4:1 In the future 1 the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; 2
it will be more prominent than other hills. 3
People will stream to it.
4:2 Many nations will come, saying,
“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple 4 of Jacob’s God,
so he can teach us his commands 5
and we can live by his laws.” 6
For Zion will be the source of instruction;
the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. 7
4:3 He will arbitrate 8 between many peoples
and settle disputes between many 9 distant nations. 10
They will beat their swords into plowshares, 11
and their spears into pruning hooks. 12
Nations will not use weapons 13 against other nations,
and they will no longer train for war.
4:4 Each will sit under his own grapevine
or under his own fig tree without any fear. 14
The Lord who commands armies has decreed it. 15
4:5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, 16
we will follow 17 the Lord our God forever.
4:6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,
and assemble the outcasts whom I injured. 18
4:7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation, 19
and those far off 20 into a mighty nation.
The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,
from that day forward and forevermore.” 21
1 tn Heb “at the end of days.”
2 tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”
3 tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”
4 tn Heb “house.”
5 tn Heb “ways.”
6 tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”
7 tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the
8 tn Or “judge.”
9 tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”
10 tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”
11 sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.
12 sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle.
13 tn Heb “take up the sword.”
14 tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”
15 tn Heb “for the mouth of the
16 tn Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life.
17 tn Heb “walk in the name of.”
18 sn The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep.
19 tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”
20 tn The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (hala’, “to be far off”; see BDB 229 s.v.), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannil’ah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (la’ah).
21 tn Heb “from now until forever.”