Ezekiel 7:6-7

7:6 An end comes ¹  – the end comes! ²  It has awakened against you ³  – the end is upon you! Look, it is coming! ⁴  7:7 Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day ⁵  is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. ⁶ 

Ezekiel 7:12

7:12 The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath ⁷  comes against their whole crowd.

Ezekiel 12:23

12:23 Therefore tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: I hereby end this proverb; they will not recite it in Israel any longer.’ But say to them, ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled. ⁸ 

Amos 8:2

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end ⁹  has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. ¹⁰ 

Philippians 4:5

4:5 Let everyone see your gentleness. ¹¹  The Lord is near!

James 5:9

5:9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, ¹²  so that you may not be judged. See, the judge stands before the gates! ¹³ 

James 5:2

5:2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten.

James 2:3

2:3 do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say, ¹⁴  “You sit here in a good place,” ¹⁵  and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”? ¹⁶ 

¹ tn Or “has come.”

² tn Or “has come.”

³ tc With different vowels the verb rendered “it has awakened” would be the noun “the end,” as in “the end is upon you.” The verb would represent a phonetic wordplay. The noun by virtue of repetition would continue to reinforce the idea of the end. Whether verb or noun, this is the only instance to occur with this preposition.

⁴ tc For this entire verse, the LXX has only “the end is come.”

⁵ sn The day refers to the day of the Lord, a concept which, beginning in Amos 5:18-20, became a common theme in the OT prophetic books. It refers to a time when the Lord intervenes in human affairs as warrior and judge.

⁶ tc The LXX reads “neither tumult nor birth pains.” The LXX varies at many points from the MT in this chapter. The context suggests that one or both of these would be present on a day of judgment, thus favoring the MT. Perhaps more significant is the absence of “the mountains” in the LXX. If the ר (resh) in הָרִים (harim, “the mountains” not “on the mountains”) were a ד (dalet), which is a common letter confusion, then it could be from the same root as the previous word, הֵד (hed), meaning “the day is near – with destruction, not joyful shouting.”

⁷ tn Heb “wrath.” Context clarifies that God’s wrath is in view.

⁸ tn Heb “the days draw near and the word of every vision (draws near).”

⁹ tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.

¹⁰ tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”

¹¹ tn Grk “let your gentleness be seen by all.” The passive voice construction has been converted to active voice in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

¹³ sn The term gates is used metaphorically here. The physical referent would be the entrances to the city, but the author uses the term to emphasize the imminence of the judge’s approach.

¹⁴ tn Grk “and you pay attention…and say,” continuing the “if” clauses from v. 2. In the Greek text, vv. 2-4 form one long sentence.

¹⁵ tn Or “sit here, please.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “sit under my footstool.” The words “on the floor” have been supplied in the translation to clarify for the modern reader the undesirability of this seating arrangement (so also TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). Another option followed by a number of translations is to replace “under my footstool” with “at my feet” (NAB, NIV, NRSV).