Discovery Box1 Kings 17:1-7
Context17:1 Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As certainly as the Lord God of Israel lives (whom I serve), 1 there will be no dew or rain in the years ahead unless I give the command.” 2 17:2 The Lord told him: 3 17:3 “Leave here and travel eastward. Hide out in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan. 17:4 Drink from the stream; I have already told 4 the ravens to bring you food 5 there.” 17:5 So he did 6 as the Lord told him; he went and lived in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan. 17:6 The ravens would bring him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he would drink from the stream.
17:7 After a while, 7 the stream dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
Isaiah 13:19-21
Context13:19 Babylon, the most admired 8 of kingdoms,
the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, 9
will be destroyed by God
just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. 10
13:20 No one will live there again;
no one will ever reside there again. 11
No bedouin 12 will camp 13 there,
no shepherds will rest their flocks 14 there.
13:21 Wild animals will rest there,
the ruined 15 houses will be full of hyenas. 16
Ostriches will live there,
wild goats will skip among the ruins. 17
Isaiah 19:5-10
Context19:5 The water of the sea will be dried up,
and the river will dry up and be empty. 18
19:6 The canals 19 will stink; 20
the streams of Egypt will trickle and then dry up;
the bulrushes and reeds will decay,
19:7 along with the plants by the mouth of the river. 21
All the cultivated land near the river
will turn to dust and be blown away. 22
19:8 The fishermen will mourn and lament,
all those who cast a fishhook into the river,
and those who spread out a net on the water’s surface will grieve. 23
19:9 Those who make clothes from combed flax will be embarrassed;
those who weave will turn pale. 24
19:10 Those who make cloth 25 will be demoralized; 26
all the hired workers will be depressed. 27
Isaiah 34:9-10
Context34:9 Edom’s 28 streams will be turned into pitch
and her soil into brimstone;
her land will become burning pitch.
34:10 Night and day it will burn; 29
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.
Isaiah 42:15
Context42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; 30
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands, 31
and dry up pools of water. 32
Isaiah 44:27
Context44:27 who says to the deep sea, ‘Be dry!
I will dry up your sea currents,’
Isaiah 50:2
Context50:2 Why does no one challenge me when I come?
Why does no one respond when I call? 33
Is my hand too weak 34 to deliver 35 you?
Do I lack the power to rescue you?
Look, with a mere shout 36 I can dry up the sea;
I can turn streams into a desert,
so the fish rot away and die
from lack of water. 37
Ezekiel 30:12
Context30:12 I will dry up the waterways
and hand the land over to 38 evil men.
I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
Joel 1:20
Context1:20 Even the wild animals 39 cry out to you; 40
for the river beds 41 have dried up;
fire has destroyed 42 the grassy pastures. 43
Nahum 1:4
Context1:4 He shouts a battle cry 44 against the sea 45 and makes it dry up; 46
he makes all the rivers 47 run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither; 48
the blossom of Lebanon withers.
Zephaniah 2:9
Context2:9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” says the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel,
“be certain that Moab will become like Sodom
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah.
They will be overrun by weeds, 49
filled with salt pits, 50
and permanently desolate.
Those of my people who are left 51 will plunder their belongings; 52
those who are left in Judah 53 will take possession of their land.”
Zephaniah 2:13
Context2:13 The Lord 54 will attack the north 55
and destroy Assyria.
He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins;
it will be as barren 56 as the desert.
[17:1] 1 tn Heb “before whom I stand.”
[17:1] 2 tn Heb “except at the command of my word.”
[17:2] 3 tn Heb “and the word of the
[17:4] 5 tn Heb “to provide for you.”
[17:5] 6 tn Heb “So he went and did.”
[17:7] 7 tn Heb “And it came about at the end of days.”
[13:19] 8 tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).
[13:19] 9 tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”
[13:19] 10 tn Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת (mahpekhat, “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7.
[13:20] 11 tn Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.
[13:20] 12 tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”
[13:20] 13 tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל (ye’ehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.
[13:20] 14 tn The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12.
[13:21] 15 tn The word “ruined” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[13:21] 16 tn The precise referent of this word in uncertain. See HALOT 29 s.v. *אֹחַ. Various English versions translate as “owls” (e.g., NAB, NASB), “wild dogs” (NCV); “jackals” (NIV); “howling creatures” (NRSV, NLT).
[13:21] 17 tn Heb “will skip there.”
[19:5] 18 tn Heb “will dry up and be dry.” Two synonyms are joined for emphasis.
[19:6] 19 tn Heb “rivers” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, CEV “streams”; TEV “channels.”
[19:6] 20 tn The verb form appears as a Hiphil in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa; the form in MT may be a so-called “mixed form,” reflecting the Hebrew Hiphil stem and the functionally corresponding Aramaic Aphel stem. See HALOT 276 s.v. I זנח.
[19:7] 21 tn Heb “the plants by the river, by the mouth of the river.”
[19:7] 22 tn Heb “will dry up, [being] scattered, and it will vanish.”
[19:8] 23 tn Or perhaps, “will disappear”; cf. TEV “will be useless.”
[19:9] 24 tn BDB 301 s.v. חוֹרִי suggests the meaning “white stuff” for חוֹרִי (khori); the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has חָוֵרוּ (khaveru), probably a Qal perfect, third plural form of חוּר, (khur, “be white, pale”). See HALOT 299 s.v. I חור. The latter reading is assumed in the translation above.
