Ezekiel 6:8-10

6:8 “‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands. ¹  6:9 Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are exiled. They will realize ²  how I was crushed by their unfaithful ³  heart which turned from me and by their eyes which lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves ⁴  because of the evil they have done and because of all their abominable practices. 6:10 They will know that I am the Lord; my threats to bring this catastrophe on them were not empty.’ ⁵ 

Ezekiel 14:22-23

14:22 Yet some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their behavior and their deeds, you will be consoled about the catastrophe I have brought on Jerusalem – for everything I brought on it. 14:23 They will console you when you see their behavior and their deeds, because you will know that it was not without reason that I have done everything which I have done in it, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Isaiah 1:9

1:9 If the Lord who commands armies ⁶  had not left us a few survivors,

we would have quickly become like Sodom, ⁷ 

we would have become like Gomorrah.

Isaiah 6:13

6:13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, ⁸  like one of the large sacred trees ⁹  or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. ¹⁰  That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.” ¹¹ 

Isaiah 10:22

10:22 For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as ¹²  the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back. ¹³  Destruction has been decreed; ¹⁴  just punishment ¹⁵  is about to engulf you. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 24:13

24:13 This is what will happen throughout ¹⁷  the earth,

among the nations.

It will be like when they beat an olive tree,

and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 4:27

4:27 All this will happen because the Lord said, ¹⁹ 

“The whole land will be desolate;

however, I will not completely destroy it.

Jeremiah 30:11

30:11 For I, the Lord, affirm ²⁰  that

I will be with you and will rescue you.

I will completely destroy all the nations where I scattered you.

But I will not completely destroy you.

I will indeed discipline you, but only in due measure.

I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” ²¹ 

Amos 9:8-9

9:8 Look, the sovereign Lord is watching ²²  the sinful nation, ²³ 

and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.

But I will not completely destroy the family ²⁴  of Jacob,” says the Lord.

9:9 “For look, I am giving a command

and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.

It will resemble a sieve being shaken,

when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ²⁵ 

Matthew 7:14

7:14 But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 24:22

24:22 And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Romans 11:4-5

11:4 But what was the divine response ²⁶  to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people ²⁷  who have not bent the knee to Baal.” ²⁸ 

11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

[6:8]  ¹ tn Heb “when you have fugitives from the sword among the nations, when you are scattered among the lands.”

[6:9]  ² tn The words “they will realize” are not in the Hebrew text; they are added here for stylistic reasons since this clause assumes the previous verb “to remember” or “to take into account.”

[6:9]  ³ tn Heb “how I was broken by their adulterous heart.” The image of God being “broken” is startling, but perfectly natural within the metaphorical framework of God as offended husband. The idiom must refer to the intense grief that Israel’s unfaithfulness caused God. For a discussion of the syntax and semantics of the Hebrew text, see M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:134.

[6:9]  ⁴ tn Heb adds “in their faces.”

[6:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “not in vain did I speak to do to them this catastrophe.” The wording of the last half of v. 10 parallels God’s declaration after the sin of the golden calf (Exod 32:14).

[1:9]  ⁶ tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts.” The title pictures God as the sovereign king who has at his disposal a multitude of attendants, messengers, and warriors to do his bidding. In some contexts, like this one, the military dimension of his rulership is highlighted. In this case, the title pictures him as one who leads armies into battle against his enemies.

[1:9]  ⁷ tc The translation assumes that כִּמְעָט (kim’at, “quickly,” literally, “like a little”) goes with what follows, contrary to the MT accents, which take it with what precedes. In this case, one could translate the preceding line, “If the Lord who commands armies had not left us a few survivors.” If כִּמְעָט goes with the preceding line (following the MT accents), this expression highlights the idea that there would only be a few survivors (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:20; H. Zobel, TDOT 8:456). Israel would not be almost like Sodom but exactly like Sodom.

[6:13]  ⁸ tn Or “be burned” (NRSV); NIV “laid waste.”

