Jeremiah 4:19

4:19 I said, ¹ 

“Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach! ² 

I writhe in anguish.

Oh, the pain in my heart! ³ 

My heart pounds within me.

I cannot keep silent.

For I hear the sound of the trumpet; ⁴ 

the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul! ⁵ 

Jeremiah 18:22

18:22 Let cries of terror be heard in their houses

when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them. ⁶ 

For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me

and have hidden traps for me to step into.

Jeremiah 48:3-4

48:3 Cries of anguish will arise in Horonaim,

‘Oh, the ruin and great destruction!’

48:4 “Moab will be crushed.

Her children will cry out in distress. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 21:22

21:22 Into his right hand ⁸  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ⁹  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ¹⁰  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall.

Hosea 10:14

Bethel Will Be Destroyed Like Beth Arbel

10:14 The roar of battle will rise against your people;

all your fortresses will be devastated,

just as Shalman devastated ¹¹  Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

Amos 1:14

1:14 So I will set fire to Rabbah’s ¹²  city wall; ¹³ 

fire ¹⁴  will consume her fortresses.

War cries will be heard on the day of battle; ¹⁵ 

a strong gale will blow on the day of the windstorm. ¹⁶ 

Amos 2:2

2:2 So I will set Moab on fire, ¹⁷ 

and it will consume Kerioth’s ¹⁸  fortresses.

Moab will perish ¹⁹  in the heat of battle ²⁰ 

amid war cries and the blaring ²¹  of the ram’s horn. ²² 

Zephaniah 1:16

1:16 a day of trumpet blasts ²³  and battle cries. ²⁴ 

Judgment will fall on ²⁵  the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

¹ tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are used to mark the shift from the Lord’s promise of judgment to Jeremiah’s lament concerning it.

² tn Heb “My bowels! My bowels!”

³ tn Heb “the walls of my heart!”

⁴ tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.

⁵ tc The translation reflects a different division of the last two lines than that suggested by the Masoretes. The written text (the Kethib) reads “for the sound of the ram’s horn I have heard [or “you have heard,” if the form is understood as the old second feminine singular perfect] my soul” followed by “the battle cry” in the last line. The translation is based on taking “my soul” with the last line and understanding an elliptical expression “the battle cry [to] my soul.” Such an elliptical expression is in keeping with the elliptical nature of the exclamations at the beginning of the verse (cf. the literal translations of the first two lines of the verse in the notes on the words “stomach” and “heart”).

⁶ tn Heb “when you bring marauders in against them.” For the use of the noun translated here “bands of raiders to plunder them” see 1 Sam 30:3, 15, 23 and BDB 151 s.v. גְּדוּד 1.

⁷ tc The reading here follows the Qere צְעִירֶיהָ (tsÿ’ireha) which is the same noun found in Jer 14:3 in the sense of “servants.” Here it refers to the young ones, i.e., the children (cf. the use of the adjective BDB 859 s.v. I צָעִיר 2 and see Gen 43:33). Many of the modern commentaries and a few of the modern English versions follow the Greek version and read “their cry is heard as far as Zoar” (reading צֹעֲרָה, tso’arah; see, for example, J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 699, n. 4, and BDB 858 s.v. צֹעַר). However, that leaves the verb with an indefinite subject (the verb is active 3rd plural not passive) not otherwise identified in the preceding context. Many of the modern English versions such as NRSV, NJPS, NIV retain the Hebrew as the present translation has done. In this case the masculine plural noun furnishes a logical subject for the verb.

⁸ tn Or “on the right side,” i.e., the omen mark on the right side of the liver.

⁹ tn Heb “to open the mouth” for slaughter.

¹⁰ tn Heb “to raise up a voice in a battle cry.”

¹¹ tn Heb “as the devastation of Shalman.” The genitive noun שַׁלְמַן (shalman, “Shalman”) functions as a subjective genitive: “as Shalman devastated [Beth Arbel].”

¹² sn Rabbah was the Ammonite capital.

¹³ sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

¹⁴ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “with a war cry in the day of battle.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “with wind in the day of the windstorm.”

¹⁷ sn The destruction of Moab by fire is an example of a judgment in kind – as the Moabites committed the crime of “burning,” so the Lord will punish them by setting them on fire.

¹⁸ sn Kerioth was an important Moabite city. See Jer 48:24, 41.

¹⁹ tn Or “die” (KJV, NASB, NRSV, TEV); NAB “shall meet death.”

²⁰ tn Or “in the tumult.” This word refers to the harsh confusion of sounds that characterized an ancient battle – a mixture of war cries, shouts, shrieks of pain, clashes of weapons, etc.

²¹ tn Heb “sound” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

²² sn The ram’s horn (used as a trumpet) was blown to signal the approaching battle.

²³ tn Heb “a ram’s horn.” By metonymy the Hebrew text mentions the trumpet (“ram’s horn”) in place of the sound it produces (“trumpet blasts”).

²⁴ sn This description of the day of the Lord consists of an initial reference to anger, followed by four pairs of synonyms. The joining of synonyms in this way emphasizes the degree of the characteristic being described. The first two pairs focus on the distress and ruin that judgment will bring; the second two pairs picture this day of judgment as being very dark (darkness) and exceedingly overcast (gloom). The description concludes with the pairing of two familiar battle sounds, the blast on the ram’s horn (trumpet blasts) and the war cries of the warriors (battle cries).

²⁵ tn Heb “against.” The words “judgment will fall” are supplied in the translation for clarification.