Isaiah 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ¹  went out and killed 185,000 troops ²  in the Assyrian camp. When they ³  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ⁴ 

Exodus 12:29-30

The Deliverance from Egypt

12:29 ⁵ It happened ⁶  at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 12:30 Pharaoh got up ⁷  in the night, ⁸  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ⁹  in which there was not someone dead.

Nehemiah 4:11

4:11 Our adversaries also boasted, ¹⁰  “Before they are aware or anticipate ¹¹  anything, we will come in among them and kill them, and we will bring this work to a halt!”

Revelation 3:3

3:3 Therefore, remember what you received and heard, ¹²  and obey it, ¹³  and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will never ¹⁴  know at what hour I will come against ¹⁵  you.

[37:36]  ¹ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ² tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ³ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”

[12:29]  ⁵ sn The next section records the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and so becomes the turning point of the book. Verses 28 and 29 could be included in the exposition of the previous section as the culmination of that part. The message might highlight God’s requirement for deliverance from bondage through the application of the blood of the sacrifice, God’s instruction for the memorial of deliverance through the purging of corruption, and the compliance of those who believed the message. But these verses also form the beginning of this next section (and so could be used transitionally). This unit includes the judgment on Egypt (29-30), the exodus from Egypt (31-39) and the historical summation and report (40-42).

[12:29]  ⁶ tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), often translated “and it came to pass.” Here it could be left untranslated: “In the middle of the night Yahweh attacked.” The word order of the next and main clause furthers the emphasis by means of the vav disjunctive on the divine name preceding the verb. The combination of these initial and disjunctive elements helps to convey the suddenness of the attack, while its thoroughness is stressed by the repetition of “firstborn” in the rest of the verse, the merism (“from the firstborn of Pharaoh…to the firstborn of the captive”), and the mention of cattle.

[12:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “arose,” the verb קוּם (qum) in this context certainly must describe a less ceremonial act. The entire country woke up in terror because of the deaths.

[12:30]  ⁸ tn The noun is an adverbial accusative of time – “in the night” or “at night.”

[12:30]  ⁹ sn Or so it seemed. One need not push this description to complete literalness. The reference would be limited to houses that actually had firstborn people or animals. In a society in which households might include more than one generation of humans and animals, however, the presence of a firstborn human or animal would be the rule rather than the exception.

[4:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “said.”

[4:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “see.”

[3:3]  ¹² tn The expression πῶς εἴληφας καὶ ἤκουσας (pw" eilhfa" kai hkousa") probably refers to the initial instruction in the Christian life they had received and been taught; this included doctrine and ethical teaching.

[3:3]  ¹³ tn Grk “keep it,” in the sense of obeying what they had initially been taught.

[3:3]  ¹⁴ tn The negation here is with οὐ μή (ou mh, the strongest possible form of negation in Koine Greek).

[3:3]  ¹⁵ tn Or “come on.”