Habakkuk 2:10

2:10 Your schemes will bring shame to your house.

Because you destroyed many nations, you will self-destruct. ¹ 

Habakkuk 2:17

2:17 For you will pay in full for your violent acts against Lebanon; ² 

terrifying judgment will come upon you because of the way you destroyed the wild animals living there. ³ 

You have shed human blood

and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them.

Isaiah 33:1

The Lord Will Restore Zion

33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead, ⁴ 

you who have not been destroyed!

The deceitful one is as good as dead, ⁵ 

the one whom others have not deceived!

When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you finish ⁶  deceiving, others will deceive you!

Isaiah 33:4

33:4 Your plunder ⁷  disappears as if locusts were eating it; ⁸ 

they swarm over it like locusts! ⁹ 

Jeremiah 27:7

27:7 All nations must serve him and his son and grandson ¹⁰  until the time comes for his own nation to fall. ¹¹  Then many nations and great kings will in turn subjugate Babylon. ¹² 

Jeremiah 30:16

30:16 But ¹³  all who destroyed you will be destroyed.

All your enemies will go into exile.

Those who plundered you will be plundered.

I will cause those who pillaged you to be pillaged. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 50:10

50:10 Babylonia ¹⁵  will be plundered.

Those who plunder it will take all they want,”

says the Lord. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 50:37

50:37 Destructive forces will come against her horses and her ¹⁷  chariots.

Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; ¹⁸ 

they will be as frightened as women! ¹⁹ 

Destructive forces will come against her treasures;

they will be taken away as plunder!

Jeremiah 51:13

51:13 “You who live along the rivers of Babylon, ²⁰ 

the time of your end has come.

You who are rich in plundered treasure,

it is time for your lives to be cut off. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 51:44

51:44 I will punish the god Bel in Babylon.

I will make him spit out what he has swallowed.

The nations will not come streaming to him any longer.

Indeed, the walls of Babylon will fall.” ²² 

Jeremiah 51:48

51:48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them

will sing for joy over Babylon.

For destroyers from the north will attack it,”

says the Lord. ²³ 

Jeremiah 51:55-56

51:55 For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon,

and put an end to her loud noise.

Their waves ²⁴  will roar like turbulent ²⁵  waters.

They will make a deafening noise. ²⁶ 

51:56 For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. ²⁷ 

Her warriors will be captured;

their bows will be broken. ²⁸ 

For the Lord is a God who punishes; ²⁹ 

he pays back in full. ³⁰ 

Zechariah 2:8-9

2:8 For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory ³¹  he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil ³²  of his ³³  eye. 2:9 “I am about to punish them ³⁴  in such a way,” he says, “that they will be looted by their own slaves.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

[2:10]  ¹ tn Heb “you planned shame for your house, cutting off many nations, and sinning [against] your life.”

[2:17]  ² tn Heb “for the violence against Lebanon will cover you.”

[2:17]  ³ tc The Hebrew appears to read literally, “and the violence against the animals [which] he terrified.” The verb form יְחִיתַן (yÿkhitan) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect third masculine singular with third feminine plural suffix (the antecedent being the animals) from חָתַת (khatat, “be terrified”). The translation above follows the LXX and assumes a reading יְחִתֶּךָ (yÿkhittekha, “[the violence against the animals] will terrify you”; cf. NRSV “the destruction of the animals will terrify you”; NIV “and your destruction of animals will terrify you”). In this case the verb is a Hiphil imperfect third masculine singular with second masculine singular suffix (the antecedent being Babylon). This provides better symmetry with the preceding line, where Babylon’s violence is the subject of the verb “cover.”

[33:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”

[33:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.

[33:1]  ⁶ tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”

[33:4]  ⁷ tn The pronoun is plural; the statement is addressed to the nations who have stockpiled plunder from their conquests of others.

[33:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “and your plunder is gathered, the gathering of the locust.”

[33:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “like a swarm of locusts swarming on it.”

[27:7]  ¹⁰ sn This is a figure that emphasizes that they will serve for a long time but not for an unlimited duration. The kingdom of Babylon lasted a relatively short time by ancient standards. It lasted from 605 b.c. when Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho at Carchemish until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. There were only four rulers. Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son, Evil Merodach (cf. 52:31), and two other rulers who were not descended from him.

[27:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until the time of his land, even his, comes.” The independent pronoun is placed here for emphasis on the possessive pronoun. The word “time” is used by substitution for the things that are done in it (compare in the NT John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20 “his hour had not yet come”).

[27:7]  ¹² tn Heb “him.” This is a good example of the figure of substitution where the person is put for his descendants or the nation or subject he rules. (See Gen 28:13-14 for another good example and Acts 22:7 in the NT.)

