 2:8, 12, 17; Mic 3:10; Zech 9:7) or blood-guilt (Exod 22:1; Lev 20:9; Num 35:27; Deut 19:10; 22:8; Judg 9:24; 1 Sam 25:26, 33; 2 Sam 21:1; Isa 33:15; Ezek 9:9). The term can refer to murder (2 Sam 16:7, 8; Pss 5:7; 26:9; 55:24; 59:3; 139:10; Prov 29:10) or more generally, connote social injustice, cruelty, and oppression (Deut 21:8, 9; 1 Sam 19:5; 2 Kgs 21:6; 24:4; Pss 94:21; 106:38; Prov 6:17; Isa 59:7; Jer 7:6; 22:3; Joel 4:19; Jonah 1:14). The term may refer to blood that has been shed in war (1 Kgs 2:5) and the unnecessary shedding of blood of one’s enemy (1 Kgs 2:31), which is probably the intended meaning here. The phrase “city of bloodshed” (עִיר דָּמִים [’ir damim], “city of bloods”) is used elsewhere to describe a city held guilty before God of blood-guilt and about to be judged by God (Ezek 22:2; 24:6).
5 tn Heb “All of her [is] lying.”
6 tn Heb “full of plunder.”
7 tn Heb “prey does not depart.”
8 tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
9 tn Or “establishes”; or “founds.”
10 sn The double use of the city’s name betrays intense emotion.
11 tn Although the opening address (“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”) is direct (second person), the remainder of this sentence in the Greek text is third person (“who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”). The following sentences then revert to second person (“your… you”), so to keep all this consistent in English, the third person pronouns in the present verse were translated as second person (“you who kill… sent to you”).
12 sn How often I have longed to gather your children. Jesus, like a lamenting prophet, speaks for God here, who longed to care tenderly for Israel and protect her.
13 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
14 tn Grk “you were not willing.”
15 sn Your house is forsaken. The language here is from Jer 12:7 and 22:5. It recalls exilic judgment.
16 sn A quotation from Ps 118:26. The judgment to come will not be lifted until the Lord returns. See Luke 19:41-44.
17 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
18 sn The winepress was stomped. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process).
19 tn L&N 6.7 states, “In Re 14:20 the reference to a bit and bridle is merely an indication of measurement, that is to say, the height of the bit and bridle from the ground, and one may reinterpret this measurement as ‘about a meter and a half’ or ‘about five feet.’”
20 tn Grk “1,600 stades.” A stade was a measure of length about 607 ft (185 m). Thus the distance here would be 184 mi or 296 km.
21 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that this judgment is the result of what these wicked people did to the saints and prophets.
22 tn Grk “They are worthy”; i.e., of this kind of punishment. By extension, “they got what they deserve.”
23 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
24 tn Or “of the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).
25 tn Grk “fell.”
26 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Babylon’s misdeeds (see Rev 14:8).
27 tn Grk “the cup of the wine of the anger of the wrath of him.” The concatenation of four genitives has been rendered somewhat differently by various translations (see the note on the word “wrath”).
28 tn Following BDAG 461 s.v. θυμός 2, the combination of the genitives of θυμός (qumo") and ὀργή (orgh) in Rev 16:19 and 19:15 are taken to be a strengthening of the thought as in the OT and Qumran literature (Exod 32:12; Jer 32:37; Lam 2:3; CD 10:9). Thus in Rev 14:8 (to which the present passage alludes) and 18:3 there is irony: The wine of immoral behavior with which Babylon makes the nations drunk becomes the wine of God’s wrath for her.