2 Chronicles 20:5-13

20:5 Jehoshaphat stood before the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem ¹  at the Lord’s temple, in front of the new courtyard. 20:6 He prayed: “O Lord God of our ancestors, ²  you are the God who lives in heaven ³  and rules over all the kingdoms of the nations. You possess strength and power; no one can stand against you. 20:7 Our God, you drove out ⁴  the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it as a permanent possession ⁵  to the descendants of your friend ⁶  Abraham. 20:8 They settled down in it and built in it a temple ⁷  to honor you, ⁸  saying, 20:9 ‘If disaster comes on us in the form of military attack, ⁹  judgment, plague, or famine, we will stand in front of this temple before you, for you are present in this temple. ¹⁰  We will cry out to you for help in our distress, so that you will ¹¹  hear and deliver us.’ 20:10 Now the Ammonites, Moabites, and men from Mount Seir are coming! ¹²  When Israel came from the land of Egypt, you did not allow them to invade these lands. ¹³  They bypassed them and did not destroy them. 20:11 Look how they are repaying us! They come to drive us out of our allotted land which you assigned to us! 20:12 Our God, will you not judge them? For we are powerless against this huge army that attacks us! We don’t know what we should do; we look to you for help.” ¹⁴ 

20:13 All the men of Judah ¹⁵  were standing before the Lord, along with their infants, wives, and children.

Psalms 50:15

50:15 Pray to me when you are in trouble! ¹⁶ 

I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” ¹⁷ 

Psalms 91:15

91:15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him when he is in trouble;

I will rescue him and bring him honor.

Isaiah 37:4

37:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ¹⁸  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ¹⁹  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ²⁰ 

Isaiah 37:15-21

37:15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: 37:16 “O Lord who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim! ²¹  You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky ²²  and the earth. 37:17 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! ²³  37:18 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations ²⁴  and their lands. 37:19 They have burned the gods of the nations, ²⁵  for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them. ²⁶  37:20 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” ²⁷ 

37:21 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Because you prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria, ²⁸ 

Joel 2:17

2:17 Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep

from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ²⁹ 

Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people;

please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked,

to become a proverb ³⁰  among the nations.

Why should it be said ³¹  among the peoples,

“Where is their God?”

Amos 7:1-6

Symbolic Visions of Judgment

7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ³²  him making locusts just as the crops planted late ³³  were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. ³⁴ ) 7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ³⁵ 

How can Jacob survive? ³⁶ 

He is too weak!” ³⁷ 

7:3 The Lord decided not to do this. ³⁸  “It will not happen,” the Lord said.

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ³⁹  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ⁴⁰  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

7:5 I said, “Sovereign Lord, stop!

How can Jacob survive? ⁴¹ 

He is too weak!” ⁴² 

7:6 The Lord decided not to do this. ⁴³  The sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.”

[20:5]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[20:6]  ² tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 33).

[20:6]  ³ tn Heb “are you not God in heaven?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “yes,” resulting in the positive statement “you are the God who lives in heaven” employed in the translation.

[20:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “did you not drive out?” This is another rhetorical question which expects a positive response; see the note on the word “heaven” in the previous verse.

[20:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “permanently.”

[20:7]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “your covenantal partner.” See Isa 41:8.

[20:8]  ⁷ tn Or “sanctuary.”

[20:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “for your name.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “to honor you”).

[20:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “sword.”

[20:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for your name is in this house.” The “name” of the Lord sometimes designates the Lord himself, being indistinguishable from the proper name. In this case the temple is referred to as a “house” where the Lord himself can reside.

[20:9]  ¹¹ tn Or “so that you may.”

[20:10]  ¹² tn Heb “now, look, the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir.”

[20:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “whom you did not allow Israel to enter when they came from the land of Egypt.”

[20:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for [or “indeed”] upon you are our eyes.”

[20:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Judah.” The words “the men of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy for the men of Judah.

[50:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “call [to] me in a day of trouble.”

[50:15]  ¹⁷ sn In vv. 7-15 the Lord makes it clear that he was not rebuking Israel because they had failed to offer sacrifices (v. 8a). On the contrary, they had been faithful in doing so (v. 8b). However, their understanding of the essence of their relationship with God was confused. Apparently they believed that he needed/desired such sacrifices and that offering them would ensure their prosperity. But the Lord owns all the animals of the world and did not need Israel’s meager sacrifices (vv. 9-13). Other aspects of the relationship were more important to the Lord. He desired Israel to be thankful for his blessings (v. 14a), to demonstrate gratitude for his intervention by repaying the vows they made to him (v. 14b), and to acknowledge their absolute dependence on him (v. 15a). Rather than viewing their sacrifices as somehow essential to God’s well-being, they needed to understand their dependence on him.

[37:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[37:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[37:16]  ²¹ sn Cherubim (singular “cherub”) refers to the images of winged angelic creatures that were above the ark of the covenant.

[37:16]  ²² tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[37:17]  ²³ tn Heb “Hear all the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”

[37:18]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew text here has “all the lands,” but the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:17 has “the nations.”

[37:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and they put their gods in the fire.”

[37:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “so they destroyed them” (NASB similar).

[37:20]  ²⁷ tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:19 reads, “that you, Lord, are the only God.”

[37:21]  ²⁸ tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:20 reads, “That which you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.” The verb “I have heard” does not appear in Isa 37:21, where אֲשֶׁר (’asher) probably has a causal sense: “because.”

[2:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “between the vestibule and the altar.” The vestibule was located at the entrance of the temple and the altar was located at the other end of the building. So “between the vestibule and the altar” is a merism referring to the entire structure. The priestly lament permeates the entire house of worship.

[2:17]  ³⁰ tn For the MT reading לִמְשָׁל (limshol, an infinitive, “to rule”), one should instead read לְמָשָׁל (lÿmashal, a noun, “to a byword”). While the consonantal Hebrew text permits either, the context suggests that the concern here is more one of not wanting to appear abandoned by God to ongoing economic depression rather than one of concern over potential political subjection of Israel (cf. v. 19). The possibility that the form in the MT is an infinitive construct of the denominative verb II מָשַׁל (mashal, “to utter a proverb”) does not seem likely because of the following preposition (Hebrew בְּ [bÿ], rather than עַל [’al]).

[2:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “Why will they say?”

[7:1]  ³² tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:1]  ³³ sn The crops planted late (consisting of vegetables) were planted in late January-early March and sprouted in conjunction with the spring rains of March-April. For a discussion of the ancient Israelite agricultural calendar, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 31-44.

[7:1]  ³⁴ tn Or “the mowings of the king.”

[7:2]  ³⁵ tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “small.”

[7:3]  ³⁸ tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[7:4]  ³⁹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4]  ⁴⁰ tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).

[7:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “stand.”

[7:5]  ⁴² tn Heb “small.”

[7:6]  ⁴³ tn Or “changed his mind about this.”