Genesis 19:15

19:15 At dawn ¹  the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, ²  or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ³ 

Genesis 19:24

19:24 Then the Lord rained down ⁴  sulfur and fire ⁵  on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. ⁶ 

Isaiah 17:14

17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror; ⁷ 

by morning they vanish. ⁸ 

This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,

the destiny of those who try to loot us! ⁹ 

Amos 4:13

4:13 For here he is!

He ¹⁰  formed the mountains and created the wind.

He reveals ¹¹  his plans ¹²  to men.

He turns the dawn into darkness ¹³ 

and marches on the heights of the earth.

The Lord, the God who commands armies, ¹⁴  is his name!”

¹ tn Heb “When dawn came up.”

² tn Heb “who are found.” The wording might imply he had other daughters living in the city, but the text does not explicitly state this.

³ tn Or “with the iniquity [i.e., punishment] of the city” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

⁴ tn The disjunctive clause signals the beginning of the next scene and highlights God’s action.

⁵ tn Or “burning sulfur” (the traditional “fire and brimstone”).

⁶ tn Heb “from the Lord from the heavens.” The words “It was sent down” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “at the time of evening, look, sudden terror.”

⁸ tn Heb “before morning he is not.”

⁹ tn Heb “this is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who loot us.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “For look, the one who.” This verse is considered to be the first hymnic passage in the book. The others appear at 5:8-9 and 9:5-6. Scholars debate whether these verses were originally part of a single hymn or three distinct pieces deliberately placed in each context for particular effect.

¹¹ tn Or “declares” (NAB, NASB).

¹² tn Or “his thoughts.” The translation assumes that the pronominal suffix refers to God and that divine self-revelation is in view (see 3:7). If the suffix refers to the following term אָדַם (’adam, “men”), then the expression refers to God’s ability to read men’s minds.

¹³ tn Heb “he who makes dawn, darkness.” The meaning of the statement is unclear. The present translation assumes that allusion is made to God’s approaching judgment, when the light of day will be turned to darkness (see 5:20). Other options include: (1) “He makes the dawn [and] the darkness.” A few Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, add the conjunction (“and”) between the two nouns. (2) “He turns darkness into glimmering dawn” (NJPS). See S. M. Paul (Amos [Hermeneia], 154), who takes שָׁחַר (shakhar) as “blackness” rather than “dawn” and עֵיפָה (’efah) as “glimmering dawn” rather than “darkness.”

¹⁴ tn Traditionally, “God of hosts.”