Isaiah 10:22

10:22 For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as ¹  the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back. ²  Destruction has been decreed; ³  just punishment ⁴  is about to engulf you. ⁵ 

Isaiah 10:2

10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,

and to deprive ⁶  the oppressed among my people of justice,

so they can steal what widows own,

and loot what belongs to orphans. ⁷ 

Isaiah 21:13

The Lord Will Judge Arabia

21:13 Here is a message about Arabia:

In the thicket of Arabia you spend the night,

you Dedanite caravans.

Psalms 94:15

94:15 For justice will prevail, ⁸ 

and all the morally upright ⁹  will be vindicated. ¹⁰ 

Amos 7:7-9

7:7 He showed me this: I saw ¹¹  the sovereign One ¹²  standing by a tin ¹³  wall holding tin in his hand. 7:8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The sovereign One then said,

“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.

I will no longer overlook their sin. ¹⁴ 

7:9 Isaac’s centers of worship ¹⁵  will become desolate;

Israel’s holy places will be in ruins.

I will attack Jeroboam’s dynasty with the sword.” ¹⁶ 

Romans 2:2

2:2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth ¹⁷  against those who practice such things.

Romans 2:5

2:5 But because of your stubbornness ¹⁸  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ¹⁹ 

Romans 9:28

9:28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.” ²⁰ 

Revelation 19:2

19:2 because his judgments are true and just. ²¹ 

For he has judged ²²  the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality,

and has avenged the blood of his servants ²³  poured out by her own hands!” ²⁴ 

[10:22]  ¹ tn Heb “are like.”

[10:22]  ² 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]  ³ tn Or “predetermined”; cf. ASV, NASB “is determined”; TEV “is in store.”

[10:22]  ⁴ tn צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) often means “righteousness,” but here it refers to God’s just judgment.

[10:22]  ⁵ tn Or “is about to overflow.”

[10:2]  ⁶ tn Or “rob” (ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); KJV “take away the right from the poor.”

[10:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”

[94:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “for judgment will return to justice.”

[94:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “all the pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 32:11; 36:10; 64:10; 97:11).

[94:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and after it [are] the pure of heart.”

[7:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:7]  ¹² tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here and in the following verse is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[7:7]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew word אֲנָךְ (’anakh, “tin”) occurs only in this passage (twice in this verse and twice in the following verse). (Its proposed meaning is based on an Akkadian cognate annaku.) The tin wall of the vision, if it symbolizes Israel, may suggest weakness and vulnerability to judgment. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 233-35. The symbolic significance of God holding tin in his hand and then placing tin among the people is unclear. Possibly the term אֲנָךְ in v. 8b is a homonym meaning “grief” (this term is attested in postbiblical Hebrew). In this case there is a wordplay, the אֲנָךְ (“tin”) of the vision suggesting the אֲנָךְ (“grief”) that judgment will bring upon the land. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos (AB), 759. Another option is to maintain the meaning “tin” and understand that the Lord has ripped off a piece of the tin wall and placed it in front of all to see. Their citadels, of which the nation was so proud and confident, are nothing more than tin fortresses. The traditional interpretation of these verses (reflected in many English versions) understands the term אֲנָךְ to mean “lead,” and by extension, “plumb line.” In this case, one may translate: “I saw the sovereign one standing by a wall built true to plumb holding a plumb line in his hand. The Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I said, ‘A plumb line.’ The sovereign one then said, ‘Look, I am about to place a plumb line among my people…’” According to this view, the plumb line symbolizes God’s moral standards by which he will measure Israel to see if they are a straight or crooked wall.

[7:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”

[7:9]  ¹⁵ tn Traditionally, “the high places” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “pagan shrines.”

[7:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword.”

[2:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “based on truth.”

[2:5]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

[2:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

[9:28]  ²⁰ tc In light of the interpretive difficulty of this verse, a longer reading seems to have been added to clarify the meaning. The addition, in the middle of the sentence, makes the whole verse read as follows: “For he will execute his sentence completely and quickly in righteousness, because the Lord will do it quickly on the earth.” The shorter reading is found largely in Alexandrian mss (Ì⁴⁶ א* A B 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), while the longer reading is found principally in Western and Byzantine mss (א² D F G Ψ 33 Ï lat). The longer reading follows Isa 10:22-23 (LXX) verbatim, while Paul in the previous verse quoted the LXX loosely. This suggests the addition was made by a copyist trying to make sense out of a difficult passage rather than by the author himself.

[19:2]  ²¹ tn Compare the similar phrase in Rev 16:7.

[19:2]  ²² tn Or “has punished.” See BDAG 568 s.v. κρίνω 5.b.α, describing the OT background which involves both the vindication of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty.

[19:2]  ²³ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[19:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “from her hand” (referring to her responsibility in causing the blood of God’s followers to be shed).