Ezekiel 16:20-21

16:20 “‘You took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and you sacrificed them ¹  as food for the idols to eat. As if your prostitution not enough, 16:21 you slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. ² 

Ezekiel 16:36

16:36 This is what the sovereign Lord says: Because your lust ³  was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children you have given to them,

Genesis 9:6

9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood, ⁴ 

by other humans ⁵ 

must his blood be shed;

for in God’s image ⁶ 

God ⁷  has made humankind.”

Exodus 21:12

Personal Injuries

21:12 ⁸ “Whoever strikes someone ⁹  so that he dies ¹⁰  must surely be put to death. ¹¹ 

Numbers 35:31

35:31 Moreover, you must not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; he must surely be put to death.

Psalms 79:3-5

79:3 They have made their blood flow like water

all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury them. ¹² 

79:4 We have become an object of disdain to our neighbors;

those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. ¹³ 

79:5 How long will this go on, O Lord? ¹⁴ 

Will you stay angry forever?

How long will your rage ¹⁵  burn like fire?

Jeremiah 18:21

18:21 So let their children die of starvation.

Let them be cut down by the sword. ¹⁶ 

Let their wives lose their husbands and children.

Let the older men die of disease ¹⁷ 

and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

Zephaniah 1:17

1:17 I will bring distress on the people ¹⁸ 

and they will stumble ¹⁹  like blind men,

for they have sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dirt;

their flesh ²⁰  will be scattered ²¹  like manure.

Nahum 1:2

God Takes Vengeance against His Enemies

1:2 The Lord is a zealous ²²  and avenging ²³  God;

the Lord is avenging and very angry. ²⁴ 

The Lord takes vengeance ²⁵  against his foes;

he sustains his rage ²⁶  against his enemies.

Revelation 16:6

16:6 because they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets,

so ²⁷  you have given them blood to drink. They got what they deserved!” ²⁸ 

[16:20]  ¹ sn The sacrifice of children was prohibited in Lev 18:21; 20:2; Deut 12:31; 18:10.

[16:21]  ² tn Heb “and you gave them, by passing them through to them.” Some believe this alludes to the pagan practice of making children pass through the fire.

[16:36]  ³ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[9:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “the blood of man.”

[9:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “by man,” a generic term here for other human beings.

[9:6]  ⁶ sn See the notes on the words “humankind” and “likeness” in Gen 1:26, as well as J. Barr, “The Image of God in the Book of Genesis – A Study of Terminology,” BJRL 51 (1968/69): 11-26.

[9:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:12]  ⁸ sn The underlying point of this section remains vital today: The people of God must treat all human life as sacred.

[21:12]  ⁹ tn The construction uses a Hiphil participle in construct with the noun for “man” (or person as is understood in a law for the nation): “the one striking [of] a man.” This is a casus pendens (independent nominative absolute); it indicates the condition or action that involves further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).

[21:12]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew word וָמֵת (vamet) is a Qal perfect with vav consecutive; it means “and he dies” and not “and killed him” (which require another stem). Gesenius notes that this form after a participle is the equivalent of a sentence representing a contingent action (GKC 333 §112.n). The word shows the result of the action in the opening participle. It is therefore a case of murder or manslaughter.

[21:12]  ¹¹ sn See A. Phillips, “Another Look at Murder,” JJS 28 (1977): 105-26.

[79:3]  ¹² tn Heb “they have poured out their blood like water, all around Jerusalem, and there is no one burying.”

[79:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.” See Ps 44:13.

[79:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “How long, O Lord?”

[79:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or “jealous anger.”

[18:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “be poured out to the hand [= power] of the sword.” For this same expression see Ezek 35:5; Ps 63:10 (63:11 HT). Comparison with those two passages show that it involved death by violent means, perhaps death in battle.

[18:21]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “be slain by death.” The commentaries are generally agreed that this refers to death by disease or plague as in 15:2. Hence, the reference is to the deadly trio of sword, starvation, and disease which were often connected with war. See the notes on 15:2.

[1:17]  ¹⁸ tn “The people” refers to mankind in general (see vv. 2-3) or more specifically to the residents of Judah (see vv. 4-13).

[1:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “walk.”

[1:17]  ²⁰ tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).

[1:17]  ²¹ tn The words “will be scattered” are supplied in the translation for clarity based on the parallelism with “will be poured out” in the previous line.

