Discovery BoxExodus 10:7
Context10:7 Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long 1 will this man be a menace 2 to us? Release the people so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not know 3 that Egypt is destroyed?”
Exodus 12:30
Context12:30 Pharaoh got up 4 in the night, 5 along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house 6 in which there was not someone dead.
Exodus 14:30-31
Context14:30 So the Lord saved 7 Israel on that day from the power 8 of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead 9 on the shore of the sea. 14:31 When Israel saw 10 the great power 11 that the Lord had exercised 12 over the Egyptians, they 13 feared the Lord, and they believed in 14 the Lord and in his servant Moses. 15
Joshua 11:20
Context11:20 for the Lord determined to make them obstinate so they would attack Israel. He wanted Israel to annihilate them without mercy, as he had instructed Moses. 16
Joshua 11:2
Context11:2 and the northern kings who ruled in 17 the hill country, the Arabah south of Kinnereth, 18 the lowlands, and the heights of Dor to the west.
Joshua 20:1
Context20:1 The Lord instructed Joshua:
Joshua 20:1
Context20:1 The Lord instructed Joshua:
Isaiah 24:1
Context24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth
and leave it in ruins;
he will mar its surface
and scatter its inhabitants.
Isaiah 34:2-17
Context34:2 For the Lord is angry at all the nations
and furious with all their armies.
He will annihilate them and slaughter them.
34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, 19
their corpses will stink; 20
the hills will soak up their blood. 21
34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, 22
the sky will roll up like a scroll;
all its stars will wither,
like a leaf withers and falls from a vine
or a fig withers and falls from a tree. 23
34:5 He says, 24 “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. 25
Look, it now descends on Edom, 26
on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”
34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,
it is covered 27 with fat;
it drips 28 with the blood of young rams and goats
and is covered 29 with the fat of rams’ kidneys.
For the Lord is holding a sacrifice 30 in Bozrah, 31
a bloody 32 slaughter in the land of Edom.
34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered 33 along with them,
as well as strong bulls. 34
Their land is drenched with blood,
their soil is covered with fat.
34:8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, 35
a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion. 36
34:9 Edom’s 37 streams will be turned into pitch
and her soil into brimstone;
her land will become burning pitch.
34:10 Night and day it will burn; 38
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.
34:11 Owls and wild animals 39 will live there, 40
all kinds of wild birds 41 will settle in it.
The Lord 42 will stretch out over her
the measuring line of ruin
and the plumb line 43 of destruction. 44
34:12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom
and all her officials will disappear. 45
34:13 Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns;
thickets and weeds will grow 46 in her fortified cities.
Jackals will settle there;
ostriches will live there. 47
34:14 Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there; 48
wild goats will bleat to one another. 49
Yes, nocturnal animals 50 will rest there
and make for themselves a nest. 51
34:15 Owls 52 will make nests and lay eggs 53 there;
they will hatch them and protect them. 54
Yes, hawks 55 will gather there,
each with its mate.
34:16 Carefully read the scroll of the Lord! 56
Not one of these creatures will be missing, 57
none will lack a mate. 58
For the Lord has issued the decree, 59
and his own spirit gathers them. 60
34:17 He assigns them their allotment; 61
he measures out their assigned place. 62
They will live there 63 permanently;
they will settle in it through successive generations.
[10:7] 1 sn The question of Pharaoh’s servants echoes the question of Moses – “How long?” Now the servants of Pharaoh are demanding what Moses demanded – “Release the people.” They know that the land is destroyed, and they speak of it as Moses’ doing. That way they avoid acknowledging Yahweh or blaming Pharaoh.
[10:7] 2 tn Heb “snare” (מוֹקֵשׁ, moqesh), a word used for a trap for catching birds. Here it is a figure for the cause of Egypt’s destruction.
[10:7] 3 tn With the adverb טֶרֶם (terem), the imperfect tense receives a present sense: “Do you not know?” (See GKC 481 §152.r).
[12:30] 4 tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.
[12:30] 5 tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”
[12:30] 6 sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.
[14:30] 7 tn The Hebrew term וַיּוֹשַׁע (vayyosha’) is the key summation of the chapter, and this part of the book: “So Yahweh saved Israel.” This is the culmination of all the powerful works of God through these chapters.
[14:30] 8 tn Heb “the hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for power.
[14:30] 9 tn The participle “dead” is singular, agreeing in form with “Egypt.”
[14:31] 10 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces a clause that is subordinate to the main points that the verse is making.
[14:31] 11 tn Heb “the great hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for work or power. The word play using “hand” contrasts the Lord’s hand/power at work on behalf of the Israelites with the hand/power of Egypt that would have killed them.
[14:31] 12 tn Heb “did, made.”
[14:31] 13 tn Heb “and the people feared.”
[14:31] 14 tn The verb is the Hiphil preterite of אָמַן (’aman).
