Isaiah 19:13-14

19:13 The officials of Zoan are fools,

the officials of Memphis ¹  are misled;

the rulers ²  of her tribes lead Egypt astray.

19:14 The Lord has made them undiscerning; ³ 

they lead Egypt astray in all she does,

so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. ⁴ 

Isaiah 23:9

23:9 The Lord who commands armies planned it –

to dishonor the pride that comes from all her beauty, ⁵ 

to humiliate all the dignitaries of the earth.

Isaiah 24:21-22

The Lord Will Become King

24:21 At that time ⁶  the Lord will punish ⁷ 

the heavenly forces in the heavens ⁸ 

and the earthly kings on the earth.

24:22 They will be imprisoned in a pit, ⁹ 

locked up in a prison,

and after staying there for a long time, ¹⁰  they will be punished. ¹¹ 

Job 12:21

12:21 He pours contempt on noblemen

and disarms ¹²  the powerful. ¹³ 

Job 34:19-20

34:19 who shows no partiality to princes,

and does not take note of ¹⁴  the rich more than the poor,

because all of them are the work of his hands?

34:20 In a moment they die, in the middle of the night, ¹⁵ 

people ¹⁶  are shaken ¹⁷  and they pass away.

The mighty are removed effortlessly. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 76:12

76:12 He humbles princes; ¹⁹ 

the kings of the earth regard him as awesome. ²⁰ 

Psalms 107:40

107:40 He would pour ²¹  contempt upon princes,

and he made them wander in a wasteland with no road.

Jeremiah 25:18-27

25:18 I made Jerusalem ²²  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ²³  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ²⁴  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ²⁵  Such is already becoming the case! ²⁶  25:19 I made all of these other people drink it: Pharaoh, king of Egypt; ²⁷  his attendants, his officials, his people, 25:20 the foreigners living in Egypt; ²⁸  all the kings of the land of Uz; ²⁹  all the kings of the land of the Philistines, ³⁰  the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod; ³¹  25:21 all the people of Edom, ³²  Moab, ³³  Ammon; ³⁴  25:22 all the kings of Tyre, ³⁵  all the kings of Sidon; ³⁶  all the kings of the coastlands along the sea; ³⁷  25:23 the people of Dedan, Tema, Buz, ³⁸  all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples; ³⁹  25:24 all the kings of Arabia who ⁴⁰  live in the desert; 25:25 all the kings of Zimri; ⁴¹  all the kings of Elam; ⁴²  all the kings of Media; ⁴³  25:26 all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the Lord’s wrath, ⁴⁴  the king of Babylon ⁴⁵  must drink it.

25:27 Then the Lord said to me, ⁴⁶  “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁴⁷  says, ⁴⁸  ‘Drink this cup ⁴⁹  until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. ⁵⁰  For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ ⁵¹ 

Luke 1:51-52

1:51 He has demonstrated power ⁵²  with his arm; he has scattered those whose pride wells up from the sheer arrogance ⁵³  of their hearts.

1:52 He has brought down the mighty ⁵⁴  from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position; ⁵⁵ 

Revelation 19:18-20

19:18 to eat ⁵⁶  your fill ⁵⁷  of the flesh of kings,

the flesh of generals, ⁵⁸ 

the flesh of powerful people,

the flesh of horses and those who ride them,

and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, ⁵⁹ 

and small and great!”

19:19 Then ⁶⁰  I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to do battle with the one who rode the horse and with his army. 19:20 Now ⁶¹  the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf ⁶²  – signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur. ⁶³ 

[19:13]  ¹ tn Heb “Noph” (so KJV); most recent English versions substitute the more familiar “Memphis.”

[19:13]  ² tn Heb “the cornerstone.” The singular form should be emended to a plural.

[19:14]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord has mixed into her midst a spirit of blindness.”

[19:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “like the going astray of a drunkard in his vomit.”

[23:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the pride of all the beauty.”

[24:21]  ⁶ tn Or “in that day” (so KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[24:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “visit [in judgment].”

[24:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “the host of the height in the height.” The “host of the height/heaven” refers to the heavenly luminaries (stars and planets, see, among others, Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4-5; 2 Chr 33:3, 5) that populate the divine/heavenly assembly in mythological and prescientific Israelite thought (see Job 38:7; Isa 14:13).

[24:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “they will be gathered [in] a gathering [as] a prisoner in a cistern.” It is tempting to eliminate אֲסֵפָה (’asefah, “a gathering”) as dittographic or as a gloss, but sound repetition is one of the main characteristics of the style of this section of the chapter.

