Exodus 32:30

32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, ¹  “You have committed a very serious sin, ²  but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement ³  on behalf of your sin.”

Joshua 14:12

14:12 Now, assign me this hill country which the Lord promised me at that time! No doubt you heard at that time that the Anakites live there in large, fortified cities. ⁴  But, assuming the Lord is with me, I will conquer ⁵  them, as the Lord promised.”

Joshua 14:1

Judah’s Tribal Lands

14:1 The following is a record of the territory assigned to the Israelites in the land of Canaan by Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the Israelite tribal leaders. ⁶ 

Joshua 6:5

6:5 When you hear the signal from the ram’s horn, ⁷  have the whole army give a loud battle cry. ⁸  Then the city wall will collapse ⁹  and the warriors should charge straight ahead.” ¹⁰ 

Joshua 6:2

6:2 The Lord told Joshua, “See, I am about to defeat Jericho for you, ¹¹  along with its king and its warriors.

Joshua 12:22

12:22 the king of Kedesh (one),

the king of Jokneam near Carmel (one),

Joshua 12:2

12:2 King Sihon of the Amorites who lived ¹²  in Heshbon and ruled from Aroer (on the edge of the Arnon Valley) – including the city in the middle of the valley ¹³  and half of Gilead – all the way to the Jabbok Valley bordering Ammonite territory.

Joshua 19:4

19:4 Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah,

Amos 5:15

5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!

Promote ¹⁴  justice at the city gate! ¹⁵ 

Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on ¹⁶  those who are left from ¹⁷  Joseph. ¹⁸ 

Jonah 1:6

1:6 The ship’s captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? ¹⁹  Get up! Cry out ²⁰  to your god! Perhaps your god ²¹  might take notice of us ²²  so that we might not die!”

Jonah 3:9

3:9 Who knows? ²³  Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent ²⁴  and turn from his fierce anger ²⁵  so that we might not die.” ²⁶ 

Zephaniah 2:3

2:3 Seek the Lord’s favor, ²⁷  all you humble people ²⁸  of the land who have obeyed his commands! ²⁹ 

Strive to do what is right! ³⁰  Strive to be humble! ³¹ 

Maybe you will be protected ³²  on the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.

Zephaniah 2:2

2:2 before God’s decree becomes reality ³³  and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, ³⁴ 

before the Lord’s raging anger ³⁵  overtakes ³⁶  you –

before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!

Zephaniah 2:1

The Prophet Warns the People

2:1 Bunch yourselves together like straw, ³⁷  you undesirable ³⁸  nation,

[32:30]  ¹ tn Heb “and it was on the morrow and Moses said to the people.”

[32:30]  ² tn The text uses a cognate accusative: “you have sinned a great sin.”

[32:30]  ³ tn The form אֲכַפְּרָה (’akhappÿrah) is a Piel cohortative/imperfect. Here with only a possibility of being successful, a potential imperfect nuance works best.

[14:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “are there and large, fortified cities.”

[14:12]  ⁵ tn Or “will dispossess.”

[14:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “These are [the lands] which the sons of Israel received as an inheritance in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes assigned as an inheritance to the sons of Israel.”

[6:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it will be at the sounding of the horn, the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn.” The text of Josh 6:5 seems to be unduly repetitive, so for the sake of English style and readability, it is best to streamline the text here. The reading in the Hebrew looks like a conflation of variant readings, with the second (“when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn”) being an interpolation that assimilates the text to verse 20 (“when the army heard the sound of the horn”). Note that the words “when you hear the sound of the ram's horn” do not appear in the LXX of verse 5.

[6:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “all the people will shout with a loud shout.”

[6:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “fall in its place.”

[6:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the people will go up, each man straight ahead.”

[6:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I have given into your hand Jericho.” The Hebrew verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, “I have given”) is probably best understood as a perfect of certitude, indicating the certainty of the action. The Hebrew pronominal suffix “your” is singular, being addressed to Joshua as the leader and representative of the nation. To convey to the modern reader what is about to happen and who is doing it, the translation “I am about to defeat Jericho for you” has been used.

