Isaiah 2:20-21

2:20 At that time ¹  men will throw

their silver and gold idols,

which they made for themselves to worship, ² 

into the caves where rodents and bats live, ³ 

2:21 so they themselves can go into the crevices of the rocky cliffs

and the openings under the rocky overhangs, ⁴ 

trying to escape the dreadful judgment of the Lord ⁵ 

and his royal splendor,

when he rises up to terrify the earth. ⁶ 

Isaiah 17:7-8

17:7 At that time ⁷  men will trust in their creator; ⁸ 

they will depend on ⁹  the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁰ 

17:8 They will no longer trust in ¹¹  the altars their hands made,

or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made. ¹² 

Isaiah 27:9

27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, ¹³ 

and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: ¹⁴ 

They will make all the stones of the altars ¹⁵ 

like crushed limestone,

and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 31:7

31:7 For at that time ¹⁷  everyone will get rid of ¹⁸  the silver and gold idols your hands sinfully made. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 31:2

31:2 Yet he too is wise ²⁰  and he will bring disaster;

he does not retract his decree. ²¹ 

He will attack the wicked nation, ²² 

and the nation that helps ²³  those who commit sin. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 23:4

23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,

for the sea ²⁵  says this, O fortress of the sea:

“I have not gone into labor

or given birth;

I have not raised young men

or brought up young women.” ²⁶ 

Isaiah 23:2

23:2 Lament, ²⁷  you residents of the coast,

you merchants of Sidon ²⁸  who travel over the sea,

whose agents sail over

Isaiah 31:1

Egypt Will Disappoint

31:1 Those who go down to Egypt for help are as good as dead, ²⁹ 

those who rely on war horses,

and trust in Egypt’s many chariots ³⁰ 

and in their many, many horsemen. ³¹ 

But they do not rely on the Holy One of Israel ³² 

and do not seek help from the Lord.

Isaiah 34:3-7

34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, ³³ 

their corpses will stink; ³⁴ 

the hills will soak up their blood. ³⁵ 

34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, ³⁶ 

the sky will roll up like a scroll;

all its stars will wither,

like a leaf withers and falls from a vine

or a fig withers and falls from a tree. ³⁷ 

34:5 He says, ³⁸  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ³⁹ 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ⁴⁰ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ⁴¹  with fat;

it drips ⁴²  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ⁴³  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁴⁴  in Bozrah, ⁴⁵ 

a bloody ⁴⁶  slaughter in the land of Edom.

34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered ⁴⁷  along with them,

as well as strong bulls. ⁴⁸ 

Their land is drenched with blood,

their soil is covered with fat.

Ezekiel 36:31

36:31 Then you will remember your evil behavior ⁴⁹  and your deeds which were not good; you will loathe yourselves on account of your sins and your abominable deeds.

Micah 5:10-14

The Lord Will Purify His People

5:10 “In that day,” says the Lord,

“I will destroy ⁵⁰  your horses from your midst,

and smash your chariots.

5:11 I will destroy the cities of your land,

and tear down all your fortresses.

5:12 I will remove the sorcery ⁵¹  that you practice, ⁵² 

and you will no longer have omen readers living among you. ⁵³ 

5:13 I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst;

you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah ⁵⁴  from your midst,

and destroy your idols. ⁵⁵ 

Zechariah 13:2

13:2 And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ⁵⁶  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

Revelation 19:20

19:20 Now ⁵⁷  the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf ⁵⁸  – 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. ⁵⁹ 

[2:20]  ¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[2:20]  ² tn Or “bow down to.”

[2:20]  ³ tn Heb “to the shrews and to the bats.” On the meaning of חֲפַרְפָּרָה (khafarparah, “shrew”), see HALOT 341 s.v. חֲפַרְפָּרָה. The BHS text as it stands (לַחְפֹּר פֵּרוֹת, perot lakhpor), makes no sense. Based on Theodotion’s transliteration and a similar reading in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, most scholars suggest that the MT mistakenly divided a noun (a hapax legomenon) that should be translated “moles,” “shrews,” or “rodents.”

[2:21]  ⁴ sn The precise point of vv. 20-21 is not entirely clear. Are they taking the idols into their hiding places with them, because they are so attached to their man-made images? Or are they discarding the idols along the way as they retreat into the darkest places they can find? In either case it is obvious that the gods are incapable of helping them.