[30:16]  ¹³ tn For the translation of this particle, which is normally translated “therefore” and often introduces an announcement of judgment, compare the usage at Jer 16:14 and the translator’s note there. Here as there it introduces a contrast, a rather unexpected announcement of salvation. For a similar use see also Hos 2:14 (2:16 HT). Recognition of this usage makes the proposed emendation of BHS of לָכֵן כָּל (lakhen kol) to וְכָל (vÿkhol) unnecessary.

[30:16]  ¹⁴ sn With the exception of the second line there is a definite attempt at wordplay in each line to underline the principle of lex talionis on a national and political level. This principle has already been appealed to in the case of the end of Babylonian sovereignty in 25:14; 27:7.

[50:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[50:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:37]  ¹⁷ tn Hebrew has “his” in both cases here whereas the rest of the possessive pronouns throughout vv. 35-37 are “her.” There is no explanation for this switch unless the third masculine singular refers as a distributive singular to the soldiers mentioned in the preceding verse (cf. GKC 464 §145.l). This is probably the case here, but to refer to “their horses and their chariots” in the midst of all the “her…” might create more confusion than what it is worth to be that pedantic.

[50:37]  ¹⁸ tn Or “in the country,” or “in her armies”; Heb “in her midst.”

[50:37]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “A sword against his horses and his chariots and against all the mixed company [or mixed multitude] in her midst and they will become like women.” The sentence had to be split up because it is too long and the continuation of the second half with its consequential statement would not fit together with the first half very well. Hence the subject and verb have been repeated. The Hebrew word translated “foreign troops” (עֶרֶב, ’erev) is the same word that is used in 25:20 to refer to the foreign peoples living in Egypt and in Exod 12:38 for the foreign people that accompanied Israel out of Egypt. Here the word is translated contextually to refer to foreign mercenaries, an identification that most of the commentaries and many of the modern English versions accept (see, e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 355; NRSV; NIV). The significance of the simile “they will become like women” has been spelled out for the sake of clarity.

[51:13]  ²⁰ sn Babylon was situated on the Euphrates River and was surrounded by canals (also called “rivers”).

[51:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “You who live upon [or beside] many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the cubit of your cutting off.” The sentence has been restructured and paraphrased to provide clarity for the average reader. The meaning of the last phrase is debated. For a discussion of the two options see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:423. Most modern commentaries and English versions see an allusion to the figure in Isa 38:12 where the reference is to the end of life compared to a tapestry which is suddenly cut off from the loom. Hence, NRSV renders the last line as “the thread of your life is cut” and TEV renders “its thread of life is cut.” That idea is accepted also in HALOT 141 s.v. בצע Qal.1.

[51:44]  ²² tn Heb “And I will punish Bel in Babylon…And the nations will not come streaming to him anymore. Yea, the walls of Babylon have fallen.” The verbs in the first two lines are vav consecutive perfects and the verb in the third line is an imperfect all looking at the future. That indicates that the perfect that follows and the perfects that precede are all prophetic perfects. The translation adopted seemed to be the best way to make the transition from the pasts which were adopted in conjunction with the taunting use of אֵיךְ (’ekh) in v. 41 to the futures in v. 44. For the usage of גַּם (gam) to indicate a climax, “yea” or “indeed” see BDB 169 s.v. גַּם 3. It seemed to be impossible to render the meaning of v. 44 in any comprehensible way, even in a paraphrase.

[51:48]  ²³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:55]  ²⁴ tn The antecedent of the third masculine plural pronominal suffix is not entirely clear. It probably refers back to the “destroyers” mentioned in v. 53 as the agents of God’s judgment on Babylon.

[51:55]  ²⁵ tn Or “mighty waters.”

[51:55]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the noise of their sound will be given,”

[51:56]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon.”

[51:56]  ²⁸ tn The Piel form (which would be intransitive here, see GKC 142 §52.k) should probably be emended to Qal.

[51:56]  ²⁹ tn Or “God of retribution.”

[51:56]  ³⁰ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “he certainly pays one back.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form here describes the Lord’s characteristic actions. Another option is to take it as referring specifically to his judgment on Babylon, in which case one should translate, “he will pay (Babylon) back in full.”

[2:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “After glory has he sent me” (similar KJV, NASB). What is clearly in view is the role of Zechariah who, by faithful proclamation of the message, will glorify the Lord.

[2:8]  ³² tn Heb “gate” (בָּבָה, bavah) of the eye, that is, pupil. The rendering of this term by KJV as “apple” has created a well-known idiom in the English language, “the apple of his eye” (so ASV, NIV). The pupil is one of the most vulnerable and valuable parts of the body, so for Judah to be considered the “pupil” of the Lord’s eye is to raise her value to an incalculable price (cf. NLT “my most precious possession”).

[2:8]  ³³ tc A scribal emendation (tiqqun sopherim) has apparently altered an original “my eye” to “his eye” in order to allow the prophet to be the speaker throughout vv. 8-9. This alleviates the problem of the Lord saying, in effect, that he has sent himself on the mission to the nations.

[2:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “I will wave my hand over them” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “raise my hand against them.”