1 Samuel 30:1

David Defeats the Amalekites

30:1 On the third day David and his men came to Ziklag. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They attacked Ziklag and burned it. ¹ 

1 Samuel 31:7

31:7 When the men of Israel who were in the valley and across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. The Philistines came and occupied them.

Isaiah 10:6-7

10:6 I sent him ²  against a godless ³  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ⁴ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ⁵  like dirt in the streets.

10:7 But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way, ⁶ 

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations. ⁷ 

Isaiah 10:13-14

10:13 For he says:

“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,

by my strategy that I devised.

I invaded the territory of nations, ⁸ 

and looted their storehouses.

Like a mighty conqueror, ⁹  I brought down rulers. ¹⁰ 

10:14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,

as one gathers up abandoned eggs,

I gathered up the whole earth.

There was no wing flapping,

or open mouth chirping.” ¹¹ 

Isaiah 14:17

14:17 Is this the one who made the world like a desert,

who ruined its ¹²  cities,

and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’ ¹³ 

Isaiah 37:26

37:26 ¹⁴ Certainly you must have heard! ¹⁵ 

Long ago I worked it out,

in ancient times I planned ¹⁶  it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 51:25

51:25 The Lord says, ¹⁸  “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! ¹⁹ 

You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth.

I will unleash my power against you; ²⁰ 

I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. ²¹ 

[30:1]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”

[10:6]  ² sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

[10:6]  ³ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[10:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”

[10:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”

[10:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “removed the borders of nations”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “boundaries.”

[10:13]  ⁹ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has כְּאַבִּיר (kÿ’abir, “like a strong one”); the marginal reading (Qere) is כַּבִיר (kavir, “mighty one”).

[10:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and I brought down, like a strong one, ones sitting [or “living”].” The participle יוֹשְׁבִים (yoshÿvim, “ones sitting”) could refer to the inhabitants of the nations, but the translation assumes that it refers to those who sit on thrones, i.e., rulers. See BDB 442 s.v. יָשַׁב and HALOT 444 s.v. ישׁב.

[10:14]  ¹¹ sn The Assyrians’ conquests were relatively unopposed, like robbing a bird’s nest of its eggs when the mother bird is absent.

[14:17]  ¹² tc The pronominal suffix is masculine, even though its antecedent appears to be the grammatically feminine noun “world.” Some have suggested that the form עָרָיו (’arayv, plural noun with third masculine singular suffix) should be emended to עָרֶיהָ (’areha, plural noun with third feminine singular suffix). This emendation may be unnecessary in light of other examples of lack of agreement a suffix and its antecedent noun.

[14:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “and his prisoners did not let loose to [their] homes.” This really means, “he did not let loose his prisoners and send them back to their homes.’ On the elliptical style, see GKC 366 §117.o.

[37:26]  ¹⁴ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[37:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.

[37:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).

[37:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.

[51:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:25]  ¹⁹ tn The word “Babylon” is not in the text but is universally understood as the referent. It is supplied in the translation here to clarify the referent for the sake of the average reader.

[51:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I will reach out my hand against you.” See the translator’s note on 6:12 for explanation.

[51:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “I am against you, oh destroying mountain that destroys all the earth. I will reach out my hand against you and roll you down from the cliffs and make you a mountain of burning.” The interpretation adopted here follows the lines suggested by S. R. Driver, Jeremiah, 318, n. c and reflected also in BDB 977 s.v. שְׂרֵפָה. Babylon is addressed as a destructive mountain because it is being compared to a volcano. The Lord, however, will make it a “burned-out mountain,” i.e., an extinct volcano which is barren and desolate. This interpretation seems to this translator to fit the details of the text more consistently than alternative ones which separate the concept of “destroying/destructive” from “mountain” and explain the figure of the mountain to refer to the dominating political position of Babylon and the reference to a “mountain of burning” to be a “burned [or burned over] mountain.” The use of similes in place of metaphors makes it easier for the modern reader to understand the figures and also more easily incorporates the dissonant figure of “rolling you down from the cliffs” which involves the figure of personification.