Isaiah 10:3

10:3 What will you do on judgment day, ¹ 

when destruction arrives from a distant place?

To whom will you run for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

Jeremiah 10:15

10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. ² 

When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.

Jeremiah 11:23

11:23 Not one of them will survive. ³  I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. ⁴  A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 46:21

46:21 Even her mercenaries ⁶ 

will prove to be like pampered, ⁷  well-fed calves.

For they too will turn and run away.

They will not stand their ground

when ⁸  the time for them to be destroyed comes,

the time for them to be punished.

Ezekiel 7:2-7

7:2 “You, son of man – this is what the sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel: An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land! ⁹  7:3 The end is now upon you, and I will release my anger against you; I will judge ¹⁰  you according to your behavior, ¹¹  I will hold you accountable for ¹²  all your abominable practices. 7:4 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare ¹³  you. ¹⁴  For I will hold you responsible for your behavior, ¹⁵  and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. ¹⁶  Then you will know that I am the Lord!

7:5 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: A disaster ¹⁷  – a one-of-a-kind ¹⁸  disaster – is coming! 7:6 An end comes ¹⁹  – the end comes! ²⁰  It has awakened against you ²¹  – the end is upon you! Look, it is coming! ²²  7:7 Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day ²³  is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 12:22-28

12:22 “Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel, ‘The days pass slowly, and every vision fails’? 12:23 Therefore tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: I hereby end this proverb; they will not recite it in Israel any longer.’ But say to them, ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled. ²⁵  12:24 For there will no longer be any false visions or flattering omens amidst the house of Israel. 12:25 For I, the Lord, will speak. Whatever word I speak will be accomplished. It will not be delayed any longer. Indeed in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and accomplish it, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

12:26 The word of the Lord came to me: 12:27 “Take note, son of man, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for distant days; he is prophesying about the far future.’ 12:28 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer! The word I speak will come to pass, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Amos 8:2

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end ²⁶  has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. ²⁷ 

Micah 7:4

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ²⁸ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²⁹ 

and then you will experience confusion. ³⁰ 

Zephaniah 1:14-18

1:14 The Lord’s great day of judgment ³¹  is almost here;

it is approaching very rapidly!

There will be a bitter sound on the Lord’s day of judgment;

at that time warriors will cry out in battle. ³² 

1:15 That day will be a day of God’s anger, ³³ 

a day of distress and hardship,

a day of devastation and ruin,

a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and dark skies,

1:16 a day of trumpet blasts ³⁴  and battle cries. ³⁵ 

Judgment will fall on ³⁶  the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

1:17 I will bring distress on the people ³⁷ 

and they will stumble ³⁸  like blind men,

for they have sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dirt;

their flesh ³⁹  will be scattered ⁴⁰  like manure.

1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them

in the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.

The whole earth ⁴¹  will be consumed by his fiery wrath. ⁴² 

Indeed, ⁴³  he will bring terrifying destruction ⁴⁴  on all who live on the earth.” ⁴⁵ 

Luke 21:22

21:22 because these are days of vengeance, ⁴⁶  to fulfill ⁴⁷  all that is written.

Revelation 16:19

16:19 The ⁴⁸  great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations ⁴⁹  collapsed. ⁵⁰  So ⁵¹  Babylon the great was remembered before God, and was given the cup ⁵²  filled with the wine made of God’s furious wrath. ⁵³ 

[10:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.

[10:15]  ² tn Or “objects of mockery.”

[11:23]  ³ tn Heb “There will be no survivors for/among them.”

[11:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “the men of Anathoth.” For the rationale for adding the qualification see the notes on v. 21.

[11:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will bring disaster on…, the year of their punishment.”

[46:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “her hirelings in her midst.”

[46:21]  ⁷ tn The word “pampered” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to explain the probable meaning of the simile. The mercenaries were well cared for like stall-fed calves, but in the face of the danger they will prove no help because they will turn and run away without standing their ground. Some see the point of the simile to be that they too are fattened for slaughter. However, the next two lines do not fit that interpretation too well.

[46:21]  ⁸ tn The temporal use of the particle כִּי (ki; BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 2.a) seems more appropriate to the context than the causal use.

[7:2]  ⁹ tn Or “earth.” Elsewhere the expression “four corners of the earth” figuratively refers to the whole earth (Isa 11:12).

[7:3]  ¹⁰ tn Or “punish” (cf. BDB 1047 s.v. שָׁפַט 3.c).

[7:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “ways.”

[7:3]  ¹² tn Heb “I will place on you.”

[7:4]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[7:4]  ¹⁴ tn The pronoun “you” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[7:4]  ¹⁵ tn “I will set your behavior on your head.”

[7:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and your abominable practices will be among you.”

[7:5]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term often refers to moral evil (see Ezek 6:10; 14:22), but in many contexts it refers to calamity or disaster, sometimes as punishment for evil behavior.

