Amos 3:6-7

3:6 If an alarm sounds ¹  in a city, do people not fear? ² 

If disaster overtakes a ³  city, is the Lord not responsible? ⁴ 

3:7 Certainly the sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

Amos 9:1

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ⁵  standing by the altar ⁶  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ⁷  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ⁸ 

and I will kill the survivors ⁹  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ¹⁰ 

no one will be able to escape. ¹¹ 

Amos 9:9

9:9 “For look, I am giving a command

and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.

It will resemble a sieve being shaken,

when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ¹² 

Psalms 105:16

105:16 He called down a famine upon the earth;

he cut off all the food supply. ¹³ 

Psalms 105:31

105:31 He ordered flies to come; ¹⁴ 

gnats invaded their whole territory.

Psalms 105:34

105:34 He ordered locusts to come, ¹⁵ 

innumerable grasshoppers.

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, ¹⁶ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ¹⁷ 

10:6 I sent him ¹⁸  against a godless ¹⁹  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ²⁰ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ²¹  like dirt in the streets.

Isaiah 13:3

13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers; ²² 

I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, ²³ 

my boasting, arrogant ones. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 46:10-11

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand ²⁵  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

46:11 who summons an eagle ²⁶  from the east,

from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.

Yes, I have decreed, ²⁷ 

yes, I will bring it to pass;

I have formulated a plan,

yes, I will carry it out.

Isaiah 55:11

55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make

does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. ²⁸ 

No, it is realized as I desire

and is fulfilled as I intend.” ²⁹ 

Ezekiel 29:18-20

29:18 “Son of man, King Nebuchadrezzar ³⁰  of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. ³¹  Every head was rubbed bald and every shoulder rubbed bare; yet he and his army received no wages from Tyre for the work he carried out against it. 29:19 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. He will carry off her wealth, capture her loot, and seize her plunder; it will be his army’s wages. 29:20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his compensation for attacking Tyre ³² , because they did it for me, declares the sovereign Lord.

Nahum 1:14

Oracle of Judgment against the King of Nineveh

1:14 The Lord has issued a decree against you: ³³ 

“Your dynasty will come to an end. ³⁴ 

I will destroy the idols and images in the temples of your gods.

I will desecrate ³⁵  your grave – because you are accursed!” ³⁶ 

[3:6]  ¹ tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

[3:6]  ² tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

[3:6]  ³ tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”

[9:1]  ⁵ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ⁶ sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ⁷ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”

[9:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.

[9:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”

[9:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “like being shaken with a sieve, and a pebble does not fall to the ground.” The meaning of the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror), translated “pebble,” is unclear here. In 2 Sam 17:13 it appears to refer to a stone. If it means “pebble,” then the sieve described in v. 6 allows the grain to fall into a basket while retaining the debris and pebbles. However, if one interprets צְרוֹר as a “kernel of grain” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) then the sieve is constructed to retain the grain and allow the refuse and pebbles to fall to the ground. In either case, the simile supports the last statement in v. 8 by making it clear that God will distinguish between the righteous (the grain) and the wicked (the pebbles) when he judges, and will thereby preserve a remnant in Israel. Only the sinners will be destroyed (v. 10).

[105:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “and every staff of food he broke.” The psalmist refers to the famine that occurred in Joseph’s time (see v. 17 and Gen 41:53-57).

[105:31]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he spoke and flies came.”

[105:34]  ²¹ tn Heb “he spoke and locusts came.”

[10:5]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ³² tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[13:3]  ³³ tn Heb “my consecrated ones,” i.e., those who have been set apart by God for the special task of carrying out his judgment.

[13:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “my warriors with respect to my anger.”

[13:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the boasting ones of my pride”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV “my proudly exulting ones.”

[46:10]  ³⁷ tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”

[46:11]  ⁴¹ tn Or, more generally, “a bird of prey” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV; see 18:6).

[46:11]  ⁴² tn Heb “spoken”; KJV “I have spoken it.”

[55:11]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “so is the word which goes out from my mouth, it does not return to empty.” “Word” refers here to divine promises, like the ones made just prior to and after this (see vv. 7b, 12-13).

[55:11]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “but it accomplishes what I desire, and succeeds [on the mission] which I send it.”

[29:18]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an “r” rather than an “n” (so also in v. 19).

[29:18]  ⁵⁰ sn Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre from 585 to 571 b.c.

[29:20]  ⁵³ tn Heb “for which he worked,” referring to the assault on Tyre (v. 18).

[1:14]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “has commanded concerning you.” The referent of the 2nd person masculine singular suffix (“you”) probably refers to the Assyrian king (cf. 3:18-19) rather than to the personified city of Nineveh (so NIV). Elsewhere in the book of Nahum, the city of Nineveh is referred to by the feminine rather than masculine gender. Some modern English versions supply terms not in the Hebrew text to indicate the addressee more clearly: NIV “Nineveh”; NLT “the Assyrians in Nineveh.”

[1:14]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “from your name there will no longer be sown.”

[1:14]  ⁵⁹ tn The MT reading אָשִׂים קִבְרֶךָ (’asim qivrekha, “I will make your grave”) is usually understood as a figure of speech (metonymy of effect) meaning that the Lord will destroy/execute the Assyrian king. On the other hand, the Targum and Syriac treat this as a double-accusative construction – the implied second object of אָשִׂים being מִבֵּית אֱלֹהֶיךָ (mibbet ’elohekha, “the house [i.e., “temple”] of your gods”): “I will make it [the house (i.e., temple) of your gods] your grave.” Cathcart suggests revocalizing the MT אָשִׂים to a Hiphil imperfect אָשִׁיִם (’ashiyim) from שָׁמֵם (shamem, “to devastate”): “I will devastate your grave.” Cathcart notes that the destruction of one’s grave, like the threat of no burial, was a common ancient Near Eastern treaty-curse: “Tombs, especially royal tombs, were often protected by curses directed against persons who might violate and desecrate them, and the very curse kings used to have inscribed on their tombs were precisely the curse of no progeny and no resting-place” (K. J. Cathcart, “Treaty-Curses and the Book of Nahum,” CBQ 35 [1973]: 180-81). This might reflect the background of the ancient Near Eastern kudurru curses which were made against those who might devastate a royal grave and which were put into effect by the gods of the king (see F. C. Fensham, “Common Trends in Curses of the Near Eastern Treaties and Kudurru-Inscriptions Compared with Maledictions of Amos and Isaiah,” ZAW 75 [1963]: 157-59). Despite the fact the king’s grave was allegedly protected by the Assyrian gods, the Lord would nevertheless successfully destroy it, and it would be the Assyrian king who would receive the curse. This approach respects the traditional consonantal text and only involves the revocalization of the MT’s שׂ (sin) to שׁ (shin).

[1:14]  ⁶⁰ tn The Hebrew verb קַלֹּוֹתָ (qallota) is usually rendered “you are despised” (e.g., Gen 16:4-5; 1 Sam 2:30). However, it is possible that the Hebrew root קָלַל (qalal) is related to the Assyrian term qalu “accursed” (W. von Soden, “Hebraische Wortforschung,” VTSup 16 [1967]: 295).