[19:10] 25 tn Some interpret שָׁתֹתֶיהָ (shatoteha) as “her foundations,” i.e., leaders, nobles. See BDB 1011 s.v. שָׁת. Others, on the basis of alleged cognates in Akkadian and Coptic, repoint the form שְׁתִיתֶיהָ (shÿtiteha) and translate “her weavers.” See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:370.
[19:10] 26 tn Heb “crushed.” Emotional distress is the focus of the context (see vv. 8-9, 10b).
[19:10] 27 tn Heb “sad of soul”; cf. NIV, NLT “sick at heart.”
[34:9] 28 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Edom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[34:10] 29 tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”
[42:15] 30 tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”
[42:15] 31 tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).
[42:15] 32 sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.
[50:2] 33 sn The present tense translation of the verbs assumes that the Lord is questioning why Israel does not attempt to counter his arguments. Another possibility is to take the verbs as referring to past events: “Why did no one meet me when I came? Why did no one answer when I called?” In this case the Lord might be asking why Israel rejected his calls to repent and his offer to deliver them.
[50:2] 34 tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV).
[50:2] 35 tn Or “ransom” (NAB, NASB, NIV).
[50:2] 36 tn Heb “with my rebuke.”
[50:2] 37 tn Heb “the fish stink from lack of water and die from thirst.”
[30:12] 38 tn Heb “and I will sell the land into the hand of.”
[1:20] 39 tn Heb “beasts of the field.”
[1:20] 40 tn Heb “long for you.” Animals of course do not have religious sensibilities as such; they do not in any literal sense long for Yahweh. Rather, the language here is figurative (metonymy of cause for effect). The animals long for food and water (so BDB 788 s.v. עָרַג), the ultimate source of which is Yahweh.
[1:20] 41 tn Heb “sources of water.”
[1:20] 43 tn Heb “the pastures of the wilderness.”
[1:4] 44 tn The term גָּעַר (ga’ar) often denotes “reprimand” and “rebuke” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). When it is used in the context of a military attack, it denotes an angry battle cry shouted by a mighty warrior to strike fear into his enemies to drive them away (e.g., 2 Sam 23:16; Isa 30:17; Pss 18:15; 76:6; 80:17; 104:7). For example, the parallel Ugaritic term is used when Baal utters a battle cry against Yamm before they fight to the death. For further study see, A. A. MacIntosh, “A Consideration of Hebrew g`r,” VT 14 (1969): 474; P. J. van Zijl, “A Consideration of the root ga’ar (“rebuke”),” OTWSA 12 (1969): 56-63; A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.
[1:4] 45 sn The “sea” is personified as an antagonistic enemy, representing the wicked forces of chaos (Pss 66:6; 72:8; 80:12; 89:26; 93:3-4; Isa 50:2; Mic 7:12; Hab 3:8; Zech 9:10).
[1:4] 46 tn This somewhat unusual use of the preterite (וַיַּבְּשֵׁהוּ, vayyabbÿshehu) follows a participle which depicts characteristic (present-time) action or imminent future action; the preterite depicts the subsequent present or future-time action (see IBHS 561-62 §33.3.5).
[1:4] 47 sn The Assyrians waged war every spring after the Tigris and Euphrates rivers dried up, allowing them to cross. As the Mighty Warrior par excellence, the
[1:4] 48 tn The term אֻמְלַל (’umlal, “withers”) occurs twice in this verse in MT. The repetition of אֻמְלַל is also supported by the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpNah). The BHS editors suggest emending the first occurrence of אֻמְלַל (“withers”) to דָּלְלוּ (dollu, “languishes”) to recover the letter ד (dalet) in the partial acrostic. Several versions do, in fact, employ two different verbs in the line (LXX, Syr, Targum, and Vg). However, the first verb at the beginning of the line in all of the versions reflects a reading of אֻמְלַל. Although several elements of an acrostic are present in Nahum 1, the acrostic is incomplete (only א [alef] to כ [kaf] in vv. 2-8) and broken (several elements are missing within vv. 2-8). There is no textual evidence for a complete, unbroken acrostic throughout the book of Nahum in any ancient Hebrew
[2:9] 49 tn The Hebrew text reads מִמְשַׁק חָרוּל (mimshaq kharul, “[?] of weeds”). The meaning of the first word is unknown. The present translation (“They will be overrun by weeds”) is speculative, based on the general sense of the context. For a defense of “overrun” on linguistic grounds, see R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 347. Cf. NEB “a pile of weeds”; NIV “a place of weeds”; NRSV “a land possessed by nettles.”
[2:9] 50 tn The Hebrew text reads וּמִכְרֵה־מֶלַח (umikhreh-melakh, “and a [?] of salt”). The meaning of the first word is unclear, though “pit” (NASB, NIV, NRSV; NKJV “saltpit”), “mine,” and “heap” (cf. NEB “a rotting heap of saltwort”) are all options. The words “filled with” are supplied for clarification.
[2:9] 51 tn Or “The remnant of my people.”
[2:9] 52 tn Heb “them.” The actual object of the plundering, “their belongings,” has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:9] 53 tn Heb “[the] nation.” For clarity the “nation” has been specified as “Judah” in the translation.
[2:13] 54 tn Heb “He”; the referent (the
[2:13] 55 tn Heb “he will stretch out his hand against the north.”