[12:2]  ¹² tn Or perhaps, “reigned.”

[12:2]  ¹³ tc The MT reads here, “and the middle of the valley,” but the reading “the city in the middle of valley” can be reconstructed on the basis of Josh 13:9, 16.

[5:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “set up, establish.” In the ancient Near East it was the responsibility especially of the king to establish justice. Here the prophet extends that demand to local leaders and to the nation as a whole (cf. 5:24).

[5:15]  ¹⁵ sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate (see the note in v. 12). This repetition of this phrase serves to highlight a deliberate contrast to the injustices cited in vv. 11-13.

[5:15]  ¹⁶ tn Or “will show favor to.”

[5:15]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the remnant of” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “what’s left of your people.”

[5:15]  ¹⁸ sn Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

[1:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “What to you sleeping!” The Niphal participle נִרְדָּם (nirdam) from רָדַם (radam, “to sleep”) functions here not as a vocative use of the noun (so KJV, NKJV, ASV: “O sleeper,” RSV: “you sleeper”) but as a verbal use to depict uninterrupted sleep up to this point. The expression מַה־לְּךָ (mah-lÿkha, “what to you?”) can express surprise (BDB 552 s.v. מָה 1.a; e.g., Job 9:12; 22:12; Eccl 8:4; Isa 45:9,10) or indignation and contempt (BDB 552 s.v. מָה 1.c; e.g., 1 Kgs 19:9, 13). Accordingly, the captain is either surprised that Jonah is able to sleep so soundly through the storm (NIV “How can you sleep?”; JPS, NJPS “How can you be sleeping so soundly?”; NEB, REB “What, sound asleep?”) or indignant that Jonah would sleep in a life-threatening situation when he should be praying (CEV “How can you sleep at a time like this?”; NAB “What are you doing [+ sound NRSV] asleep?”; NJB: “What do you mean by sleeping?”).

[1:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “cry out” or “call upon.” The verb קָרָא (qara’, “to call out, to cry out”) + the preposition אֶל (’el, “to”) often depicts a loud, audible cry of prayer to God for help in the midst of trouble: “to call on, to shout to” (HALOT 1129 s.v. קרא 9.b; BDB 895 s.v. קָרָא 2.a; e.g., Judg 15:18; 1 Sam 12:17, 18; 2 Sam 22:7; Hos 7:7; Pss 3:4 [5 HT]; 4:3 [4 HT]). Jonker notes: “The basic meaning of qr’ is to draw attention to oneself by the audible use of one’s voice in order to establish contact with someone else. The reaction of the called person is normally expressed by the verbs…‘answer’ and…‘hear’” (L. Jonker, NIDOTTE 3:971).

[1:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “the god.” The article on הָאֱלֹהִים (ha’elohim) denotes previous reference to אֱלֹהֶיךָ (’elohekha, “your god”; see IBHS 242-43 §13.5.1d). The captain refers here to the “god” just mentioned, that is, whatever god Jonah might pray to (“your god”).

[1:6]  ²² tn Or “give thought to us.” The verb is found only here in the OT. Related nouns are in Job 12:5 and Ps 146:5. The captain hopes for some favorable attention from a god who might act on behalf of his endangered crewmen.

[3:9]  ²³ sn The king expresses his uncertainty whether Jonah’s message constituted a conditional announcement or an unconditional decree. Jeremiah 18 emphasizes that God sometimes gives people an opportunity to repent when they hear an announcement of judgment. However, as Amos and Isaiah learned, if a people refused to repent over a period of time, the patience of God could be exhausted. The offer of repentance in a conditional announcement of judgment can be withdrawn and in its place an unconditional decree of judgment issued. In many cases it is difficult to determine on the front end whether or not a prophetic message of coming judgment is conditional or unconditional, thus explaining the king’s uncertainty.