[7:5]  ¹⁸ tc So most Hebrew mss; many Hebrew mss read “disaster after disaster” (cf. NAB, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[7:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “has come.”

[7:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “has come.”

[7:6]  ²¹ tc With different vowels the verb rendered “it has awakened” would be the noun “the end,” as in “the end is upon you.” The verb would represent a phonetic wordplay. The noun by virtue of repetition would continue to reinforce the idea of the end. Whether verb or noun, this is the only instance to occur with this preposition.

[7:6]  ²² tc For this entire verse, the LXX has only “the end is come.”

[7:7]  ²³ sn The day refers to the day of the Lord, a concept which, beginning in Amos 5:18-20, became a common theme in the OT prophetic books. It refers to a time when the Lord intervenes in human affairs as warrior and judge.

[7:7]  ²⁴ tc The LXX reads “neither tumult nor birth pains.” The LXX varies at many points from the MT in this chapter. The context suggests that one or both of these would be present on a day of judgment, thus favoring the MT. Perhaps more significant is the absence of “the mountains” in the LXX. If the ר (resh) in הָרִים (harim, “the mountains” not “on the mountains”) were a ד (dalet), which is a common letter confusion, then it could be from the same root as the previous word, הֵד (hed), meaning “the day is near – with destruction, not joyful shouting.”

[12:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the days draw near and the word of every vision (draws near).”

[8:2]  ²⁶ tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.

[8:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”

[7:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[1:14]  ³¹ tn Heb “The great day of the Lord.” The words “of judgment” are supplied in the translation here and later in this verse for clarity. See the note on the expression “day of judgment” in v. 7.

[1:14]  ³² tn Heb “the sound of the day of the Lord, bitter [is] one crying out there, a warrior.” The present translation does four things: (1) It takes מַר (mar, “bitter”) with what precedes (contrary to the accentuation of the MT). (2) It understands the participle צָרַח (tsarakh, “cry out in battle”) as verbal with “warrior” as its subject. (3) It takes שָׁם (sham, “there”) in a temporal sense, meaning “then, at that time.” (4) It understands “warrior” as collective.

[1:15]  ³³ tn Heb “a day of wrath.” The word “God’s” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:16]  ³⁴ tn Heb “a ram’s horn.” By metonymy the Hebrew text mentions the trumpet (“ram’s horn”) in place of the sound it produces (“trumpet blasts”).

[1:16]  ³⁵ sn This description of the day of the Lord consists of an initial reference to anger, followed by four pairs of synonyms. The joining of synonyms in this way emphasizes the degree of the characteristic being described. The first two pairs focus on the distress and ruin that judgment will bring; the second two pairs picture this day of judgment as being very dark (darkness) and exceedingly overcast (gloom). The description concludes with the pairing of two familiar battle sounds, the blast on the ram’s horn (trumpet blasts) and the war cries of the warriors (battle cries).

[1:16]  ³⁶ tn Heb “against.” The words “judgment will fall” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:17]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ tn Heb “walk.”

[1:17]  ³⁹ tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).

[1:17]  ⁴⁰ 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.

[1:18]  ⁴¹ tn Or “land” (cf. NEB). This same word also occurs at the end of the present verse.

[1:18]  ⁴² tn Or “passion”; traditionally, “jealousy.”

[1:18]  ⁴³ tn Or “for.”

[1:18]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “complete destruction, even terror, he will make.”

[1:18]  ⁴⁵ tn It is not certain where the Lord’s words end and the prophet’s words begin. It is possible that Zephaniah begins speaking in the middle of v. 17 or at the beginning of v. 18 (note the third person pronouns referring to the Lord).

[21:22]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “of punishment.” This is a time of judgment.

[21:22]  ⁴⁷ tn The passive construction with the infinitive πλησθῆναι (plhsqhnai) has been translated as an active construction for simplicity, in keeping with contemporary English style.

[16:19]  ⁴⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[16:19]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “of the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[16:19]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “fell.”

[16:19]  ⁵¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Babylon’s misdeeds (see Rev 14:8).

[16:19]  ⁵² tn Grk “the cup of the wine of the anger of the wrath of him.” The concatenation of four genitives has been rendered somewhat differently by various translations (see the note on the word “wrath”).

[16:19]  ⁵³ tn Following BDAG 461 s.v. θυμός 2, the combination of the genitives of θυμός (qumo") and ὀργή (orgh) in Rev 16:19 and 19:15 are taken to be a strengthening of the thought as in the OT and Qumran literature (Exod 32:12; Jer 32:37; Lam 2:3; CD 10:9). Thus in Rev 14:8 (to which the present passage alludes) and 18:3 there is irony: The wine of immoral behavior with which Babylon makes the nations drunk becomes the wine of God’s wrath for her.