Isaiah 2:13-15

2:13 for all the cedars of Lebanon,

that are so high and mighty,

for all the oaks of Bashan; ¹ 

2:14 for all the tall mountains,

for all the high hills, ² 

2:15 for every high tower,

for every fortified wall,

Isaiah 2:2

2:2 In the future ³ 

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure ⁴ 

as the most important of mountains,

and will be the most prominent of hills. ⁵ 

All the nations will stream to it,

Isaiah 24:14-16

24:14 They ⁶  lift their voices and shout joyfully;

they praise ⁷  the majesty of the Lord in the west.

24:15 So in the east ⁸  extol the Lord,

along the seacoasts extol ⁹  the fame ¹⁰  of the Lord God of Israel.

24:16 From the ends of the earth we ¹¹  hear songs –

the Just One is majestic. ¹² 

But I ¹³  say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed!

Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!” ¹⁴ 

Psalms 74:9

74:9 We do not see any signs of God’s presence; ¹⁵ 

there are no longer any prophets ¹⁶ 

and we have no one to tell us how long this will last. ¹⁷ 

Lamentations 5:12-14

5:12 Princes were hung by their hands;

elders were mistreated. ¹⁸ 

5:13 The young men perform menial labor; ¹⁹ 

boys stagger from their labor. ²⁰ 

5:14 The elders are gone from the city gate;

the young men have stopped playing their music.

Amos 2:3

2:3 I will remove ²¹  Moab’s leader; ²² 

I will kill all Moab’s ²³  officials ²⁴  with him.”

The Lord has spoken!

[2:13]  ¹ sn The cedars of Lebanon and oaks of Bashan were well-known for their size and prominence. They make apt symbols here for powerful men who think of themselves as prominent and secure.

[2:14]  ² sn The high mountains and hills symbolize the apparent security of proud men, as do the high tower and fortified wall of v. 15.

[2:2]  ³ tn Heb “in the end of the days.” This phrase may refer generally to the future, or more technically to the final period of history. See BDB 31 s.v. ַאחֲרִית. The verse begins with a verb that functions as a “discourse particle” and is not translated. In numerous places throughout the OT, the “to be” verb with a prefixed conjunction (וְהָיָה [vÿhayah] and וַיְהִי [vayÿhi]) occurs in this fashion to introduce a circumstantial clause and does not require translation.

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Or “be established” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “as the chief of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills.” The image of Mount Zion being elevated above other mountains and hills pictures the prominence it will attain in the future.

[24:14]  ⁶ sn The remnant of the nations (see v. 13) may be the unspecified subject. If so, then those who have survived the judgment begin to praise God.

[24:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “they yell out concerning.”

[24:15]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “in the lights,” interpreted by some to mean “in the region of light,” referring to the east. Some scholars have suggested the emendation of בָּאֻרִים (ba’urim) to בְּאִיֵּי הַיָּם (bÿ’iyyey hayyam, “along the seacoasts”), a phrase that is repeated in the next line. In this case, the two lines form synonymous parallelism. If one retains the MT reading (as above), “in the east” and “along the seacoasts” depict the two ends of the earth to refer to all the earth (as a merism).

[24:15]  ⁹ tn The word “extol” is supplied in the translation; the verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[24:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “name,” which here stands for God’s reputation achieved by his mighty deeds.

[24:16]  ¹¹ sn The identity of the subject is unclear. Apparently in vv. 15-16a an unidentified group responds to the praise they hear in the west by exhorting others to participate.

[24:16]  ¹² tn Heb “Beauty belongs to the just one.” These words may summarize the main theme of the songs mentioned in the preceding line.

[24:16]  ¹³ sn The prophet seems to contradict what he hears the group saying. Their words are premature because more destruction is coming.

[24:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and [with] deception deceivers deceive.”

[74:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3).

[74:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “there is not still a prophet.”

[74:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”

[5:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “elders were shown no respect.” The phrase “shown no respect” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression of understatement: to show no respect to elders = to terribly mistreat elders.

[5:13]  ¹⁹ tn The text is difficult. Word by word the MT has “young men hand mill(?) they take up” Perhaps it means “they take [our] young men for mill grinding,” or perhaps it means “the young men take up [the labor of] mill grinding.” This expression is an example of synecdoche where the mill stands for the labor at the mill and then that labor stands for performing menial physical labor as servants. The surface reading, “young men carry hand mills,” does not portray any great adversity for them. The Vulgate translates as an abusive sexual metaphor (see D. R. Hillers, Lamentations [AB], 99), but this gives no known parallel to the second part of the verse.

[5:13]  ²⁰ tc Heb “boys trip over wood.” This phrase makes little sense. The translation adopts D. R. Hillers’ suggestion (Lamentations [AB], 99) of בְּעֶצֶב כָּשָׁלוּ (bÿ’etsev kashalu). Due to letter confusion and haplography the final ב (bet) of בְּעֶצֶב (bÿ’etsev) which looks like the כ (kaf) beginning the next word, was dropped. This verb can have an abstract noun after the preposition ב (bet) meaning “from, due to” rather than “over.”

[2:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “root out”; NCV “bring to an end.”

[2:3]  ²² tn Heb “the leader [traditionally, “judge”] from her midst.”

[2:3]  ²³ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:3]  ²⁴ tn Or “princes” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NLT); TEV, CEV “leaders.”