4:4 Each will sit under his own grapevine
or under his own fig tree without any fear. 1
The Lord who commands armies has decreed it. 2
4:5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, 3
we will follow 4 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. 5
4:7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation, 6
and those far off 7 into a mighty nation.
The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,
from that day forward and forevermore.” 8
1 tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”
2 tn Heb “for the mouth of the
3 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.
4 tn Heb “walk in the name of.”
5 sn The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep.
6 tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”
7 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).
8 tn Heb “from now until forever.”