[3:9]  ²⁴ tn “he might turn and relent.” The two verbs יָשׁוּב וְנִחַם (yashub vÿnikham) may function independently (“turn and repent”) or form a verbal hendiadys (“be willing to turn”; see IBHS 540 §32.3b). The imperfect יָשׁוּב and the perfect with prefixed vav וְנִחַם form a future-time narrative sequence. Both verbs function in a modal sense, denoting possibility, as the introductory interrogative suggests (“Who knows…?”). When used in reference to past actions, שׁוּב (shub) can mean “to be sorry” or “to regret” that someone did something in the past, and when used in reference to future planned actions, it can mean “to change one’s mind” about doing something or “to relent” from sending judgment (BDB 997 s.v. שׁוּב 6). The verb נִחַם (nikham) can mean “to be sorry” about past actions (e.g., Gen 6:6, 7; 1 Sam 15:11, 35) and “to change one’s mind” about future actions (BDB 637 s.v. נחם 2). These two verbs are used together elsewhere in passages that consider the question of whether or not God will change his mind and relent from judgment he has threatened (e.g., Jer 4:28). The verbal root שׁוּב is used four times in vv. 8-10, twice of the Ninevites “repenting” from their moral evil and twice of God “relenting” from his threatened calamity. This repetition creates a wordplay that emphasizes the appropriateness of God’s response: if the people repent, God might relent.

[3:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from the burning of his nose/face.” See Exod 4:14; 22:24; 32:12; Num 25:4; 32:14; Deut 9:19.

[3:9]  ²⁶ tn The imperfect verb נֹאבֵד (no’ved, “we might not die”) functions in a modal sense, denoting possibility. The king’s hope parallels that of the ship’s captain in 1:6. See also Exod 32:7-14; 2 Sam 12:14-22; 1 Kgs 8:33-43; 21:17-29; Jer 18:6-8; Joel 2:11-15.

[2:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “seek the Lord,” but “favor” seems to be implied from the final line of the verse.

[2:3]  ²⁸ tn Or “poor.” The precise referent of this Hebrew term is unclear. The word may refer to the economically poor or to the spiritually humble.

[2:3]  ²⁹ tn The present translation assumes the Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) here refers to God’s covenantal requirements and is a synonym for the Law. The word can mean “justice” and could refer more specifically to the principles of justice contained in the Law. In this case the phrase could be translated, “who have promoted the justice God demands.”

[2:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Seek what is right.”

[2:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “Seek humility.”

[2:3]  ³² tn Heb “hidden.” Cf. NEB “it may be that you will find shelter”; NRSV “perhaps you may be hidden.”

[2:2]  ³³ tn Heb “before the giving birth of a decree.” For various alternative readings, see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 187-88.

[2:2]  ³⁴ tn The second half of the line reads literally, “like chaff it passes by a day.” The translation above assumes the “day” is the brief time God is giving the nation to repent. The comparison of this quickly passing opportunity to chaff is consistent with the straw imagery of v. 1.

[2:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the fury of the anger of the Lord.” The synonyms are combined to emphasize the extreme degree of the Lord’s anger.

[2:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “comes upon.” This phrase occurs twice in this verse.

[2:1]  ³⁷ tn The Hebrew text combines a Hitpolel imperative of קָשַׁשׁ (qashash) with a Qal imperative of the same root. Elsewhere this root appears in the polel stem with the meaning “gather stubble.” Zephaniah’s command is ironic, implying the people are like stubble or straw. As such, they are vulnerable to the Lord’s fiery judgment that will quickly consume them (see 1:18). See Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 96.

[2:1]  ³⁸ tn Some relate this word to an Aramaic cognate meaning “to be ashamed.” With the negative particle it would then mean “unashamed” (cf. NIV “shameful”; NRSV “shameless”). However, elsewhere in biblical Hebrew the verb means “to desire,” or with the negative particle “undesirable.” Cf. also NEB “unruly.”