2 Kings 15:29

15:29 During Pekah’s reign over Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, ¹  Gilead, and Galilee, including all the territory of Naphtali. He deported the people ²  to Assyria.

2 Kings 17:6

17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel ³  to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

Isaiah 7:20

7:20 At that time ⁴  the sovereign master will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, ⁵  the king of Assyria, to shave the head and the pubic hair; ⁶  it will also shave off the beard.

Isaiah 8:4-8

8:4 for before the child knows how to cry out, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria ⁷  will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” ⁸ 

8:5 The Lord spoke to me again: 8:6 “These people ⁹  have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah ¹⁰  and melt in fear over Rezin and the son of Remaliah. ¹¹  8:7 So look, the sovereign master ¹²  is bringing up against them the turbulent and mighty waters of the Euphrates River ¹³  – the king of Assyria and all his majestic power. It will reach flood stage and overflow its banks. ¹⁴  8:8 It will spill into Judah, flooding and engulfing, as it reaches to the necks of its victims. He will spread his wings out over your entire land, ¹⁵  O Immanuel.” ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 10:5-6

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ¹⁷ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ¹⁸ 

10:6 I sent him ¹⁹  against a godless ²⁰  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ²¹ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ²²  like dirt in the streets.

Jeremiah 5:15-17

5:15 The Lord says, ²³  “Listen, ²⁴  nation of Israel! ²⁵ 

I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you.

It will be a nation that was founded long ago

and has lasted for a long time.

It will be a nation whose language you will not know.

Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.

5:16 All of its soldiers are strong and mighty. ²⁶ 

Their arrows will send you to your grave. ²⁷ 

5:17 They will eat up your crops and your food.

They will kill off ²⁸  your sons and your daughters.

They will eat up your sheep and your cattle.

They will destroy your vines and your fig trees. ²⁹ 

Their weapons will batter down ³⁰ 

the fortified cities you trust in.

Hosea 10:5

The Calf Idol and Idolaters of Samaria Will Be Exiled

10:5 The inhabitants ³¹  of Samaria will lament ³²  over the calf idol ³³  of Beth Aven. ³⁴ 

Its people will mourn over it;

its idolatrous priests will wail ³⁵  over it, ³⁶ 

because its splendor will be taken from them ³⁷  into exile.

[15:29]  ¹ map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 D3; Map3 A2; Map4 C1.

[15:29]  ² tn Heb “them.”

[17:6]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

[7:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB); KJV “In the same day.”

[7:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “the river” (so KJV); NASB “the Euphrates.” The name of the river has been supplied in the present translation for clarity.

[7:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “the hair of the feet.” The translation assumes that the word “feet” is used here as a euphemism for the genitals. See BDB 920 s.v. רֶגֶל.

[8:4]  ⁷ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[8:4]  ⁸ sn The child’s name foreshadows what will happen to Judah’s enemies; when their defeat takes place, the child will be a reminder that God predicted the event and brought it to pass. As such the child will be a reminder of God’s protective presence with his people.

[8:6]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text begins with “because.” In the Hebrew text vv. 6-7 are one long sentence, with v. 6 giving the reason for judgment and v. 7 formally announcing it.

[8:6]  ¹⁰ sn The phrase “waters of Shiloah” probably refers to a stream that originated at the Gihon Spring and supplied the city of Jerusalem with water. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:225. In this context these waters stand in contrast to the flood waters of Assyria and symbolize God’s presence and blessings.

[8:6]  ¹¹ tn The precise meaning of v. 6 has been debated. The translation above assumes that “these people” are the residents of Judah and that מָשׂוֹשׂ (masos) is alternate form of מָסוֹס (masos, “despair, melt”; see HALOT 606 s.v. מסס). In this case vv. 7-8 in their entirety announce God’s disciplinary judgment on Judah. However, “these people” could refer to the Israelites and perhaps also the Syrians (cf v. 4). In this case מָשׂוֹשׂ probably means “joy.” One could translate, “and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah.” In this case v. 7a announces the judgment of Israel, with vv. 7b-8 then shifting the focus to the judgment of Judah.

[8:7]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[8:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “the mighty and abundant waters of the river.” The referent of “the river” here, the Euphrates River, has been specified in the translation for clarity. As the immediately following words indicate, these waters symbolize the Assyrian king and his armies which will, as it were, inundate the land.

[8:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it will go up over all its stream beds and go over all its banks.”

[8:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the spreading out of his wings [will be over] the fullness of the breadth of your land.” The metaphor changes here from raging flood to predatory bird.

