34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin 1 on me by making me a foul odor 2 among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I 3 am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”
16:21 You must not plant any kind of tree as a sacred Asherah pole 8 near the altar of the Lord your God which you build for yourself.
106:40 So the Lord was angry with his people 9
and despised the people who belong to him. 10
1 tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.
2 tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.
3 tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.
4 tn Heb “brother.”
5 tn Heb “sojourner.”
6 tn Or “a person born of an illegitimate marriage.”
7 tn Heb “enter the assembly of the
8 tn Heb “an Asherah, any tree.”
9 tn Heb “the anger of the
10 tn Heb “his inheritance.”
11 sn Zechariah is only dramatizing what God had done historically (see the note on the word “cedars” in 11:1). The “one month” probably means just any short period of time in which three kings ruled in succession. Likely candidates are Elah, Zimri, Tibni (1 Kgs 16:8-20); Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem (2 Kgs 15:8-16); or Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:1–25:7).