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 

Lamentations 4:12

ל (Lamed)

4:12 Neither the kings of the earth

nor the people of the lands ³  ever thought ⁴ 

that enemy or foe would enter

the gates ⁵  of Jerusalem. ⁶ 

Daniel 9:12

9:12 He has carried out his threats ⁷  against us and our rulers ⁸  who were over ⁹  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!

Acts 13:40-41

13:40 Watch out, ¹⁰  then, that what is spoken about by ¹¹  the prophets does not happen to you:

13:41 ‘Look, you scoffers; be amazed and perish! ¹² 

For I am doing a work in your days,

a work you would never believe, even if someone tells you.’” ¹³ 

[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.”

[4:12]  ³ tn Heb “inhabitants of the mainland.”

[4:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “they did not believe that.” The verb הֶאֱמִינוּ (he’eminu), Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from אָמַן (’aman, “to believe”), ordinarily is a term of faith and trust, but occasionally it functions cognitively: “to think that” (Job 9:16; 15:22; Ps 116:10; Lam 4:12) and “to be convinced that” (Ps 27:13) (HALOT 64 s.v. I אמן hif.1). The semantic relationship between “to believe” = “to think” is metonymical, that is, effect for cause.

[4:12]  ⁵ sn The expression “to enter the gates” of a city is an idiom referring to the military conquest of that city. Ancient Near Eastern fortified cities typically featured double and sometimes triple city gates – the bulwark of the defense of the city. Because fortified cities were enclosed with protective walls, the Achilles tendon of every city was the city gates – the weak point in the defense and the perennial point of attack by enemies (e.g., Judg 5:8, 11; 1 Sam 17:52; Isa 29:6; Jer 17:27; 51:54; Ezek 21:20, 27; Mic 1:9, 12; Neh 1:3; 2:3, 13, 17).

[4:12]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

[9:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “our judges.”

[9:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “who judged.”

[13:40]  ¹⁰ sn The speech closes with a warning, “Watch out,” that also stresses culpability.

[13:40]  ¹¹ tn Or “in.”

[13:41]  ¹² tn Or “and die!”

[13:41]  ¹³ 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.