Isaiah 29:14

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed. ¹ 

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.” ² 

Amos 3:6-7

3:6 If an alarm sounds ³  in a city, do people not fear? ⁴ 

If disaster overtakes a ⁵  city, is the Lord not responsible? ⁶ 

3:7 Certainly the sovereign Lord does nothing without first revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

Habakkuk 1:5

The Lord Reveals Some Startling News

1:5 “Look at the nations and pay attention! ⁷ 

You will be shocked and amazed! ⁸ 

For I will do something in your lifetime ⁹ 

that you will not believe even though you are forewarned. ¹⁰ 

Acts 13:41

13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! ¹¹ 

For I am doing a work in your days,

a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” ¹² 

[29:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.

[29:14]  ² tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”

[3:6]  ³ tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

[3:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”

[1:5]  ⁷ tn Or “look among the nations and observe.” The imperatival forms in v. 5 are plural, indicating that the Lord’s message is for the whole nation, not just the prophet.

[1:5]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text combines the Hitpael and Qal imperatival forms of the verb תָּמַה (tamah, “be amazed”). A literal translation might read, “Shock yourselves and be shocked!” The repetition of sounds draws attention to the statement. The imperatives here have the force of an emphatic assertion. On this use of the imperative in Hebrew, see GKC 324 §110.c and IBHS 572-73 §34.4c.

[1:5]  ⁹ tc Heb “for a work working in your days.” Following the LXX reading, some supply a first person singular pronoun with the participle פֹּעֵל (po’el). Ellipsis of a first singular pronoun before participles is relatively rare (see GKC 360 §116.s); perhaps an original אֲנֹכִי (’anoki; or אֲנִי, ’aniy) followed the initial כִּי (ki) and was omitted by homoioteleuton.

[1:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you will not believe when it is told.” In this context the force of כִּי (ki) may be “when,” “if,” or “even though.”

[13:41]  ¹¹ tn Or “and die!”

[13:41]  ¹² sn A quotation from Hab 1:5. The irony in the phrase even if someone tells you, of course, is that Paul has now told them. So the call in the warning is to believe or else face the peril of being scoffers whom God will judge. The parallel from Habakkuk is that the nation failed to see how Babylon’s rising to power meant perilous judgment for Israel.