[6:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “like a massive tree or like a big tree” (perhaps, “like a terebinth or like an oak”).

[6:13]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has “which in the felling, a sacred pillar in them.” Some take מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) as “stump,” and translate, “which, when chopped down, have a stump remaining in them.” But elsewhere מַצֶּבֶת refers to a memorial pillar (2 Sam 18:18) and the word resembles מַצֶּבָה (matsevah, “sacred pillar”). בָּם (bam, “in them”) may be a corruption of בָּמָה (bamah, “high place”; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has במה). אֳשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) becomes a problem in this case, but one might emend the form to וּכְּאֲשֵׁרָה (ukÿ’asherah, “or like an Asherah pole”) and translate, “like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole.” Though the text is difficult, the references to sacred trees and a sacred pillar suggest that the destruction of a high place is in view, an apt metaphor for the judgment of idolatrous Judah.

[6:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a holy offspring [is] its sacred pillar.” If מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) is taken as “stump,” one can see in this statement a brief glimpse of hope. The tree (the nation) is chopped down, but the stump (a righteous remnant) remains from which God can restore the nation. However, if מַצֶּבֶת is taken as “sacred pillar” (מַצֶּבָה, matsevah; see the previous note), it is much more difficult to take the final statement in a positive sense. In this case “holy offspring” alludes to God’s ideal for his covenant people, the offspring of the patriarchs. Ironically that “holy” nation is more like a “sacred pillar” and it will be thrown down like a sacred pillar from a high place and its land destroyed like the sacred trees located at such shrines. Understood in this way, the ironic statement is entirely negative in tone, just like the rest of the preceding announcement of judgment. It also reminds the people of their failure; they did not oppose pagan religion, instead they embraced it. Now they will be destroyed in the same way they should have destroyed paganism.

[10:22]  ¹² tn Heb “are like.”

[10:22]  ¹³ sn The twofold appearance of the statement “a remnant will come back” (שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב, she’ar yashuv) in vv. 21-22 echoes and probably plays off the name of Isaiah’s son Shear-jashub (see 7:3). In its original context the name was meant to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), but here it has taken on new dimensions. In light of Ahaz’s failure and the judgment it brings down on the land, the name Shear-jashub now foreshadows the destiny of the nation. According to vv. 21-22, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that a remnant of God’s people will return; the bad news is that only a remnant will be preserved and come back. Like the name Immanuel, this name foreshadows both judgment (see the notes at 7:25 and 8:8) and ultimate restoration (see the note at 8:10).

[10:22]  ¹⁴ tn Or “predetermined”; cf. ASV, NASB “is determined”; TEV “is in store.”

[10:22]  ¹⁵ tn צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) often means “righteousness,” but here it refers to God’s just judgment.

[10:22]  ¹⁶ tn Or “is about to overflow.”

[24:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the midst of” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[24:13]  ¹⁸ sn The judgment will severely reduce the earth’s population. See v. 6.

[4:27]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “For this is what the Lord said,”

[30:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[30:11]  ²¹ tn The translation “entirely unpunished” is intended to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute before the finite verb.

[9:8]  ²² tn Heb “the eyes of the sovereign Lord are on.”

[9:8]  ²³ tn Or “kingdom.”

[9:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[9:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “like being shaken with a sieve, and a pebble does not fall to the ground.” The meaning of the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror), translated “pebble,” is unclear here. In 2 Sam 17:13 it appears to refer to a stone. If it means “pebble,” then the sieve described in v. 6 allows the grain to fall into a basket while retaining the debris and pebbles. However, if one interprets צְרוֹר as a “kernel of grain” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) then the sieve is constructed to retain the grain and allow the refuse and pebbles to fall to the ground. In either case, the simile supports the last statement in v. 8 by making it clear that God will distinguish between the righteous (the grain) and the wicked (the pebbles) when he judges, and will thereby preserve a remnant in Israel. Only the sinners will be destroyed (v. 10).

[11:4]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”

[11:4]  ²⁷ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.

[11:4]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.