40:10 Look, the sovereign Lord comes as a victorious warrior; 1
his military power establishes his rule. 2
Look, his reward is with him;
his prize goes before him. 3
51:9 Wake up! Wake up!
Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! 4
Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity!
Did you not smash 5 the Proud One? 6
Did you not 7 wound the sea monster? 8
52:10 The Lord reveals 9 his royal power 10
in the sight of all the nations;
the entire 11 earth sees
our God deliver. 12
44:3 For they did not conquer 13 the land by their swords,
and they did not prevail by their strength, 14
but rather by your power, 15 strength 16 and good favor, 17
for you were partial to 18 them.
A psalm.
98:1 Sing to the Lord a new song, 20
for he performs 21 amazing deeds!
His right hand and his mighty arm
accomplish deliverance. 22
1:1 27 This is the word of the Lord which was revealed to Hosea 28 son of Beeri during the time when 29 Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah ruled Judah, 30 and during the time when Jeroboam son of Joash 31 ruled Israel. 32
1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
1 tn Heb “comes as a strong one”; ASV “will come as a mighty one.” The preposition בְּ (bet) here carries the nuance “in the capacity of.” It indicates that the Lord possesses the quality expressed by the noun. See GKC 379 §119.i and HALOT 104 s.v. בְּ.
2 tn Heb “his arm rules for him” (so NIV, NRSV). The Lord’s “arm” symbolizes his military power (see Isa 51:9-10; 63:5).
3 tn As the Lord returns to Jerusalem as a victorious warrior, he brings with him the spoils of victory, called here his “reward” and “prize.” These terms might also be translated “wages” and “recompense.” Verse 11 indicates that his rescued people, likened to a flock of sheep, are his reward.
4 tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.
5 tn Heb “Are you not the one who smashed?” The feminine singular forms agree grammatically with the feminine noun “arm.” The Hebrew text has ַהמַּחְצֶבֶת (hammakhtsevet), from the verbal root חָצַב (khatsav, “hew, chop”). The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has, probably correctly, המחצת, from the verbal root מָחַץ (makhats, “smash”) which is used in Job 26:12 to describe God’s victory over “the Proud One.”
6 tn This title (רַהַב, rahav, “proud one”) is sometimes translated as a proper name: “Rahab” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). It is used here of a symbolic sea monster, known elsewhere in the Bible and in Ugaritic myth as Leviathan. This sea creature symbolizes the forces of chaos that seek to destroy the created order. In the Bible “the Proud One” opposes God’s creative work, but is defeated (see Job 26:12; Ps 89:10). Here the title refers to Pharaoh’s Egyptian army that opposed Israel at the Red Sea (see v. 10, and note also Isa 30:7 and Ps 87:4, where the title is used of Egypt).
7 tn The words “did you not” are understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line). The rhetorical questions here and in v. 10 expect the answer, “Yes, you certainly did!”
8 tn Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannin) is another name for the symbolic sea monster. See the note at 27:1. In this context the sea creature represents Egypt. See the note on the title “Proud One” earlier in this verse.
9 tn Heb “lays bare”; NLT “will demonstrate.”
10 tn Heb “his holy arm.” This is a metonymy for his power.
11 tn Heb “the remote regions,” which here stand for the extremities and everything in between.
12 tn Heb “the deliverance of our God.” “God” is a subjective genitive here.
13 tn Or “take possession of.”
14 tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.
15 tn Heb “your right hand.” The
16 tn Heb “your arm.”
17 tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).
18 tn Or “favorable toward.”
19 sn Psalm 98. The psalmist summons the whole earth to praise God because he reveals his justice and delivers Israel.
20 sn A new song is appropriate because the Lord is constantly intervening in the world as its just king. See Ps 96:1.
21 tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 1-3 are understood here as describing characteristic divine activities. Another option is to translate them as present perfects, “has performed…has accomplished deliverance, etc.” referring to completed actions that have continuing results.
22 tn Heb “his right hand delivers for him and his holy arm.” The right hand and arm symbolize his power as a warrior-king (see Isa 52:10). His arm is “holy” in the sense that it is in a category of its own; God’s power is incomparable.
23 tn Heb “house”; cf. NCV, TEV, NLT “the people of Judah.”
24 tn The word order in this line is rhetorical, emphasizing the divine decision to withhold pity from Israel but to bestow it on Judah. The accusative direct object, which is introduced by a disjunctive vav (to denote contrast), appears before the verb: וְאֶת־בֵּית יְהוּדָה אֲרַחֵם (vé’et-bet yéhudah ’arakhem, “but upon the house of Judah I will show pity”).
25 tn Heb “by war” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); KJV, NASB, NIV “battle.”
26 sn These military weapons are examples of the metonymy of adjunct (the specific weapons named) for subject (warfare).
27 tc The textual problems in Hosea are virtually unparalleled in the OT. The Masoretic Text (MT), represented by the Leningrad Codex (c.
28 tn Heb “The word of the
29 tn Heb “in the days of” (again later in this verse). Cf. NASB “during the days of”; NIV “during the reigns of”; NLT “during the years when.”
30 tn Heb “Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”
31 sn Joash is a variation of the name Jehoash. Some English versions use “Jehoash” here (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).
32 tn Heb “Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel.”
33 tn Or “partook of” (this is a different word than the one in v. 14a).
34 tn Grk “the same.”
35 tn Or “break the power of,” “reduce to nothing.”