[2:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the dread of the Lord,” that is, from the dread that he produces in the objects of his judgment.” The words “trying to escape” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[2:21]  ⁶ tn Or “land.” It is not certain if these verses are describing the judgment of Judah (see vv. 6-9) or a more universal judgment on all proud men. Almost all English versions translate “earth,” taking this to refer to universal judgment.

[17:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB, NIV); KJV “At that day.”

[17:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “man will gaze toward his maker.”

[17:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “his eyes will look toward.”

[17:7]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[17:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he will not gaze toward.”

[17:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and that which his fingers made he will not see, the Asherah poles and the incense altars.”

[27:9]  ¹³ tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”

[27:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and this [is] all the fruit of removing his sin.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear, though “removing his sin” certainly parallels “Jacob’s sin will be removed” in the preceding line. If original, “all the fruit” may refer to the result of the decision to remove sin, but the phrase may be a corruption of לְכַפֵּר (lekhaper, “to atone for”), which in turn might be a gloss on הָסִר (hasir, “removing”).

[27:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “when he makes the stones of an altar.” The singular “altar” is collective here; pagan altars are in view, as the last line of the verse indicates. See also 17:8.

[27:9]  ¹⁶ sn As interpreted and translated above, this verse says that Israel must totally repudiate its pagan religious practices in order to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another option is to understand “in this way” and “this” in v. 9a as referring back to the judgment described in v. 8. In this case כָּפַר (kafar, “atone for”) is used in a sarcastic sense; Jacob’s sin is “atoned for” and removed through severe judgment. Following this line of interpretation, one might paraphrase the verse as follows: “So in this way (through judgment) Jacob’s sin will be “atoned for,” and this is the way his sin will be removed, when he (i.e., God) makes all the altar stones like crushed limestone….” This interpretation is more consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-11.

[31:7]  ¹⁷ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[31:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “reject” (so NIV); NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT “throw away.”

[31:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the idols of their idols of silver and their idols of gold which your hands made for yourselves [in] sin.” חָטָא (khata’, “sin”) is understood as an adverbial accusative of manner. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:573, n. 4.

[31:2]  ²⁰ sn This statement appears to have a sarcastic tone. The royal advisers who are advocating an alliance with Egypt think they are wise, but the Lord possesses wisdom as well and will thwart their efforts.

[31:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “and he does not turn aside [i.e., “retract”] his words”; NIV “does not take back his words.”

[31:2]  ²² tn Heb “and he will arise against the house of the wicked.”

[31:2]  ²³ sn That is, Egypt.

[31:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and against the help of the doers of sin.”

[23:4]  ²⁵ tn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:430-31) sees here a reference to Yam, the Canaanite god of the sea. He interprets the phrase מָעוֹז הַיָּם (ma’oz hayyam, “fortress of the sea”) as a title of Yam, translating “Mighty One of the Sea.” A more traditional view is that the phrase refers to Sidon.

[23:4]  ²⁶ tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[23:2]  ²⁷ tn Or “keep quiet”; NAB “Silence!”

[23:2]  ²⁸ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[31:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who go down to Egypt for help.”

[31:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and trust in chariots for they are many.”

[31:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “and in horsemen for they are very strong [or “numerous”].”

[31:1]  ³² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[34:3]  ³³ tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”

[34:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”

[34:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”

[34:4]  ³⁶ tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”

[34:4]  ³⁷ tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”

[34:5]  ³⁸ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ³⁹ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”

[34:5]  ⁴⁰ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[34:6]  ⁴¹ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ⁴² tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁴³ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ⁴⁵ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[34:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “will go down”; NAB “shall be struck down.”

[34:7]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.

[36:31]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “ways.”

[5:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “cut off” (also in the following verse).

[5:12]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “magic charms” (so NCV, TEV); NIV, NLT “witchcraft”; NAB “the means of divination.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is uncertain, but note its use in Isa 47:9, 12.

[5:12]  ⁵² tn Heb “from your hands.”

[5:12]  ⁵³ tn Heb “and you will not have omen-readers.”

[5:14]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “Asherah poles.”

[5:14]  ⁵⁵ tn The MT reads “your cities,” but many emend the text to צִרֶיךָ (tsirekha, “your images”) or עֲצַבֶּיךָ (’atsbbekha, “your idols”).

[13:2]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “cut off” (so NRSV); NAB “destroy”; NIV “banish.”

[19:20]  ⁵⁷ 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]  ⁵⁸ 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]  ⁵⁹ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”