41:5 The coastlands 10 see and are afraid;
the whole earth 11 trembles;
they approach and come.
59:18 He repays them for what they have done,
dispensing angry judgment to his adversaries
and punishing his enemies. 12
He repays the coastlands. 13
2:11 The Lord will terrify them, 24
for 25 he will weaken 26 all the gods of the earth.
All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. 27
1 tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
2 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).
3 tc The Hebrew text reads, “the sovereign master will again, a second time, his hand.” The auxiliary verb יוֹסִיף (yosif), which literally means “add,” needs a main verb to complete it. Consequently many emend שֵׁנִית (shenit, “a second time”) to an infinitive. Some propose the form שַׁנֹּת (shannot, a Piel infinitive construct from שָׁנָה, shanah) and relate it semantically to an Arabic cognate meaning “to be high.” If the Hebrew text is retained a verb must be supplied. “Second time” would allude back to the events of the Exodus (see vv. 15-16).
4 tn Or “acquire”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “recover.”
5 tn Heb “the remnant of his people who remain.”
6 sn Perhaps a reference to Upper (i.e., southern) Egypt (so NIV, NLT; NCV “South Egypt”).
7 tn Or “Ethiopia” (NAB, NRSV, NLT).
8 tn Or “Babylonia” (NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).
9 tn Or perhaps, “the islands of the sea.”
10 tn Or “islands” (NIV, CEV); NCV “faraway places”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”
11 tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.
12 tn Heb “in accordance with deeds, so he repays, anger to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies.”
13 tn Or “islands” (KJV, NIV).
14 tn Heb “and I will set a sign among them.” The precise meaning of this statement is unclear. Elsewhere “to set a sign” means “perform a mighty act” (Ps 78:43; Jer 32:20), “make [someone] an object lesson” (Ezek 14:8), and “erect a [literal] standard” (Ps 74:4).
15 tn Some prefer to read “Put” (i.e., Libya).
16 sn That is, Lydia (in Asia Minor).
17 tn Heb “drawers of the bow” (KJV and ASV both similar).
18 sn Javan is generally identified today as Greece (so NIV, NCV, NLT).
19 tn Or “islands” (NIV).
20 tn Heb “his face.” See v. 19 as well.
21 sn The commander is probably the Roman commander, Lucius Cornelius Scipio.
22 tn The Hebrew here is difficult in that the negative בִּלְתִּי (biltiy, “not”) is used in an unusual way. The sense is not entirely clear.
23 tn Heb “his shameful conduct he will return to him.”
24 tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”
25 tn Or “certainly.”
26 tn The meaning of this rare Hebrew word is unclear. If the meaning is indeed “weaken,” then this line may be referring to the reduction of these gods’ territory through conquest (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 110-11). Cf. NEB “reduce to beggary”; NASB “starve”; NIV “when he destroys”; NRSV “shrivel.”
27 tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”