Discovery Box2 Kings 20:6
Context20:6 I will add fifteen years to your life and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.”’” 1
Psalms 46:5-6
Context46:5 God lives within it, 2 it cannot be moved. 3
God rescues it 4 at the break of dawn. 5
46:6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are overthrown. 6
God 7 gives a shout, 8 the earth dissolves. 9
Psalms 48:2-8
Context48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, 10
a source of joy to the whole earth. 11
Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; 12
it is the city of the great king.
48:3 God is in its fortresses;
he reveals himself as its defender. 13
48:4 For 14 look, the kings assemble; 15
they advance together.
48:5 As soon as they see, 16 they are shocked; 17
they are terrified, they quickly retreat. 18
48:6 Look at them shake uncontrollably, 19
like a woman writhing in childbirth. 20
48:7 With an east wind
you shatter 21 the large ships. 22
48:8 We heard about God’s mighty deeds, now we have seen them, 23
in the city of the Lord, the invincible Warrior, 24
in the city of our God.
God makes it permanently secure. 25 (Selah)
Isaiah 31:5
Context31:5 Just as birds hover over a nest, 26
so the Lord who commands armies will protect Jerusalem. 27
He will protect and deliver it;
as he passes over 28 he will rescue it.
Isaiah 38:6
Context38:6 and rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will shield this city.”’”
[20:6] 1 tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”
[46:5] 2 tn Heb “God [is] within her.” The feminine singular pronoun refers to the city mentioned in v. 4.
[46:5] 3 tn Another option is to translate the imperfect verbal form as future, “it will not be upended.” Even if one chooses this option, the future tense must be understood in a generalizing sense. The verb מוֹט (mot), translated “upended” here, is used in v. 2 of the mountains “tumbling” into the seas and in v. 6 of nations being “upended.” By way of contrast, Jerusalem, God’s dwelling place, is secure and immune from such turmoil and destruction.
[46:5] 4 tn Or “helps her.” The imperfect draws attention to the generalizing character of the statement.
[46:5] 5 tn Heb “at the turning of morning.” (For other uses of the expression see Exod 14:27 and Judg 19:26).
[46:6] 6 tn Heb “nations roar, kingdoms shake.” The Hebrew verb הָמָה (hamah, “roar, be in uproar”) is used in v. 3 of the waves crashing, while the verb מוֹט (mot, “overthrown”) is used in v. 2 of mountains tumbling into the sea (see also v. 5, where the psalm affirms that Jerusalem “cannot be moved”). The repetition of the verbs suggests that the language of vv. 2-3 is symbolic and depicts the upheaval that characterizes relationships between the nations of the earth. As some nations (symbolized by the surging, chaotic waters) show hostility, others (symbolized by the mountains) come crashing down to destruction. The surging waters are symbolic of chaotic forces in other poetic texts (see, for example, Isa 17:12; Jer 51:42) and mountains can symbolize strong kingdoms (see, for example, Jer 51:25).
[46:6] 7 tn Heb “He.” God is the obvious referent here (see v. 5), and has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[46:6] 8 tn Heb “offers his voice.” In theophanic texts the phrase refers to God’s thunderous shout which functions as a battle cry (see Pss 18:13; 68:33).
[46:6] 9 tn Or “melts.” See Amos 9:5. The image depicts the nation’s helplessness before Jerusalem’s defender, who annihilates their armies (see vv. 8-9). The imperfect verbal form emphasizes the characteristic nature of the action described.
[48:2] 10 tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.
[48:2] 11 sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).
[48:2] 12 tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the
[48:3] 13 tn Heb “he is known for an elevated place.”
[48:4] 14 tn The logical connection between vv. 3-4 seems to be this: God is the protector of Zion and reveals himself as the city’s defender – this is necessary because hostile armies threaten the city.
[48:4] 15 tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 4-6 are understood as descriptive. In dramatic style (note הִנֵּה, hinneh, “look”) the psalm describes an enemy attack against the city as if it were occurring at this very moment. Another option is to take the perfects as narrational (“the kings assembled, they advanced”), referring to a particular historical event, such as Sennacherib’s siege of the city in 701
[48:5] 16 tn The object of “see” is omitted, but v. 3b suggests that the
[48:5] 17 tn Heb “they look, so they are shocked.” Here כֵּן (ken, “so”) has the force of “in the same measure.”
[48:5] 18 tn The translation attempts to reflect the staccato style of the Hebrew text, where the main clauses of vv. 4-6 are simply juxtaposed without connectives.
[48:6] 19 tn Heb “trembling seizes them there.” The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here, as often in poetic texts, to point “to a spot in which a scene is localized vividly in the imagination” (BDB 1027 s.v.).
[48:6] 20 tn Heb “[with] writhing like one giving birth.”
[48:7] 21 tn The switch to the imperfect, as well as the introduction of the ship metaphor, perhaps signals a change to a generalizing tone; the
[48:7] 22 tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to and from the distant western port of Tarshish. These ships, which were the best of their class, here symbolize the mere human strength of hostile armies, which are incapable of withstanding the
[48:8] 23 tn Heb “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The community had heard about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history. Having personally witnessed his saving power with their own eyes, they could now affirm that the tradition was not exaggerated or inaccurate.
[48:8] 24 tn Heb “the
[48:8] 25 tn Or “God makes it secure forever.” The imperfect highlights the characteristic nature of the generalizing statement.
[31:5] 26 tn Heb “just as birds fly.” The words “over a nest” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[31:5] 27 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[31:5] 28 tn The only other occurrence of this verb is in Exod 12:13, 23, 27, where the Lord “passes over” (i.e., “spares”) the Israelite households as he comes to judge their Egyptian oppressors. The noun פֶּסַח (pesakh, “Passover”) is derived from the verb. The use of the verb in Isa 31:5 is probably an intentional echo of the Exodus event. As in the days of Moses the Lord will spare his people as he comes to judge their enemies.
