Deuteronomy 9:14

9:14 Stand aside ¹  and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, ²  and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

Deuteronomy 25:19

25:19 So when the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he ³  is giving you as an inheritance, ⁴  you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven ⁵  – do not forget! ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 29:20

29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ⁷  will rage ⁸  against that man; all the curses ⁹  written in this scroll will fall upon him ¹⁰  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ¹¹ 

Exodus 17:14

17:14 The Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in the ¹²  book, and rehearse ¹³  it in Joshua’s hearing; ¹⁴  for I will surely wipe out ¹⁵  the remembrance ¹⁶  of Amalek from under heaven.

Psalms 9:5

9:5 You terrified the nations with your battle cry; ¹⁷ 

you destroyed the wicked; ¹⁸ 

you permanently wiped out all memory of them. ¹⁹ 

Proverbs 10:7

10:7 The memory ²⁰  of the righteous is a blessing,

but the reputation ²¹  of the wicked will rot. ²² 

Jeremiah 10:11

10:11 You people of Israel should tell those nations this:

‘These gods did not make heaven and earth.

They will disappear ²³  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ²⁴ 

Zephaniah 1:4

1:4 “I will attack ²⁵  Judah

and all who live in Jerusalem. ²⁶ 

I will remove ²⁷  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ²⁸ 

as well as the very memory ²⁹  of the pagan priests. ³⁰ 

[9:14]  ¹ tn Heb “leave me alone.”

[9:14]  ² tn Heb “from under heaven.”

[25:19]  ³ tn Heb “ the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[25:19]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.”

[25:19]  ⁵ tn Or “from beneath the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[25:19]  ⁶ sn This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33.

[29:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ¹⁰ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[17:14]  ¹² tn The presence of the article does not mean that he was to write this in a book that was existing now, but in one dedicated to this purpose (book, meaning scroll). See GKC 408 §126.s.

[17:14]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew word is “place,” meaning that the events were to be impressed on Joshua.

[17:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the ears of Joshua.” The account should be read to Joshua.

[17:14]  ¹⁵ tn The construction uses the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense to stress the resolution of Yahweh to destroy Amalek. The verb מָחָה (makhah) is often translated “blot out” – but that is not a very satisfactory image, since it would not remove completely what is the object. “Efface, erase, scrape off” (as in a palimpsest, a manuscript that is scraped clean so it can be reused) is a more accurate image.

[17:14]  ¹⁶ sn This would seem to be defeated by the preceding statement that the events would be written in a book for a memorial. If this war is recorded, then the Amalekites would be remembered. But here God was going to wipe out the memory of them. But the idea of removing the memory of a people is an idiom for destroying them – they will have no posterity and no lasting heritage.

[9:5]  ¹⁷ tn The verb גָּעַר (ga’ar) is often understood to mean “rebuke” and in this context taken to refer to the Lord’s “rebuke” of the nations. In some cases it is apparent that scolding or threatening is in view (see Gen 37:10; Ruth 2:16; Zech 3:2). However, in militaristic contexts this translation is inadequate, for the verb refers in this setting to the warrior’s battle cry, which terrifies and paralyzes the enemy. See A. Caquot, TDOT 3:53, and note the use of the verb in Pss 68:30; 106:9; and Nah 1:4, as well as the related noun in Job 26:11; Pss 18:15; 76:6; 104:7; Isa 50:2; 51:20; 66:15.

[9:5]  ¹⁸ tn The singular form is collective (note “nations” and “their name”). In the psalms the “wicked” (רְשָׁעִים, rÿsha’im) are typically proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). In this context the hostile nations who threaten Israel/Judah are in view.

[9:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “their name you wiped out forever and ever.” The three perfect verbal forms in v. 5 probably refer to a recent victory (definite past or present perfect use), although they might express what is typical (characteristic use).

[10:7]  ²⁰ sn “Memory” (זֵכֶר, zekher) and “name” are often paired as synonyms. “Memory” in this sense has to do with reputation, fame. One’s reputation will be good or bad by righteousness or wickedness respectively.

[10:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “name.” The term “name” often functions as a metonymy of association for reputation (BDB 1028 s.v. שֵׁם 2.b).

[10:7]  ²² tn The editors of BHS suggest a reading “will be cursed” to make a better parallelism, but the reading of the MT is more striking as a metaphor.

[10:11]  ²³ tn Aram “The gods who did not make…earth will disappear…” The sentence is broken up in the translation to avoid a long, complex English sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.

[10:11]  ²⁴ tn This verse is in Aramaic. It is the only Aramaic sentence in Jeremiah. Scholars debate the appropriateness of this verse to this context. Many see it as a gloss added by a postexilic scribe which was later incorporated into the text. Both R. E. Clendenen (“Discourse Strategies in Jeremiah 10,” JBL 106 [1987]: 401-8) and W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:324-25, 334-35) have given detailed arguments that the passage is not only original but the climax and center of the contrast between the Lord and idols in vv. 2-16. Holladay shows that the passage is a very carefully constructed chiasm (see accompanying study note) which argues that “these” at the end is the subject of the verb “will disappear” not the attributive adjective modifying heaven. He also makes a very good case that the verse is poetry and not prose as it is rendered in the majority of modern English versions.

[1:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will stretch out my hand against,” is an idiom for hostile action.

[1:4]  ²⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “cut off.”

[1:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the remnant of Baal.”

[1:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “name.” Here the “name” is figurative for the memory of those who bear it.

[1:4]  ³⁰ tc Heb “of the pagan priests and priests.” The first word (כְּמָרִים, kÿmarim) refers to idolatrous priests in its two other appearances in the OT (2 Kgs 23:5, Hos 10:5), while the second word (כֹּהֲנִים, kohanim) is the normal term for “priest” and is used of both legitimate and illegitimate priests in the OT. It is likely that the second term, which is omitted in the LXX, is a later scribal addition to the Hebrew text, defining the extremely rare word that precedes (see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 167-68; cf. also NEB, NRSV). Some argue that both words are original; among the modern English versions that include both are NASB and NIV. Possibly the first word refers to outright pagan priests, while the second has in view once-legitimate priests of the Lord who had drifted into idolatrous practices. Another option is found in Adele Berlin, who translates, “the idolatrous priests among the priests,” understanding the second word as giving the general category of which the idolatrous priests are a part (Zephaniah [AB 25A], 75).