Ezekiel 30:13

30:13 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

I will destroy the idols,

and put an end to the gods of Memphis.

There will no longer be a prince from the land of Egypt;

so I will make the land of Egypt fearful. ¹ 

Isaiah 2:18

2:18 The worthless idols will be completely eliminated. ² 

Isaiah 2:20

2:20 At that time ³  men will throw

their silver and gold idols,

which they made for themselves to worship, ⁴ 

into the caves where rodents and bats live, ⁵ 

Isaiah 27:9

27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, ⁶ 

and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: ⁷ 

They will make all the stones of the altars ⁸ 

like crushed limestone,

and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. ⁹ 

Hosea 10:2

10:2 Their heart is slipping;

soon they will be punished for their guilt.

The Lord ¹⁰  will break their altars;

he will completely destroy their fertility pillars.

Micah 1:7

1:7 All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces;

all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. ¹¹ 

I will make a waste heap ¹²  of all her images.

Since ¹³  she gathered the metal ¹⁴  as a prostitute collects her wages,

the idols will become a prostitute’s wages again.” ¹⁵ 

Micah 5:13

5:13 I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst;

you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

Zephaniah 1:3-4

1:3 “I will destroy people and animals;

I will destroy the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea.

(The idolatrous images of these creatures will be destroyed along with evil people.) ¹⁶ 

I will remove ¹⁷  humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

1:4 “I will attack ¹⁸  Judah

and all who live in Jerusalem. ¹⁹ 

I will remove ²⁰  from this place every trace of Baal worship, ²¹ 

as well as the very memory ²²  of the pagan priests. ²³ 

Zechariah 13:2

13:2 And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ²⁴  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

[30:13]  ¹ tn Heb “I will put fear in the land of Egypt.”

[2:18]  ² tc The verb “pass away” is singular in the Hebrew text, despite the plural subject (“worthless idols”) that precedes. The verb should be emended to a plural; the final vav (ו) has been accidentally omitted by haplography (note the vav at the beginning of the immediately following form).

[2:20]  ³ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[2:20]  ⁴ tn Or “bow down to.”

[2:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “to the shrews and to the bats.” On the meaning of חֲפַרְפָּרָה (khafarparah, “shrew”), see HALOT 341 s.v. חֲפַרְפָּרָה. The BHS text as it stands (לַחְפֹּר פֵּרוֹת, perot lakhpor), makes no sense. Based on Theodotion’s transliteration and a similar reading in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, most scholars suggest that the MT mistakenly divided a noun (a hapax legomenon) that should be translated “moles,” “shrews,” or “rodents.”

[27:9]  ⁶ tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”

[27:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “and this [is] all the fruit of removing his sin.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear, though “removing his sin” certainly parallels “Jacob’s sin will be removed” in the preceding line. If original, “all the fruit” may refer to the result of the decision to remove sin, but the phrase may be a corruption of לְכַפֵּר (lekhaper, “to atone for”), which in turn might be a gloss on הָסִר (hasir, “removing”).

[27:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “when he makes the stones of an altar.” The singular “altar” is collective here; pagan altars are in view, as the last line of the verse indicates. See also 17:8.

[27:9]  ⁹ sn As interpreted and translated above, this verse says that Israel must totally repudiate its pagan religious practices in order to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another option is to understand “in this way” and “this” in v. 9a as referring back to the judgment described in v. 8. In this case כָּפַר (kafar, “atone for”) is used in a sarcastic sense; Jacob’s sin is “atoned for” and removed through severe judgment. Following this line of interpretation, one might paraphrase the verse as follows: “So in this way (through judgment) Jacob’s sin will be “atoned for,” and this is the way his sin will be removed, when he (i.e., God) makes all the altar stones like crushed limestone….” This interpretation is more consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-11.

[10:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and all her prostitute’s wages will be burned with fire.”

[1:7]  ¹² tn Heb “I will make desolate” (so NASB).

[1:7]  ¹³ tn Or “for” (KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn No object is specified in the Hebrew text; the words “the metal” are supplied from the context.

[1:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for from a prostitute’s wages she gathered, and to a prostitute’s wages they will return.” When the metal was first collected it was comparable to the coins a prostitute would receive for her services. The metal was then formed into idols, but now the Lord’s fiery judgment would reduce the metal images to their original condition.

[1:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And the stumbling blocks [or, “ruins”] with the evil”; or “the things that make the evil stumble.” The line does not appear in the original form of the LXX; it may be a later scribal addition. The present translation assumes the “stumbling blocks” are idolatrous images of animals, birds, and fish. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 167, and Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB), 73-74.

[1:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “cut off.”

[1:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will stretch out my hand against,” is an idiom for hostile action.

[1:4]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “cut off.”

[1:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “the remnant of Baal.”

[1:4]  ²² tn Heb “name.” Here the “name” is figurative for the memory of those who bear it.

[1:4]  ²³ 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).

[13:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “cut off” (so NRSV); NAB “destroy”; NIV “banish.”