2 Samuel 24:25

24:25 Then David built an altar for the Lord there and offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. And the Lord accepted prayers for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.

Exodus 32:27-29

32:27 and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Each man fasten ¹  his sword on his side, and go back and forth ²  from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” ³ 

32:28 The Levites did what Moses ordered, ⁴  and that day about three thousand men of the people died. ⁵  32:29 Moses said, “You have been consecrated ⁶  today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.” ⁷ 

Numbers 25:13

25:13 So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God, ⁸  and has made atonement ⁹  for the Israelites.’”

Joshua 7:26

7:26 Then they erected over him a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day ¹⁰ ) and the Lord’s anger subsided. So that place is called the Valley of Disaster to this very day.

Joshua 7:1

Achan Sins and is Punished

7:1 But the Israelites disobeyed the command about the city’s riches. ¹¹  Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, ¹²  son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches. ¹³  The Lord was furious with the Israelites. ¹⁴ 

Joshua 18:1

The Tribes Meet at Shiloh

18:1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting. ¹⁵  Though they had subdued the land, ¹⁶ 

Joshua 18:1

The Tribes Meet at Shiloh

18:1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting. ¹⁷  Though they had subdued the land, ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 14:1-7

A Lament over the Ravages of Drought ¹⁹ 

14:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ²⁰  about the drought. ²¹ 

14:2 “The people of Judah are in mourning.

The people in her cities are pining away.

They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. ²² 

Cries of distress come up to me ²³  from Jerusalem. ²⁴ 

14:3 The leading men of the cities send their servants for water.

They go to the cisterns, ²⁵  but they do not find any water there.

They return with their containers ²⁶  empty.

Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. ²⁷ 

14:4 They are dismayed because the ground is cracked ²⁸ 

because there has been no rain in the land.

The farmers, too, are dismayed

and bury their faces in their hands.

14:5 Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn ²⁹  in the field

because there is no grass.

14:6 Wild donkeys stand on the hilltops

and pant for breath like jackals.

Their eyes are strained looking for food,

because there is none to be found.” ³⁰ 

14:7 Then I said, ³¹ 

“O Lord, intervene for the honor of your name ³² 

even though our sins speak out against us. ³³ 

Indeed, ³⁴  we have turned away from you many times.

We have sinned against you.

Joel 2:18-19

The Lord’s Response

2:18 Then the Lord became ³⁵  zealous for his land;

he had compassion on his people.

2:19 The Lord responded ³⁶  to his people,

“Look! I am about to restore your grain ³⁷ 

as well as fresh wine and olive oil.

You will be fully satisfied. ³⁸ 

I will never again make you an object of mockery among the nations.

Amos 7:1-6

Symbolic Visions of Judgment

7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ³⁹  him making locusts just as the crops planted late ⁴⁰  were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. ⁴¹ ) 7:2 When they had completely consumed the earth’s vegetation, I said,

“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel! ⁴² 

How can Jacob survive? ⁴³ 

He is too weak!” ⁴⁴ 

7:3 The Lord decided not to do this. ⁴⁵  “It will not happen,” the Lord said.

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ⁴⁶  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ⁴⁷  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

7:5 I said, “Sovereign Lord, stop!

How can Jacob survive? ⁴⁸ 

He is too weak!” ⁴⁹ 

7:6 The Lord decided not to do this. ⁵⁰  The sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.”

Jonah 1:15

1:15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging.

Zechariah 6:8

6:8 Then he cried out to me, “Look! The ones going to the northland have brought me ⁵¹  peace about the northland.” ⁵² 

[32:27]  ¹ tn Heb “put.”

[32:27]  ² tn The two imperatives form a verbal hendiadys: “pass over and return,” meaning, “go back and forth” throughout the camp.

[32:27]  ³ tn The phrases have “and kill a man his brother, and a man his companion, and a man his neighbor.” The instructions were probably intended to mean that they should kill leaders they knew to be guilty because they had been seen or because they failed the water test – whoever they were.

[32:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “did according to the word of Moses.”

[32:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “fell.”

[32:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “Your hand was filled.” The phrase “fill your hands” is a familiar expression having to do with commissioning and devotion to a task that is earlier used in 28:41; 29:9, 29, 33, 35. This has usually been explained as a Qal imperative. S. R. Driver explains it “Fill your hand today,” meaning, take a sacrifice to God and be installed in the priesthood (Exodus, 355). But it probably is a Piel perfect, meaning “they have filled your hands today,” or, “your hand was filled today.” This was an expression meant to say that they had been faithful to God even though it turned them against family and friends – but God would give them a blessing.