[24:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and after a multitude of days.”

[24:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “visited” (so KJV, ASV). This verse can mean to visit for good or for evil. The translation assumes the latter, based on v. 21a. However, BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד B.Niph.2 suggests the meaning “visit graciously” here, in which case one might translate “they will be released.”

[12:21]  ¹² tn The expression in Hebrew uses מְזִיחַ (mÿziakh, “belt”) and the Piel verb רִפָּה (rippah, “to loosen”) so that “to loosen the belt of the mighty” would indicate “to disarm/incapacitate the mighty.” Others have opted to change the text: P. Joüon emends to read “forehead” – “he humbles the brow of the mighty.”

[12:21]  ¹³ tn The word אָפַק (’afaq, “to be strong”) is well-attested, and the form אָפִיק (’afiq) is a normal adjective formation. So a translation like “mighty” (KJV, NIV) or “powerful” is acceptable, and further emendations are unnecessary.

[34:19]  ¹⁴ tn The verb means “to give recognition; to take note of” and in this passage with לִפְנֵי (lifne, “before”) it means to show preferential treatment to the rich before the poor. The word for “rich” here is an unusual word, found parallel to “noble” (Isa 32:2). P. Joüon thinks it is a term of social distinction (Bib 18 [1937]: 207-8).

[34:20]  ¹⁵ tn Dhorme transposes “in the middle of the night” with “they pass away” to get a smoother reading. But the MT emphasizes the suddenness by putting both temporal ideas first. E. F. Sutcliffe leaves the order as it stands in the text, but adds a verb “they expire” after “in the middle of the night” (“Notes on Job, textual and exegetical,” Bib 30 [1949]: 79ff.).

[34:20]  ¹⁶ tn R. Gordis (Job, 389) thinks “people” here mean the people who count, the upper class.

[34:20]  ¹⁷ tn The verb means “to be violently agitated.” There is no problem with the word in this context, but commentators have made suggestions for improving the idea. The proposal that has the most to commend it, if one were inclined to choose a new word, is the change to יִגְוָעוּ (yigva’u, “they expire”; so Ball, Holscher, Fohrer, and others).

[34:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “not by hand.” This means without having to use force.

[76:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he reduces the spirit of princes.” According to HALOT 148 s.v. II בצר, the Hebrew verb בָּצַר (batsar) is here a hapax legomenon meaning “reduce, humble.” The statement is generalizing, with the imperfect tense highlighting God’s typical behavior.

[76:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[he is] awesome to the kings of the earth.”

[107:40]  ²¹ tn The active participle is understood as past durative here, drawing attention to typical action in a past time frame. However, it could be taken as generalizing (in which case one should translate using the English present tense), in which case the psalmist moves from narrative to present reality. Perhaps the participial form appears because the statement is lifted from Job 12:21.

[25:18]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ²³ tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

[25:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

[25:18]  ²⁵ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

[25:19]  ²⁷ sn See further Jer 46:2-28 for the judgment against Egypt.

[25:20]  ²⁸ tn The meaning of this term and its connection with the preceding is somewhat uncertain. This word is used of the mixture of foreign people who accompanied Israel out of Egypt (Exod 12:38) and of the foreigners that the Israelites were to separate out of their midst in the time of Nehemiah (Neh 13:3). Most commentators interpret it here of the foreign people who were living in Egypt. (See BDB 786 s.v. I עֶרֶב and KBL 733 s.v. II עֶרֶב.)

[25:20]  ²⁹ sn The land of Uz was Job’s homeland (Job 1:1). The exact location is unknown but its position here between Egypt and the Philistine cities suggests it is south of Judah, probably in the Arabian peninsula. Lam 4:21 suggests that it was near Edom.

[25:20]  ³⁰ sn See further Jer 47:1-7 for the judgment against the Philistines. The Philistine cities were west of Judah.

[25:20]  ³¹ sn The Greek historian Herodotus reports that Ashdod had been destroyed under the Pharaoh who preceded Necho, Psammetichus.

[25:21]  ³² sn See further Jer 49:7-22 for the judgment against Edom. Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah.

[25:21]  ³³ sn See further Jer 48:1-47 for the judgment against Moab.

[25:21]  ³⁴ sn See further Jer 49:1-6 for the judgment against Ammon.

[25:22]  ³⁵ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[25:22]  ³⁶ sn Tyre and Sidon are mentioned within the judgment on the Philistines in Jer 47:4. They were Phoenician cities to the north and west of Judah on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Lebanon.

