Isaiah 10:29-32

10:29 They went through the pass,

spent the night at Geba.

Ramah trembled,

Gibeah of Saul ran away.

10:30 Shout out, daughter of Gallim!

Pay attention, Laishah!

Answer her, Anathoth! ¹ 

10:31 Madmenah flees,

the residents of Gebim have hidden.

10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,

they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain ²  –

at the hill of Jerusalem.

Exodus 14:10-13

14:10 When ³  Pharaoh got closer, ⁴  the Israelites looked up, ⁵  and there were the Egyptians marching after them, ⁶  and they were terrified. ⁷  The Israelites cried out to the Lord, ⁸  14:11 and they said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the desert? ⁹  What in the world ¹⁰  have you done to us by bringing ¹¹  us out of Egypt? 14:12 Isn’t this what we told you ¹²  in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, ¹³  because it is better for us to serve ¹⁴  the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” ¹⁵ 

14:13 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! ¹⁶  Stand firm ¹⁷  and see ¹⁸  the salvation ¹⁹  of the Lord that he will provide ²⁰  for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again. ²¹ 

Exodus 15:9-10

15:9 The enemy said, ‘I will chase, ²²  I will overtake,

I will divide the spoil;

my desire ²³  will be satisfied on them.

I will draw ²⁴  my sword, my hand will destroy them.’ ²⁵ 

15:10 But ²⁶  you blew with your breath, and ²⁷  the sea covered them.

They sank ²⁸  like lead in the mighty waters.

Esther 5:14

5:14 Haman’s ²⁹  wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows seventy-five feet ³⁰  high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.” ³¹ 

It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.

Daniel 3:15

3:15 Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, trigon, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must bow down and pay homage to the statue that I had made. If you don’t pay homage to it, you will immediately be thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. Now, who is that god who can rescue you from my power?” ³² 

Daniel 3:19

3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed ³³  toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders ³⁴  to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated.

Revelation 20:9

20:9 They ³⁵  went up ³⁶  on the broad plain of the earth ³⁷  and encircled ³⁸  the camp ³⁹  of the saints and the beloved city, but ⁴⁰  fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely. ⁴¹ 

[10:30]  ¹ tc The Hebrew text reads “Poor [is] Anathoth.” The parallelism is tighter if עֲנִיָּה (’aniyyah,“poor”) is emended to עֲנִיהָ (’aniha, “answer her”). Note how the preceding two lines have an imperative followed by a proper name.

[10:32]  ² tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “a mountain of a house (בֵּית, bet), Zion,” but the marginal reading (Qere) correctly reads “the mountain of the daughter (בַּת, bat) of Zion.” On the phrase “Daughter Zion,” see the note on the same phrase in 1:8.

[14:10]  ³ tn The disjunctive vav introduces a circumstantial clause here.

[14:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “drew near.”

[14:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “lifted up their eyes,” an expression that indicates an intentional and careful looking – they looked up and fixed their sights on the distance.

[14:10]  ⁶ tn The construction uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) with the participle, traditionally rendered “and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them.” The deictic particle calls attention in a dramatic way to what was being seen. It captures the surprise and the sudden realization of the people.

[14:10]  ⁷ tn The verb “feared” is intensified by the adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od): “they feared greatly” or “were terrified.” In one look their defiant boldness seems to have evaporated.

[14:10]  ⁸ sn Their cry to the Lord was proper and necessary. But their words to Moses were a rebuke and disloyal, showing a lack of faith and understanding. Their arrogance failed them in the crisis because it was built on the arm of flesh. Moses would have to get used to this murmuring, but here he takes it in stride and gives them the proper instructions. They had cried to the Lord, and now the Lord would deliver.

[14:11]  ⁹ sn B. Jacob (Exodus, 396-97) notes how the speech is overly dramatic and came from a people given to using such exaggerations (Num 16:14), even using a double negative. The challenge to Moses brings a double irony. To die in the desert would be without proper burial, but in Egypt there were graves – it was a land of tombs and graves! Gesenius notes that two negatives in the sentence do not nullify each other but make the sentence all the more emphatic: “Is it because there were no graves…?” (GKC 483 §152.y).

[14:11]  ¹⁰ tn The demonstrative pronoun has the enclitic use again, giving a special emphasis to the question (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[14:11]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term לְהוֹצִּיאָנוּ (lÿhotsi’anu) is the Hiphil infinitive construct with a suffix, “to bring us out.” It is used epexegetically here, explaining the previous question.

[14:12]  ¹² tn Heb “Is not this the word that we spoke to you.”

[14:12]  ¹³ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 164) explains this statement by the people as follows: “The question appears surprising at first, for we have not read previously that such words were spoken to Moses. Nor is the purport of the protest of the Israelite foremen (v 21 [5:21]) identical with that of the words uttered now. However, from a psychological standpoint the matter can be easily explained. In the hour of peril the children of Israel remember that remonstrance, and now it seems to them that it was of a sharper character and flowed from their foresight, and that the present situation justifies it, for death awaits them at this moment in the desert.” This declaration that “we told you so,” born of fright, need not have been strictly accurate or logical.