[32:29]  ⁷ tn The text simply has “and to give on you today a blessing.” Gesenius notes that the infinitive construct seems to be attached with a vav (ו; like the infinitive absolute) as the continuation of a previous finite verb. He reads the verb “fill” as an imperative: “fill your hand today…and that to bring a blessing on you, i.e., that you may be blessed” (see GKC 351 §114.p). If the preceding verb is taken as perfect tense, however, then this would also be perfect – “he has blessed you today.”

[25:13]  ⁸ tn The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.

[25:13]  ⁹ sn The atonement that he made in this passage refers to the killing of the two obviously blatant sinners. By doing this he dispensed with any animal sacrifice, for the sinners themselves died. In Leviticus it was the life of the substitutionary animal that was taken in place of the sinners that made atonement. The point is that sin was punished by death, and so God was free to end the plague and pardon the people. God’s holiness and righteousness have always been every bit as important as God’s mercy and compassion, for without righteousness and holiness mercy and compassion mean nothing.

[7:26]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “to this day.” The phrase “to this day” is omitted in the LXX and may represent a later scribal addition.

[7:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “But the sons of Israel were unfaithful with unfaithfulness concerning what was set apart [to the Lord].”

[7:1]  ¹² tn 1 Chr 2:6 lists a “Zimri” (but no Zabdi) as one of the five sons of Zerah (cf. also 1 Chr 7:17, 18).

[7:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “took from what was set apart [to the Lord].”

[7:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel.”

[18:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the tent of assembly.”

[18:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and the land was subdued before them.”

[18:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the tent of assembly.”

[18:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and the land was subdued before them.”

[14:1]  ¹⁹ sn The form of Jer 14:1–15:9 is very striking rhetorically. It consists essentially of laments and responses to them. However, what makes it so striking is its deviation from normal form (cf. 2 Chr 20:5-17 for what would normally be expected). The descriptions of the lamentable situation come from the mouth of God not the people (cf.14:1-6, 17-18). The prophet utters the petitions with statements of trust (14:7-9, 19-22) and the Lord answers not with oracles promising deliverance but promising doom (14:10; 15:1-9). In the course of giving the first oracle of doom, the Lord commands Jeremiah not to pray for the people (14:11-12) and Jeremiah tries to provide an excuse for their actions (14:13). The Lord responds to that with an oracle of doom on the false prophets (14:14-16).

[14:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah.” The introductory formula here is a variation of that found in 7:1; 10:1; 11:1, i.e., “The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah.” The relative pronoun “which” (אֲשֶׁר, ’asher) actually precedes the noun it modifies. See BDB 82 s.v. אֲשֶׁר 6.a for discussion and further examples.

[14:1]  ²¹ sn Drought was one of the punishments for failure to adhere to the terms of their covenant with God. See Deut 28:22-24; Lev 26:18-20.

[14:2]  ²² tn Heb “Judah mourns, its gates pine away, they are in mourning on the ground.” There are several figures of speech involved here. The basic figure is that of personification where Judah and it cities are said to be in mourning. However, in the third line the figure is a little hard to sustain because “they” are in mourning on the ground. That presses the imagination of most moderns a little too far. Hence the personification has been interpreted “people of” throughout. The term “gates” here is used as part for whole for the “cities” themselves as in several other passages in the OT (cf. BDB 1045 s.v. שַׁעַר 2.b, c and see, e.g., Isa 14:31).

[14:2]  ²³ tn The words “to me” are not in the text. They are implicit from the fact that the Lord is speaking. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:2]  ²⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:3]  ²⁵ tn Though the concept of “cisterns” is probably not familiar to some readers, it would be a mistake to translate this word as “well.” Wells have continual sources of water. Cisterns were pits dug in the ground and lined with plaster to hold rain water. The drought had exhausted all the water in the cisterns.

[14:3]  ²⁶ tn The word “containers” is a generic word in Hebrew = “vessels.” It would probably in this case involve water “jars” or “jugs.” But since in contemporary English one would normally associate those terms with smaller vessels, “containers” may be safer.

