Ezekiel 48:35

48:35 The circumference of the city will be six miles. ¹  The name of the city from that day forward will be: ‘The Lord Is There.’” ² 

Psalms 48:1-3

Psalm 48 ³ 

A song, a psalm by the Korahites.

48:1 The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise

in the city of our God, ⁴  his holy hill.

48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, ⁵ 

a source of joy to the whole earth. ⁶ 

Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; ⁷ 

it is the city of the great king.

48:3 God is in its fortresses;

he reveals himself as its defender. ⁸ 

Psalms 76:1

Psalm 76 ⁹ 

For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of Asaph, a song.

76:1 God has revealed himself in Judah; ¹⁰ 

in Israel his reputation ¹¹  is great.

Psalms 132:13-14

132:13 Certainly ¹²  the Lord has chosen Zion;

he decided to make it his home. ¹³ 

132:14 He said, ¹⁴  “This will be my resting place forever;

I will live here, for I have chosen it. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 12:6

12:6 Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion,

for the Holy One of Israel ¹⁶  acts mightily ¹⁷  among you!”

Isaiah 31:9

31:9 They will surrender their stronghold ¹⁸  because of fear; ¹⁹ 

their officers will be afraid of the Lord’s battle flag.” ²⁰ 

This is what the Lord says –

the one whose fire is in Zion,

whose firepot is in Jerusalem. ²¹ 

Zephaniah 3:15

3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ²² 

he has turned back your enemy.

Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!

You no longer need to fear disaster.

Zechariah 2:5

2:5 But I (the Lord says) will be a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem ²³  and the source of glory in her midst.’”

[48:35]  ¹ tn Heb “eighteen thousand cubits” (i.e., 9.45 kilometers).

[48:35]  ² sn See Rev 21:12-21.

[48:1]  ³ sn Psalm 48. This so-called “Song of Zion” celebrates the greatness and glory of the Lord’s dwelling place, Jerusalem. His presence in the city elevates it above all others and assures its security.

[48:1]  ⁴ sn The city of our God is Jerusalem, which is also referred to here as “his holy hill,” that is, Zion (see v. 2, as well as Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 43:3; 87:1; Dan 9:16).

[48:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.

[48:2]  ⁶ sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).

[48:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the Lord God of Israel lives and rules over the nations. See P. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 353, and T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 103.

[48:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “he is known for an elevated place.”

[76:1]  ⁹ sn Psalm 76. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior who destroys Israel’s enemies.

[76:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “God is known in Judah.”

[76:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[132:13]  ¹² tn Or “for.”

[132:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “he desired it for his dwelling place.”

[132:14]  ¹⁴ tn The words “he said” are added in the translation to clarify that what follows are the Lord’s words.

[132:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for I desired it.”

[12:6]  ¹⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[12:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “is great” (TEV). However, the context emphasizes his mighty acts of deliverance (cf. NCV), not some general or vague character quality.

[31:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “rocky cliff” (cf. ASV, NASB “rock”), viewed metaphorically as a place of defense and security.

[31:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “His rocky cliff, because of fear, will pass away [i.e., “perish”].”

[31:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and they will be afraid of the flag, his officers.”

[31:9]  ²¹ sn The “fire” and “firepot” here symbolize divine judgment, which is heating up like a fire in Jerusalem, waiting to be used against the Assyrians when they attack the city.

[3:15]  ²² tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.

[2:5]  ²³ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.