81:3 Sound the ram’s horn on the day of the new moon, 3
and on the day of the full moon when our festival begins. 4
89:15 How blessed are the people who worship you! 5
O Lord, they experience your favor. 6
1:13 Do not bring any more meaningless 7 offerings;
I consider your incense detestable! 8
You observe new moon festivals, Sabbaths, and convocations,
but I cannot tolerate sin-stained celebrations! 9
8:1 Sound the alarm! 10
An eagle 11 looms over the temple of the Lord!
For they have broken their covenant with me, 12
and have rebelled against my law.
1:14 Announce a holy fast; 13
proclaim a sacred assembly.
Gather the elders and 14 all the inhabitants of the land
to the temple of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
1 tn There is no expressed subject in the initial temporal clause. It simply says, “and in the assembling the assembly.” But since the next verb is the second person of the verb, that may be taken as the intended subject here.
2 sn The signal for moving camp was apparently different in tone and may have been sharper notes or a different sequence. It was in some way distinguishable.
3 tn Heb “at the new moon.”
4 tn Heb “at the full moon on the day of our festival.” The Hebrew word כֶּסֶה (keseh) is an alternate spelling of כֶּסֶא (kese’, “full moon”).
5 tn Heb “who know the shout.” “Shout” here refers to the shouts of the
6 tn Heb “in the light of your face they walk.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 44:3; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; Dan 9:17).
7 tn Or “worthless” (NASB, NCV, CEV); KJV, ASV “vain.”
8 sn Notice some of the other practices that Yahweh regards as “detestable”: homosexuality (Lev 18:22-30; 20:13), idolatry (Deut 7:25; 13:15), human sacrifice (Deut 12:31), eating ritually unclean animals (Deut 14:3-8), sacrificing defective animals (Deut 17:1), engaging in occult activities (Deut 18:9-14), and practicing ritual prostitution (1 Kgs 14:23).
9 tn Heb “sin and assembly” (these two nouns probably represent a hendiadys). The point is that their attempts at worship are unacceptable to God because the people’s everyday actions in the socio-economic realm prove they have no genuine devotion to God (see vv. 16-17).
10 tn Heb “A horn unto your gums!”; NAB “A trumpet to your lips!”
11 tn Or perhaps “A vulture.” Some identify the species indicated by the Hebrew term נֶשֶׁר (nesher) as the griffon vulture (cf. NEB, NRSV).
12 tn Heb “my covenant” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “the covenant I made with them.”
13 tn Heb “consecrate a fast” (so NASB).
14 tc The conjunction “and” does not appear in MT or LXX, but does appear in some Qumran texts (4QXIIc and 4QXIIg).