Genesis 19:17

19:17 When they had brought them outside, they ¹  said, “Run ²  for your lives! Don’t look ³  behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! ⁴  Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”

Genesis 19:24-25

19:24 Then the Lord rained down ⁵  sulfur and fire ⁶  on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. ⁷  19:25 So he overthrew those cities and all that region, ⁸  including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew ⁹  from the ground.

Deuteronomy 34:3

34:3 the Negev, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of the date palm trees, as far as Zoar.

Deuteronomy 34:1

The Death of Moses

34:1 Then Moses ascended from the deserts of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. ¹⁰  The Lord showed him the whole land – Gilead to Dan,

Deuteronomy 7:1

The Dispossession of Nonvassals

7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ¹¹  Girgashites, ¹²  Amorites, ¹³  Canaanites, ¹⁴  Perizzites, ¹⁵  Hivites, ¹⁶  and Jebusites, ¹⁷  seven ¹⁸  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

Psalms 107:34

107:34 and a fruitful land into a barren place, ¹⁹ 

because of the sin of its inhabitants.

Psalms 107:1

Book 5
(Psalms 107-150)

Psalm 107 ²⁰ 

107:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

and his loyal love endures! ²¹ 

Psalms 2:1

Psalm 2 ²² 

2:1 Why ²³  do the nations rebel? ²⁴ 

Why ²⁵  are the countries ²⁶  devising ²⁷  plots that will fail? ²⁸ 

¹ tn Or “one of them”; Heb “he.” Several ancient versions (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac) read the plural “they.” See also the note on “your” in v. 19.

² tn Heb “escape.”

³ tn The Hebrew verb translated “look” signifies an intense gaze, not a passing glance. This same verb is used later in v. 26 to describe Lot’s wife’s self-destructive look back at the city.

⁴ tn Or “in the plain”; Heb “in the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

⁵ tn The disjunctive clause signals the beginning of the next scene and highlights God’s action.

⁶ tn Or “burning sulfur” (the traditional “fire and brimstone”).

⁷ tn Heb “from the Lord from the heavens.” The words “It was sent down” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁸ tn Or “and all the plain”; Heb “and all the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

⁹ tn Heb “and the vegetation of the ground.”

¹⁰ sn For the geography involved, see note on the term “Pisgah” in Deut 3:17.

¹¹ sn Hittites. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).

¹² sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).

¹³ sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

¹⁴ sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.

¹⁵ sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

¹⁶ sn Hivites. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).

¹⁷ sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

¹⁸ sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.

¹⁹ tn Heb “a salty land.”

²⁰ sn Psalm 107. The psalmist praises God for his kindness to his exiled people.

²¹ tn Heb “for forever [is] his loyal love.”

²² sn Psalm 2. In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.

²³ tn The question is rhetorical. Rather than seeking information, the psalmist expresses his outrage that the nations would have the audacity to rebel against God and his chosen king.

²⁴ tn The Hebrew verb רָגַשׁ (ragash) occurs only here. In Dan 6:6, 11, 15 the Aramaic cognate verb describes several officials acting as a group. A Hebrew nominal derivative is used in Ps 55:14 of a crowd of people in the temple.

²⁵ tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

²⁶ tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).

²⁷ tn The Hebrew imperfect form describes the rebellion as underway. The verb הָגָה (hagah), which means “to recite quietly, meditate,” here has the metonymic nuance “devise, plan, plot” (see Ps 38:12; Prov 24:2).

²⁸ tn Heb “devising emptiness.” The noun רִיק (riq, “emptiness”) may characterize their behavior as “worthless, morally bankrupt” but more likely refers to the outcome of their plots (i.e., failure). As the rest of the psalm emphasizes, their rebellion will fail.