[8:8]  ¹⁶ sn The appearance of the name Immanuel (“God is with us”) is ironic at this point, for God is present with his people in judgment. Immanuel is addressed here as if he has already been born and will see the judgment occur. This makes excellent sense if his birth has just been recorded. There are several reasons for considering Immanuel and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz one and the same. 8:3 is a birth account which could easily be understood as recording the fulfillment of the birth prophecy of 7:14. The presence of a formal record/witnesses (8:1-2) suggests a sign function for the child (cf. 7:14). As in 7:14-16, the removal of Judah’s enemies would take place before the child reached a specified age (cf. 8:4). Both 7:17-25 and 8:7-8 speak of an Assyrian invasion of Judah which would follow the defeat of Israel/Syria. The major objection to this view is the fact that different names appear, but such a phenomenon is not without parallel in the OT (cf. Gen 35:18). The name Immanuel may emphasize the basic fact of God’s presence, while the name Maher focuses on the specific nature of God’s involvement. In 7:14 the mother is viewed as naming the child, while in 8:3 Isaiah is instructed to give the child’s name, but one might again point to Gen 35:18 for a precedent. The sign child’s age appears to be different in 8:4 than in 7:15-16, but 7:15-16 pertains to the judgment on Judah, as well as the defeat of Israel/Syria (cf. vv. 17-25), while 8:4 deals only with the downfall of Israel/Syria. Some argue that the suffixed form “your land” in 8:8 points to a royal referent (a child of Ahaz or the Messiah), but usage elsewhere shows that the phrase does not need to be so restricted. While the suffix can refer to the king of a land (cf. Num 20:17; 21:22; Deut 2:27; Judg 11:17, 19; 2 Sam 24:13; 1 Kgs 11:22; Isa 14:20), it can also refer to one who is a native of a particular land (cf. Gen 12:1; 32:9; Jonah 1:8). (See also the use of “his land” in Isa 13:14 [where the suffix refers to a native of a land] and 37:7 [where it refers to a king].)

[10:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

[10:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”

[10:6]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ²² tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[5:15]  ²³ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[5:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Behold!”

[5:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[5:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “All of them are mighty warriors.”

[5:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his quiver [is] an open grave.” The order of the lines has been reversed to make the transition from “nation” to “their arrows” easier.

[5:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “eat up.”

[5:17]  ²⁹ tn Or “eat up your grapes and figs”; Heb “eat up your vines and your fig trees.”

[5:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “They will beat down with the sword.” The term “sword” is a figure of speech (synecdoche) for military weapons in general. Siege ramps, not swords, beat down city walls; swords kill people, not city walls.

[10:5]  ³¹ tc The MT reads the singular construct noun שְׁכַן (shÿkhan, “the inhabitant [of Samaria]”), while the LXX and Syriac reflect the plural construct noun שְׁכַנֵי (shÿkhane, “the inhabitants [of Samaria]”). The singular noun may be a collective referring to the population of Samaria as a whole (BDB 1015 s.v. שָׁכֵן; e.g., Isa 33:24). Most English translations view this as a reference to the inhabitants of the city as a whole (KJV, RSV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NJPS, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[10:5]  ³² tc The MT reads יָגוּרוּ (yaguru, Qal imperfect 3rd person common plural from III גוּר, gur, “to dread”; see BDB 159 s.v. III גוּר 1). This reading is followed by most English versions but is syntactically awkward because III גוּר (“to dread”) is used nowhere else with the preposition לְ (lamed, “they are in dread for…”?). BDB suggests reading יָנוּדוּ (yanudu, Qal imperfect 3rd person common plural from נוּד, nud, “to lament”; BDB 626 s.v. נוּד 2.a) which harmonizes better with the parallelism with אָבַל (’aval, “to mourn”) in the following line. The verb נוּד (“to lament”) is used with the preposition לְ in the idiom “to lament for” (e.g., Isa 51:19; Jer 15:5; 16:5; 48:17; Nah 3:7). This involves simple orthographic confusion between ג (gimel) and נ (nun), as well as ר (resh) and ד (dalet) which were often confused by the scribes.

[10:5]  ³³ tc The MT reads the plural לְעֶגְלוֹת (lÿ’eglot, “for the calves”), while some Greek versions (LXX, Theodotion) and the Syriac reflect the singular לְעֵגֶל (“for the calf [calf idol]”). The singular reading is preferred on the basis of internal evidence: the oracle denounces the calf idol worship of Samaria. The plural form probably arose due to the ambiguity of the term “calf” when a scribe did not realize that the term was being used as a metonymy for the worship of the Egyptian calf goddess. Most recent English versions adopt the singular form and relate it to the calf goddess cult (RSV, NASB, NIV, NCV, NJPS, TEV, CEV, NLT); however, older English versions follow the MT plural (KJV, ASV).

[10:5]  ³⁴ sn See the note on the place name Beth Aven in 4:15.

[10:5]  ³⁵ tc The MT appears to read יָגִילוּ (yagilu, “they will rejoice”; Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from גִּיל, gil, “to rejoice”), but this is likely an example of semantic polarization. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Hosea (AB), 556-67. The BHS editors propose the reading יְיֵלִילוּ (yÿyelilu, “they will lament”; Hiphil imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from יָלַל, yalal, “to lament”), which also appears in Hos 7:14. If this reading is original, the textual variant may be attributed to: (1) orthographic confusion between ל (lamed) and ג (gimel), and (2) haplography or dittography of י (yod). English versions are split; some follow the MT (KJV, ASV, NIV, NJPS), others the proposed emendation (RSV, NASB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT).

[10:5]  ³⁶ tc This line division follows the MT rather than the line division suggested by the BHS editors.

[10:5]  ³⁷ tn Heb “from it” (so NAB, NRSV).