4:11 Many nations have now assembled against you.
They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, 1
so we can gloat over Zion!” 2
4:12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;
they do not understand his strategy.
He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed 3 at the threshing floor.
4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!
For I will give you iron horns; 4
I will give you bronze hooves,
and you will crush many nations.” 5
You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,
and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler 6 of the whole earth. 7
1 tn Heb “let her be desecrated.” the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “and let our eye look upon Zion.”
3 tn The words “to be threshed” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the
4 tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”
5 sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves.
6 tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”
7 tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.