[25:22]  ³⁷ sn The connection with Tyre and Sidon suggests that these were Phoenician colonies. See also Isa 23:2.

[25:23]  ³⁸ sn Dedan and Tema are mentioned together in Isa 21:13-14 and located in the desert. They were located in the northern part of the Arabian peninsula south and east of Ezion Geber. Buz is not mentioned anywhere else and its location is unknown. Judgment against Dedan and Tema is mentioned in conjunction with the judgment on Edom in Jer 47:7-8.

[25:23]  ³⁹ tn For the discussion regarding the meaning of the terms here see the notes on 9:26.

[25:24]  ⁴⁰ tc Or “and all the kings of people of mixed origin who.” The Greek version gives evidence of having read the term only once; it refers to the “people of mixed origin” without reference to the kings of Arabia. While the term translated “people of mixed origin” seems appropriate in the context of a group of foreigners within a larger entity (e.g. Israel in Exod 12:38; Neh 13:3; Egypt in Jer 50:37), it seems odd to speak of them as a separate entity under their own kings. The presence of the phrase in the Hebrew text and the other versions dependent upon it can be explained as a case of dittography.

[25:25]  ⁴¹ sn The kingdom of Zimri is mentioned nowhere else, so its location is unknown.

[25:25]  ⁴² sn See further Jer 49:34-39 for judgment against Elam.

[25:25]  ⁴³ sn Elam and Media were east of Babylon; Elam in the south and Media in the north. They were in what is now western Iran.

[25:26]  ⁴⁴ tn The words “have drunk the wine of the Lord’s wrath” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity at the end of the list to serve as a transition to the next sentence which does not directly mention the cup or the Lord’s wrath.

[25:26]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “the king of Sheshach.” “Sheshach” is a code name for Babylon formed on the principle of substituting the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the next to the last for the second, and so on. On this principle Hebrew שׁ (shin) is substituted for Hebrew ב (bet) and Hebrew כ (kaf) is substituted for Hebrew ל (lamed). On the same principle “Leb Kamai” in Jer 51:1 is a code name for Chasdim or Chaldeans which is Jeremiah’s term for the Babylonians. No explanation is given for why the code names are used. The name “Sheshach” for Babylon also occurs in Jer 51:41 where the term Babylon is found in parallelism with it.

[25:27]  ⁴⁶ tn The words “Then the Lord said to me” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity, to connect this part of the narrative with vv. 15, 17 after the long intervening list of nations who were to drink the cup of God’s wrath in judgment.

[25:27]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[25:27]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “Tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord….’” The translation is intended to eliminate one level of imbedded quotation marks to help avoid confusion.

[25:27]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “this cup” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor and the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[25:27]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “Drink, and get drunk, and vomit and fall down and don’t get up.” The imperatives following drink are not parallel actions but consequent actions. For the use of the imperative plus the conjunctive “and” to indicate consequent action, even intention see GKC 324-25 §110.f and compare usage in 1 Kgs 22:12; Prov 3:3b-4a.

[25:27]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among you.” See the notes on 2:16 for explanation.

[1:51]  ⁵² tn Or “shown strength,” “performed powerful deeds.” The verbs here switch to aorist tense through 1:55. This is how God will act in general for his people as they look to his ultimate deliverance.

[1:51]  ⁵³ tn Grk “in the imaginations of their hearts.” The psalm rebukes the arrogance of the proud, who think that power is their sovereign right. Here διανοίᾳ (dianoia) can be understood as a dative of sphere or reference/respect.

[1:52]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “rulers.”

[1:52]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “those of humble position”

[19:18]  ⁵⁶ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause, insofar as it is related to the first imperative, has the force of an imperative.

[19:18]  ⁵⁷ tn The idea of eating “your fill” is evident in the context with the use of χορτάζω (cortazw) in v. 21.

[19:18]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “chiliarchs”; normally a chiliarch was a military officer commanding a thousand soldiers, but here probably used of higher-ranking commanders like generals (see L&N 55.15; cf. Rev 6:15).

[19:18]  ⁵⁹ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[19:19]  ⁶⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[19:20]  ⁶¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of an unexpected development in the account: The opposing armies do not come together in battle; rather the leader of one side is captured.

[19:20]  ⁶² tn For this meaning see BDAG 342 s.v. ἐνώπιον 4.b, “by the authority of, on behalf of Rv 13:12, 14; 19:20.”

[19:20]  ⁶³ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”