[14:31] 15 sn Here the title of “servant” is given to Moses. This is the highest title a mortal can have in the OT – the “servant of Yahweh.” It signifies more than a believer; it describes the individual as acting on behalf of God. For example, when Moses stretched out his hand, God used it as his own (Isa 63:12). Moses was God’s personal representative. The chapter records both a message of salvation and of judgment. Like the earlier account of deliverance at the Passover, this chapter can be a lesson on deliverance from present troubles – if God could do this for Israel, there is no trouble too great for him to overcome. The passage can also be understood as a picture (at least) of the deliverance at the final judgment on the world. But the Israelites used this account for a paradigm of the power of God: namely, God is able to deliver his people from danger because he is the sovereign Lord of creation. His people must learn to trust him, even in desperate situations; they must fear him and not the situation. God can bring any threat to an end by bringing his power to bear in judgment on the wicked.
[11:20] 16 tn Heb “for from the
[11:2] 17 tn Heb “and to the kings who [are] from the north in.”
[11:2] 18 tn Heb “Chinneroth,” a city and plain located in the territory of Naphtali in Galilee (BDB 490 s.v. כִּנֶּרֶת, כִּנֲרוֹת).
[34:3] 19 tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”
[34:3] 20 tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”
[34:3] 21 tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”
[34:4] 22 tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”
[34:4] 23 tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”
[34:5] 24 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.
[34:5] 25 tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”
[34:5] 26 sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.
[34:6] 27 tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.
[34:6] 28 tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[34:6] 29 tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[34:6] 30 tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”
[34:6] 31 sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.
[34:6] 32 tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
[34:7] 33 tn Heb “will go down”; NAB “shall be struck down.”
[34:7] 34 tn Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.
[34:8] 35 tn Heb “for a day of vengeance [is] for the Lord.”
[34:8] 36 tn Heb “a year of repayment for the strife of Zion.” The translation assumes that רִיב (riv) refers to Edom’s hostility toward Zion. Another option is to understand רִיב (riv) as referring to the Lord’s taking up Zion’s cause. In this case one might translate, “a time when he will repay Edom and vindicate Zion.”
[34:9] 37 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Edom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[34:10] 38 tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”
[34:11] 39 tn קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). קִפּוֹד (qippod) may also refer to a type of bird (NAB “hoot owl”; NIV “screech owl”; TEV “ravens”), but some have suggested a rodent may be in view (cf. NCV “small animals”; ASV “porcupine”; NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”).
[34:11] 40 tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).
[34:11] 41 tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof vÿ’orev). Both the יַנְשׁוֹף (“owl”; see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16) and עֹרֵב (“raven”; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14) were types of wild birds.
[34:11] 42 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[34:11] 43 tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.
[34:11] 44 sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.
[34:12] 45 tn Heb “will be nothing”; NCV, TEV, NLT “will all be gone.”
[34:13] 46 tn The words “will grow” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[34:13] 47 tc Heb “and she will be a settlement for wild dogs, a dwelling place for ostriches.” The translation assumes an emendation of חָצִיר (khatsir, “grass”) to חָצֵר (khatser, “settlement”). One of the Qumran scrolls of Isaiah (1QIsaa) supports this emendation (cf. HALOT 344 s.v. II חָצִיר)
[34:14] 48 tn Heb “will meet” (so NIV); NLT “will mingle there.”
[34:14] 49 tn Heb “and a goat will call to its neighbor.”
[34:14] 50 tn The precise meaning of לִּילִית (lilit) is unclear, though in this context the word certainly refers to some type of wild animal or bird. The word appears to be related to לַיְלָה (laylah, “night”). Some interpret it as the name of a female night demon, on the basis of an apparent Akkadian cognate used as the name of a demon. Later Jewish legends also identified Lilith as a demon. Cf. NRSV “Lilith.”
[34:14] 51 tn Heb “and will find for themselves a resting place.”
[34:15] 52 tn Hebrew קִפּוֹז (qippoz) occurs only here; the precise meaning of the word is uncertain.
[34:15] 53 tn For this proposed meaning for Hebrew מָלַט (malat), see HALOT 589 s.v. I מלט.
[34:15] 54 tn Heb “and brood [over them] in her shadow.”
[34:15] 55 tn The precise meaning of דַּיָּה (dayyah) is uncertain, though the term appears to refer to some type of bird of prey, perhaps a vulture.
[34:16] 56 tn Heb “Seek from upon the scroll of the Lord and read.”
[34:16] 57 tn Heb “one from these will not be missing.” הֵנָּה (hennah, “these”) is feminine plural in the Hebrew text. It may refer only to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or may include all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).
[34:16] 58 tn Heb “each its mate they will not lack.”
[34:16] 59 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for a mouth, it has commanded.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa and a few medieval
[34:16] 60 tn Heb “and his spirit, he gathers them.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).
[34:17] 61 tn Heb “and he causes the lot to fall for them.” Once again the pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).
[34:17] 62 tn Heb “and his hand divides for them with a measuring line.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) now switches to masculine plural, referring to all the animals and birds mentioned in vv. 11-15, some of which were identified with masculine nouns. This signals closure for this portion of the speech, which began in v. 11. The following couplet (v. 17b) forms an inclusio with v. 11a through verbal repetition.
[34:17] 63 tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV); NCV “they will own that land forever.”