[1:2]  ²² tn Heb “jealous.” The Hebrew term קַנּוֹא (qanno’, “jealous, zealous”) refers to God’s zealous protection of his people and his furious judgment against his enemies. The root קָנָא (qana’) can denote jealous envy (Gen 26:14; 30:1; 37:11; Pss 37:1; 73:3; 106:16; Prov 3:31; 23:17; 24:1, 19; Ezek 31:9), jealous rivalry (Eccl 4:4; 9:6; Isa 11:13), marital jealousy (Num 5:14, 15, 18, 25, 30; Prov 6:34; 27:4), zealous loyalty (Num 11:29; 25:11, 13; 2 Sam 21:2; 1 Kgs 19:10, 14; 2 Kgs 10:16; Ps 69:10; Song 8:6; Isa 9:6; 37:32; 42:13; 59:17; 63:15; Zech 1:14; 8:2), jealous anger (Deut 32:16, 21; Ps 78:58), and zealous fury (Exod 34:14; Deut 5:9; 29:19; 1 Kgs 14:22; Job 5:2; Pss 79:5; 119:139; Prov 14:30; Isa 26:11; Ezek 5:13; 8:3; 16:38, 42; 23:25; 35:11; 36:5, 6; 38:19; Zeph 1:18). See BDB 888 s.v. קָנָא; E. Reuter, TDOT 13:47-58.

[1:2]  ²³ tn The syntax of this line has been understood in two ways: (1) as a single clause with the Lord as the subject: “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord” (NRSV; NASB) or “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God” (NIV); and (2) as two parallel clauses: “God is jealous, and the Lord avenges” (KJV). The LXX reflects the latter. Masoretic accentuation and Hebrew syntax support the former. Accentuation links קַנּוֹא וְנֹקֵם (qano’ vÿnoqem, “jealous and avenging”) together rather than dividing them into separate clauses. Normal word order suggests that קַנּוֹא וְנֹקֵם (“jealous and avenging”) are attributive adjectives modifying אֵל (’el, “God”). In verbless clauses such as this, the predicate normally precedes the subject; thus, “a jealous and avenging God” (אֵל קַנּוֹא וְנֹקֵם, ’el qanno’ vÿnoqem) is the predicate and “the Lord” (יְהוָה, yÿhvah) is the subject.

[1:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “exceedingly wrathful”; Heb “a lord of wrath.” The idiom “lord of wrath” (וּבַעַל חֵמָה, uva’al khemah) means “wrathful” or “full of wrath” (Prov 22:24; 29:22). The noun “lord” (בַעַל) is used in construct as an idiom to describe a person’s outstanding characteristic or attribute (e.g., Gen 37:19; 1 Sam 28:7; 2 Kgs 1:8; Prov 1:17; 18:9; 22:24; 23:2; 24:8; Eccl 7:12; 8:8; 10:11, 20; Isa 41:15; 50:8; Dan 8:6, 20); see IBHS 149-51 §9.5.3.

[1:2]  ²⁵ tn The term נָקַם (naqam, “avenge, vengeance”) is used three times in 1:2 for emphasis. The Lord will exact just retribution against his enemies (the Assyrians) to avenge their wickedness against his people (Judah).

[1:2]  ²⁶ tn The verb “rage” (נָטַר, natar) is used elsewhere of keeping a vineyard (Song 1:6; 8:11-12) and guarding a secret (Dan 7:28). When used of anger, it does not so much mean “to control anger” or “to be slow to anger” (HALOT 695 s.v.) but “to stay angry” (TWOT 2:576). It describes a person bearing a grudge, seeking revenge, and refusing to forgive (Lev 19:18). It is often used as a synonym of שָׁמַר (shamar, “to maintain wrath, stay angry”) in collocation with לְעוֹלָם (lÿ’olam, “forever, always”) and לָעַד (la’ad, “continually”) to picture God harboring rage against his enemies forever (Jer 3:5, 12; Amos 1:11; Ps 103:9). The long-term rage depicted by נָטַר (“maintain rage”) serves as an appropriate bridge to the following statement in Nahum that the Lord is slow to anger but furious in judgment. God seeks vengeance against his enemies; he continually rages and maintains his anger; he is slow to anger, but will eventually burst out with the full fury of his wrath.

[16:6]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that this judgment is the result of what these wicked people did to the saints and prophets.

[16:6]  ²⁸ tn Grk “They are worthy”; i.e., of this kind of punishment. By extension, “they got what they deserve.”