Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 32:35
Context32:35 I will get revenge and pay them back
at the time their foot slips;
for the day of their disaster is near,
and the impending judgment 1 is rushing upon them!”
Jeremiah 51:33
Context51:33 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says,
‘Fair Babylon 2 will be like a threshing floor
which has been trampled flat for harvest.
The time for her to be cut down and harvested
will come very soon.’ 3
Ezekiel 7:7-10
Context7:7 Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day 4 is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. 5 7:8 Soon now I will pour out my rage 6 on you; I will fully vent my anger against you. I will judge you according to your behavior. I will hold you accountable for all your abominable practices. 7:9 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare 7 you. For your behavior I will hold you accountable, 8 and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who is striking you. 9
7:10 “Look, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out! The staff has budded, pride has blossomed!
Habakkuk 2:3
Context2:3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; 10
it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. 11
Even if the message 12 is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; 13
for it will certainly come to pass – it will not arrive late.
Habakkuk 2:2-3
Context“Write down this message! 15 Record it legibly on tablets,
so the one who announces 16 it may read it easily. 17
2:3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; 18
it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. 19
Even if the message 20 is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; 21
for it will certainly come to pass – it will not arrive late.
Habakkuk 3:9-10
Context3:9 Your bow is ready for action; 22
you commission your arrows. 23 Selah.
You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. 24
3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake.
The torrential downpour sweeps through. 25
The great deep 26 shouts out;
it lifts its hands high. 27
[32:35] 1 tn Heb “prepared things,” “impending things.” See BDB 800 s.v. עָתִיד.
[51:33] 2 sn Heb “Daughter Babylon.” See the study note at 50:42 for explanation.
[51:33] 3 tn Heb “Daughter Babylon will be [or is; there is no verb and the tense has to be supplied from the context] like a threshing floor at the time one tramples it. Yet a little while and the time of the harvest will come for her.” It is generally agreed that there are two figures here: one of leveling the threshing floor and stamping it into a smooth, hard surface and the other of the harvest where the grain is cut, taken to the threshing floor, and threshed by trampling the sheaves of grain to loosen the grain from the straw, and finally winnowed by throwing the mixture into the air (cf., e.g., J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 760). The translation has sought to convey those ideas as clearly as possible without digressing too far from the literal.
[7:7] 4 sn The day refers to the day of the Lord, a concept which, beginning in Amos 5:18-20, became a common theme in the OT prophetic books. It refers to a time when the Lord intervenes in human affairs as warrior and judge.
[7:7] 5 tc The LXX reads “neither tumult nor birth pains.” The LXX varies at many points from the MT in this chapter. The context suggests that one or both of these would be present on a day of judgment, thus favoring the MT. Perhaps more significant is the absence of “the mountains” in the LXX. If the ר (resh) in הָרִים (harim, “the mountains” not “on the mountains”) were a ד (dalet), which is a common letter confusion, then it could be from the same root as the previous word, הֵד (hed), meaning “the day is near – with destruction, not joyful shouting.”
[7:8] 6 tn The expression “to pour out rage” also occurs in Ezek 9:8; 14:19; 20:8, 13, 21; 22:31; 30:15; 36:18.
[7:9] 7 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
[7:9] 8 tn Heb “According to your behavior I will place on you.”
[7:9] 9 tn The MT lacks “you.” It has been added for clarification.
[2:3] 10 tn Heb “For the vision is still for the appointed time.” The Hebrew word עוֹד (’od, “still”) is better emended to עֵד (’ed, “witness”) in light of the parallelism (see the note on the word “turn out” in the following line). The “appointed time” refers to the time when the divine judgment anticipated in vv. 6-20 will be realized.
[2:3] 11 tn Heb “and a witness to the end and it does not lie.” The Hebrew term יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) has been traditionally understood as a verb form from the root פּוּחַ (puakh, “puff, blow”; cf. NEB “it will come in breathless haste”; NASB “it hastens toward the goal”) but recent scholarship has demonstrated that it is actually a noun meaning “witness” (cf. NIV “it speaks of the end / and will not prove false”; NRSV “it speaks of the end, and does not lie”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 106. “The end” corresponds to “the appointed time” of the preceding line and refers to the time when the prophecy to follow will be fulfilled.
[2:3] 12 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the message) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:3] 13 tn Heb “If it should delay, wait for it.” The Hebrew word חָזוֹן (khazon, “vision, message”) is the subject of the third person verbs in v. 3 and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix in the phrase “for it.”
[2:2] 14 tn Heb “the
[2:2] 15 tn Heb “[the] vision.”
[2:2] 17 tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.
[2:3] 18 tn Heb “For the vision is still for the appointed time.” The Hebrew word עוֹד (’od, “still”) is better emended to עֵד (’ed, “witness”) in light of the parallelism (see the note on the word “turn out” in the following line). The “appointed time” refers to the time when the divine judgment anticipated in vv. 6-20 will be realized.
[2:3] 19 tn Heb “and a witness to the end and it does not lie.” The Hebrew term יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) has been traditionally understood as a verb form from the root פּוּחַ (puakh, “puff, blow”; cf. NEB “it will come in breathless haste”; NASB “it hastens toward the goal”) but recent scholarship has demonstrated that it is actually a noun meaning “witness” (cf. NIV “it speaks of the end / and will not prove false”; NRSV “it speaks of the end, and does not lie”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 106. “The end” corresponds to “the appointed time” of the preceding line and refers to the time when the prophecy to follow will be fulfilled.
[2:3] 20 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the message) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:3] 21 tn Heb “If it should delay, wait for it.” The Hebrew word חָזוֹן (khazon, “vision, message”) is the subject of the third person verbs in v. 3 and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix in the phrase “for it.”
[3:9] 22 tn Heb “[into] nakedness your bow is laid bare.”
[3:9] 23 tn Heb “sworn in are the arrow-shafts with a word.” The passive participle of שָׁבַע (shava’), “swear an oath,” also occurs in Ezek 21:23 ET (21:28 HT) referencing those who have sworn allegiance. Here the
[3:9] 24 tn Heb “[with] rivers you split open the earth.” A literal rendering like “You split the earth with rivers” (so NIV, NRSV) suggests geological activity to the modern reader, but in the present context of a violent thunderstorm, the idea of streams swollen to torrents by downpours better fits the imagery.
[3:10] 25 tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.
[3:10] 26 sn The great deep, which is to be equated with the sea (vv. 8, 15), is a symbol of chaos and represents the Lord’s enemies.
[3:10] 27 sn Lifting the hands here suggests panic and is accompanied by a cry for mercy (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19). The forces of chaos cannot withstand the Lord’s power revealed in the storm.
