17:10 For you ignore 1 the God who rescues you;
you pay no attention to your strong protector. 2
So this is what happens:
You cultivate beautiful plants
and plant exotic vines. 3
28:21 For the Lord will rise up, as he did at Mount Perazim, 4
he will rouse himself, as he did in the Valley of Gibeon, 5
to accomplish his work,
his peculiar work,
to perform his task,
his strange task. 6
43:12 I decreed and delivered and proclaimed,
and there was no other god among you.
You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I am God.
1 tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
2 tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”
3 tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.
4 sn This probably alludes to David’s victory over the Philistines at Baal Perazim. See 2 Sam 5:20.
5 sn This probably alludes to the Lord’s victory over the Canaanites at Gibeon, during the days of Joshua. See Josh 10:10-11.
6 sn God’s judgment of his own people is called “his peculiar work” and “his strange task,” because he must deal with them the way he treated their enemies in the past.