[14:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “they cover their heads.” Some of the English versions have gone wrong here because of the “normal” use of the words translated here “disappointed” and “dismayed.” They are regularly translated “ashamed” and “disgraced, humiliated, dismayed” elsewhere (see e.g., Jer 22:22); they are somewhat synonymous terms which are often parallel or combined. The key here, however, is the expression “they cover their heads” which is used in 2 Sam 15:30 for the expression of grief. Moreover, the word translated here “disappointed” (בּוֹשׁ, bosh) is used that way several times. See for example Jer 12:13 and consult examples in BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2. A very similar context with the same figure is found in Jer 2:36-37.

[14:4]  ²⁸ tn For the use of the verb “is cracked” here see BDB 369 s.v. חָתַת Qal.1 and compare the usage in Jer 51:56 where it refers to broken bows. The form is a relative clause without relative pronoun (cf., GKC 486-87 §155.f). The sentence as a whole is related to the preceding through a particle meaning “because of” or “on account of.” Hence the subject and verb have been repeated to make the connection.

[14:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “she gives birth and abandons.”

[14:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “their eyes are strained because there is no verdure.”

[14:7]  ³¹ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. However, it cannot be a continuation of the Lord’s speech and the people have consistently refused to acknowledge their sin. The fact that the prayer here and in vv. 19-22 are followed by an address from God to Jeremiah regarding prayer (cf. 4:11 and the interchanges there between God and Jeremiah and 15:1) also argues that the speaker is Jeremiah. He is again identifying with his people (cf. 8:18-9:2). Here he takes up the petition part of the lament which often contains elements of confession of sin and statements of trust. In 14:1-6 God portrays to Jeremiah the people’s lamentable plight instead of their describing it to him. Here Jeremiah prays what they should pray. The people are strangely silent throughout.

[14:7]  ³² tn Heb “Act for the sake of your name.” The usage of “act” in this absolute, unqualified sense cf. BDB 794 s.v. עָוֹשָׂה Qal.I.r and compare the usage, e.g., in 1 Kgs 8:32 and 39. For the nuance of “for the sake of your name” compare the usage in Isa 48:9 and Ezek 20:9, 14.

[14:7]  ³³ tn Or “bear witness against us,” or “can be used as evidence against us,” to keep the legal metaphor. Heb “testify against.”

[14:7]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can scarcely be causal here; it is either intensive (BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e) or concessive (BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.c). The parallel usage in Gen 18:20 argues for the intensive force as does the fact that the concessive has already been expressed by אִם (’im).

[2:18]  ³⁵ tn The time-frame entertained by the verbs of v.18 constitutes a crux interpretum in this chapter. The Hebrew verb forms used here are preterites with vav consecutive and are most naturally understood as describing a past situation. However, some modern English versions render these verbs as futures (e.g., NIV, NASV), apparently concluding that the context requires a future reference. According to Joüon 2:363 §112.h, n.1 Ibn Ezra explained the verbs of Joel 2:18 as an extension of the so-called prophetic perfect; as such, a future fulfillment was described with a past tense as a rhetorical device lending certainty to the fulfillment. But this lacks adequate precedent and is very unlikely from a syntactical standpoint. It seems better to take the verbs in the normal past sense of the preterite. This would require a vantage point for the prophet at some time after the people had responded favorably to the Lord’s call for repentance and after the Lord had shown compassion and forgiveness toward his people, but before the full realization of God’s promises to restore productivity to the land. In other words, it appears from the verbs of vv. 18-19 that at the time of Joel’s writing this book the events of successive waves of locust invasion and conditions of drought had almost run their course and the people had now begun to turn to the Lord.

[2:19]  ³⁶ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[2:19]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Look! I am sending grain to you.” The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to suggest imminent action.

[2:19]  ³⁸ tc One of the Qumran manuscripts (4QXXII^c) inserts “and you will eat” before “and you will be fully satisfied” (the reading of the MT, LXX).

[7:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:1]  ⁴⁰ 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]  ⁴¹ tn Or “the mowings of the king.”

[7:2]  ⁴² tn “Israel” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “stand” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[7:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “small.”

[7:3]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[7:4]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4]  ⁴⁷ 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]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “stand.”

[7:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “small.”

[7:6]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[6:8]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “my spirit.” The subject appears to be the Lord who exclaims here that the horsemen have accomplished their task of bringing peace.

[6:8]  ⁵² sn The immediate referent of peace about the northland is to the peace brought by Persia’s conquest of Babylonia, a peace that allowed the restoration of the Jewish people (cf. 2 Chr 36:22-23; Isa 44:28; 45:1-2). However, there is also an eschatological dimension, referring to a time when there will be perfect and universal peace.