[14:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “better for us to serve.”

[14:12]  ¹⁵ tn Since Hebrew does not use quotation marks to indicate the boundaries of quotations, there is uncertainty about whether the Israelites’ statement in Egypt includes the end of v. 12 or consists solely of “leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians.” In either case, the command to Moses to leave them alone rested on the assumption, spoken or unspoken, that serving Egypt would be less risky than what Moses was proposing. Now with the Egyptian army on the horizon, the Israelites are sure that their worst predictions are about to take place.

[14:13]  ¹⁶ tn The use of אַל (’al) with the jussive has the force of “stop fearing.” It is a more immediate negative command than לֹא (lo’) with the imperfect (as in the Decalogue).

[14:13]  ¹⁷ tn The force of this verb in the Hitpael is “to station oneself” or “stand firm” without fleeing.

[14:13]  ¹⁸ tn The form is an imperative with a vav (ו). It could also be rendered “stand firm and you will see” meaning the result, or “stand firm that you may see” meaning the purpose.

[14:13]  ¹⁹ tn Or “victory” (NAB) or “deliverance” (NIV, NRSV).

[14:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “do,” i.e., perform or accomplish.

[14:13]  ²¹ tn The construction uses a verbal hendiadys consisting of a Hiphil imperfect (“you will not add”) and a Qal infinitive construct with a suffix (“to see them”) – “you will no longer see them.” Then the clause adds “again, for ever.”

[15:9]  ²² sn W. C. Kaiser observes the staccato phrases that almost imitate the heavy, breathless heaving of the Egyptians as, with what reserve of strength they have left, they vow, “I will…, I will…, I will…” (“Exodus,” EBC 2:395).

[15:9]  ²³ tn The form is נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”). But this word refers to the whole person, the body and the soul, or better, a bundle of appetites in a body. It therefore can figuratively refer to the desires or appetites (Deut 12:15; 14:26; 23:24). Here, with the verb “to be full” means “to be satisfied”; the whole expression might indicate “I will be sated with them” or “I will gorge myself.” The greedy appetite was to destroy.

[15:9]  ²⁴ tn The verb רִיק (riq) means “to be empty” in the Qal, and in the Hiphil “to empty.” Here the idea is to unsheathe a sword.

[15:9]  ²⁵ tn The verb is יָרַשׁ (yarash), which in the Hiphil means “to dispossess” or “root out.” The meaning “destroy” is a general interpretation.

[15:10]  ²⁶ tn “But” has been supplied here.

[15:10]  ²⁷ tn Here “and” has been supplied.

[15:10]  ²⁸ tn The verb may have the idea of sinking with a gurgling sound, like water going into a whirlpool (R. A. Cole, Exodus [TOTC], 124; S. R. Driver, Exodus, 136). See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, “The Song of Miriam,” JNES 14 (1955): 243-47.

[5:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “fifty cubits.” Assuming a standard length for the cubit of about 18 inches (45 cm), this would be about seventy-five feet (22.5 meters), which is a surprisingly tall height for the gallows. Perhaps the number assumes the gallows was built on a large supporting platform or a natural hill for visual effect, in which case the structure itself may have been considerably smaller. Cf. NCV “a seventy-five foot platform”; CEV “a tower built about seventy-five feet high.”

[5:14]  ³¹ tn Or “joyful”; NRSV “in good spirits”; TEV “happy.”

[3:15]  ³² tn Aram “hand.” So also in v. 17.

[3:19]  ³³ tn Aram “the appearance of his face was altered”; cf. NLT “his face became distorted with rage”; NAB “[his] face became livid with utter rage.”

[3:19]  ³⁴ tn Aram “he answered and said.”

[20:9]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:9]  ³⁶ tn The shift here to past tense reflects the Greek text.

[20:9]  ³⁷ tn On the phrase “broad plain of the earth” BDAG 823 s.v. πλάτος states, “τὸ πλάτος τῆς γῆς Rv 20:9 comes fr. the OT (Da 12:2 LXX. Cp. Hab 1:6; Sir 1:3), but the sense is not clear: breadth = the broad plain of the earth is perh. meant to provide room for the countless enemies of God vs. 8, but the ‘going up’ is better suited to Satan (vs. 7) who has recently been freed, and who comes up again fr. the abyss (vs. 3).” The referent here thus appears to be a plain large enough to accommodate the numberless hoards that have drawn up for battle against the Lord Christ and his saints.

[20:9]  ³⁸ tn Or “surrounded.”

[20:9]  ³⁹ tn On the term παρεμβολή (parembolh) BDAG 775 s.v. states, “Mostly used as a military t.t.…so always in our lit.…1. a (fortified) camp…ἡ παρεμβολὴ τῶν ἁγίων Rv 20:9 is also to be understood fr. the OT use of the word.”

[20:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[20:9]  ⁴¹ tn See L&N 20.45 for the translation of κατεσθίω (katesqiw) as “to destroy utterly, to consume completely.”