4:2 Many nations will come, saying,
“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the temple 1 of Jacob’s God,
so he can teach us his commands 2
and we can live by his laws.” 3
For Zion will be the source of instruction;
the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. 4
4:3 He will arbitrate 5 between many peoples
and settle disputes between many 6 distant nations. 7
They will beat their swords into plowshares, 8
and their spears into pruning hooks. 9
Nations will not use weapons 10 against other nations,
and they will no longer train for war.
4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!
For I will give you iron horns; 11
I will give you bronze hooves,
and you will crush many nations.” 12
You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,
and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler 13 of the whole earth. 14
5:7 Those survivors from 15 Jacob will live 16
in the midst of many nations. 17
They will be like the dew the Lord sends,
like the rain on the grass,
that does not hope for men to come
or wait around for humans to arrive. 18
5:8 Those survivors from Jacob will live among the nations,
in the midst of many peoples.
They will be like a lion among the animals of the forest,
like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
which attacks when it passes through;
it rips its prey 19 and there is no one to stop it. 20
1 tn Heb “house.”
2 tn Heb “ways.”
3 tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”
4 tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the
5 tn Or “judge.”
6 tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.”
7 tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”
8 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.
9 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.
10 tn Heb “take up the sword.”
9 tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”
10 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.
11 tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”
12 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.
13 tn Heb “the remnant of” (also in v. 8).
14 tn Heb “will be.”
15 tn This could mean “(scattered) among the nations” (cf. CEV, NLT) or “surrounded by many nations” (cf. NRSV).
16 tn Heb “that does not hope for man, and does not wait for the sons of men.”
17 tn The words “its prey” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
18 tn Heb “and there is no deliverer.”