24:15 So in the east 1 extol the Lord,
along the seacoasts extol 2 the fame 3 of the Lord God of Israel.
42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed 4
before establishing justice on the earth;
the coastlands 5 will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” 6
31:10 Hear what the Lord has to say, O nations.
Proclaim it in the faraway lands along the sea.
Say, “The one who scattered Israel will regather them.
He will watch over his people like a shepherd watches over his flock.”
27:6 They made your oars from oaks of Bashan;
they made your deck 13 with cypresses 14 from the Kittean isles. 15
2:11 The Lord will terrify them, 20
for 21 he will weaken 22 all the gods of the earth.
All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. 23
1 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “in the lights,” interpreted by some to mean “in the region of light,” referring to the east. Some scholars have suggested the emendation of בָּאֻרִים (ba’urim) to בְּאִיֵּי הַיָּם (bÿ’iyyey hayyam, “along the seacoasts”), a phrase that is repeated in the next line. In this case, the two lines form synonymous parallelism. If one retains the MT reading (as above), “in the east” and “along the seacoasts” depict the two ends of the earth to refer to all the earth (as a merism).
2 tn The word “extol” is supplied in the translation; the verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.
3 tn Heb “name,” which here stands for God’s reputation achieved by his mighty deeds.
4 tn For rhetorical effect the terms used to describe the “crushed (רָצַץ, ratsats) reed” and “dim (כָּהָה, kahah) wick” in v. 3 are repeated here.
5 tn Or “islands” (NIV); NLT “distant lands beyond the sea.”
6 tn Or “his law” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV) or “his instruction” (NLT).
7 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).
8 tn Some prefer to read “Put” (i.e., Libya).
9 sn That is, Lydia (in Asia Minor).
10 tn Heb “drawers of the bow” (KJV and ASV both similar).
11 sn Javan is generally identified today as Greece (so NIV, NCV, NLT).
12 tn Or “islands” (NIV).
13 tn Or “hull.”
14 tc The Hebrew reads “Your deck they made ivory, daughter of Assyria.” The syntactically difficult “ivory” is understood here as dittography and omitted, though some construe this to refer to ivory inlays. “Daughter of Assyria” is understood here as improper word division and the vowels repointed as “cypresses.”
15 tn Heb “from the coastlands (or islands) of Kittim,” generally understood to be a reference to the island of Cyprus, where the Phoenicians had a trading colony on the southeast coast. Many modern English versions have “Cyprus” (CEV, TEV), “the coastlands of Cyprus” (NASB), “the coasts of Cyprus” (NIV, NRSV), or “the southern coasts of Cyprus” (NLT).
16 tn Heb “his face.” See v. 19 as well.
17 sn The commander is probably the Roman commander, Lucius Cornelius Scipio.
18 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.
19 tn Heb “his shameful conduct he will return to him.”
20 tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”
21 tn Or “certainly.”
22 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.”
23 tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”