2 Chronicles 16:9

16:9 Certainly ¹  the Lord watches the whole earth carefully ²  and is ready to strengthen those who are devoted to him. ³  You have acted foolishly in this matter; from now on you will have war.

Psalms 33:18

33:18 Look, the Lord takes notice of his loyal followers, ⁴ 

those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness ⁵ 

Psalms 34:15

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ⁶ 

Zephaniah 3:17

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ⁷ 

he renews you by his love; ⁸ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ⁹ 

Zephaniah 3:1

Jerusalem is Corrupt

3:1 The filthy, ¹⁰  stained city is as good as dead;

the city filled with oppressors is finished! ¹¹ 

Zephaniah 3:12

3:12 I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, ¹² 

and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence. ¹³ 

[16:9]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[16:9]  ² tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord move quickly through all the earth.”

[16:9]  ³ tn Heb “to strengthen himself with their heart, [the one] complete toward him.”

[33:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “look, the eye of the Lord [is] toward the ones who fear him.” The expression “the eye…[is] toward” here indicates recognition and the bestowing of favor. See Ps 34:15. The one who fears the Lord respects his sovereignty and obeys his commandments. See Ps 128:1; Prov 14:2.

[33:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “for the ones who wait for his faithfulness.”

[34:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

[3:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ⁸ tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”

[3:1]  ¹⁰ tn The present translation assumes מֹרְאָה (mor’ah) is derived from רֹאִי (ro’i,“excrement”; see Jastrow 1436 s.v. רֳאִי). The following participle, “stained,” supports this interpretation (cf. NEB “filthy and foul”; NRSV “soiled, defiled”). Another option is to derive the form from מָרָה (marah, “to rebel”); in this case the term should be translated “rebellious” (cf. NASB, NIV “rebellious and defiled”). This idea is supported by v. 2. For discussion of the two options, see HALOT 630 s.v. I מרא and J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 206.

[3:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Woe, soiled and stained one, oppressive city.” The verb “is finished” is supplied in the second line. On the Hebrew word הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), see the note on the word “dead” in 2:5.

[3:12]  ¹² tn Heb “needy and poor people.” The terms often refer to a socioeconomic group, but here they may refer to those who are humble in a spiritual sense.

[3:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.”