1:2 The Lord is a zealous 1 and avenging 2 God;
the Lord is avenging and very angry. 3
The Lord takes vengeance 4 against his foes;
he sustains his rage 5 against his enemies.
32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,
and it burns to lowest Sheol; 6
it consumes the earth and its produce,
and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
32:23 I will increase their 7 disasters,
I will use up my arrows on them.
10:16 For this reason 8 the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. 9 His majestic glory will go up in smoke. 10
ד (Dalet)
2:4 He prepared his bow 11 like an enemy;
his right hand was ready to shoot. 12
Like a foe he killed everyone,
even our strong young men; 13
he has poured out his anger like fire
on the tent 14 of Daughter Zion.
כ (Kaf)
4:11 The Lord fully vented 15 his wrath;
he poured out his fierce anger. 16
He started a fire in Zion;
it consumed her foundations. 17
30:16 I will ignite a fire in Egypt;
Syene 18 will writhe in agony,
Thebes will be broken down,
and Memphis will face enemies every day.
16:1 Then 19 I heard a loud voice from the temple declaring to the seven angels: “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.” 20
16:8 Then 21 the fourth angel 22 poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was permitted to scorch people 23 with fire.
1 tn Heb “jealous.” The Hebrew term קַנּוֹא (qanno’, “jealous, zealous”) refers to God’s zealous protection of his people and his furious judgment against his enemies. The root קָנָא (qana’) can denote jealous envy (Gen 26:14; 30:1; 37:11; Pss 37:1; 73:3; 106:16; Prov 3:31; 23:17; 24:1, 19; Ezek 31:9), jealous rivalry (Eccl 4:4; 9:6; Isa 11:13), marital jealousy (Num 5:14, 15, 18, 25, 30; Prov 6:34; 27:4), zealous loyalty (Num 11:29; 25:11, 13; 2 Sam 21:2; 1 Kgs 19:10, 14; 2 Kgs 10:16; Ps 69:10; Song 8:6; Isa 9:6; 37:32; 42:13; 59:17; 63:15; Zech 1:14; 8:2), jealous anger (Deut 32:16, 21; Ps 78:58), and zealous fury (Exod 34:14; Deut 5:9; 29:19; 1 Kgs 14:22; Job 5:2; Pss 79:5; 119:139; Prov 14:30; Isa 26:11; Ezek 5:13; 8:3; 16:38, 42; 23:25; 35:11; 36:5, 6; 38:19; Zeph 1:18). See BDB 888 s.v. קָנָא; E. Reuter, TDOT 13:47-58.
2 tn The syntax of this line has been understood in two ways: (1) as a single clause with the
3 tn Or “exceedingly wrathful”; Heb “a lord of wrath.” The idiom “lord of wrath” (וּבַעַל חֵמָה, uva’al khemah) means “wrathful” or “full of wrath” (Prov 22:24; 29:22). The noun “lord” (בַעַל) is used in construct as an idiom to describe a person’s outstanding characteristic or attribute (e.g., Gen 37:19; 1 Sam 28:7; 2 Kgs 1:8; Prov 1:17; 18:9; 22:24; 23:2; 24:8; Eccl 7:12; 8:8; 10:11, 20; Isa 41:15; 50:8; Dan 8:6, 20); see IBHS 149-51 §9.5.3.
4 tn The term נָקַם (naqam, “avenge, vengeance”) is used three times in 1:2 for emphasis. The
5 tn The verb “rage” (נָטַר, natar) is used elsewhere of keeping a vineyard (Song 1:6; 8:11-12) and guarding a secret (Dan 7:28). When used of anger, it does not so much mean “to control anger” or “to be slow to anger” (HALOT 695 s.v.) but “to stay angry” (TWOT 2:576). It describes a person bearing a grudge, seeking revenge, and refusing to forgive (Lev 19:18). It is often used as a synonym of שָׁמַר (shamar, “to maintain wrath, stay angry”) in collocation with לְעוֹלָם (lÿ’olam, “forever, always”) and לָעַד (la’ad, “continually”) to picture God harboring rage against his enemies forever (Jer 3:5, 12; Amos 1:11; Ps 103:9). The long-term rage depicted by נָטַר (“maintain rage”) serves as an appropriate bridge to the following statement in Nahum that the
6 tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”
7 tn Heb “upon them.”
8 sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.
9 tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”
10 tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”
11 tn Heb “bent His bow.” When the verb דָּרַךְ (darakh) is used with the noun קֶשֶׁת (qeshet, “archer-bow”), it means “to bend [a bow]” to string it in preparation for shooting arrows (1 Chr 5:18; 8:40; 2 Chr 14:7; Jer 50:14, 29; 51:3). This idiom is used figuratively to describe the assaults of the wicked (Pss 11:2; 37:14) and the judgments of the
12 tn Heb “His right hand is stationed.”
13 tn Heb “the ones who were pleasing to the eye.”
14 tn The singular noun אֹהֶל (’ohel, “tent”) may function as a collective, referring to all tents in Judah. A parallel expression occurs in verse 2 using the plural: “all the dwellings of Jacob” (כָּל־נְאוֹת יַעֲקֹב, kol-nÿ’ot ya’aqov). The singular “tent” matches the image of “Daughter Zion.” On the other hand, the singular “the tent of Daughter Zion” might be a hyperbolic synecdoche of container (= tent) for contents (= inhabitants of Zion).
15 tn Heb “has completed.” The verb כִּלָּה (killah), Piel perfect 3rd person masculine singular from כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete”), has a range of closely related meanings: (1) “to complete, bring to an end,” (2) “to accomplish, finish, cease,” (3) “to use up, exhaust, consume.” Used in reference to God’s wrath, it describes God unleashing his full measure of anger so that divine justice is satisfied. This is handled admirably by several English versions: “The
16 tn Heb “the heat of his anger.”
17 tn The term יְסוֹד (yÿsod, “foundation”) refers to the ground-level and below ground-level foundation stones of a city wall (Ps 137:7; Lam 4:11; Mic 1:6).
18 tc The LXX reads “Syene,” which is Aswan in the south. The MT reads Sin, which has already been mentioned in v. 15.
19 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
20 tn Or “anger.” Here τοῦ θυμοῦ (tou qumou) has been translated as a genitive of content.
21 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
22 tn Grk “the fourth”; the referent (the fourth angel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
23 tn Grk “men,” but this is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") and refers to both men and women.