Isaiah 5:28

5:28 Their arrows are sharpened,

and all their bows are prepared. ¹ 

The hooves of their horses are hard as flint, ² 

and their chariot wheels are like a windstorm. ³ 

Isaiah 21:1

The Lord Will Judge Babylon

21:1 Here is a message about the Desert by the Sea: ⁴ 

Like strong winds blowing in the south, ⁵ 

one invades from the desert,

from a land that is feared.

Isaiah 66:15

66:15 For look, the Lord comes with fire,

his chariots come like a windstorm, ⁶ 

to reveal his raging anger,

his battle cry, and his flaming arrows. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 4:13

4:13 Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. ⁸ 

The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. ⁹ 

His horses move more swiftly than eagles.”

I cry out, ¹⁰  “We are doomed, ¹¹  for we will be destroyed!”

Zechariah 9:14

9:14 Then the Lord will appear above them, and his arrow will shoot forth like lightning; the Lord God will blow the trumpet and will sally forth on the southern storm winds.

[5:28]  ¹ tn Heb “bent” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “are strung.”

[5:28]  ² tn Heb “regarded like flint.”

[5:28]  ³ sn They are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way they kick up dust.

[21:1]  ⁴ sn The phrase is quite cryptic, at least to the modern reader. Verse 9 seems to indicate that this message pertains to Babylon. Southern Mesopotamia was known as the Sealand in ancient times, because of its proximity to the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the reference to Babylon as a “desert” foreshadows the destruction that would overtake the city, making it like a desolate desert.

[21:1]  ⁵ tn Or “in the Negev” (NASB).

[66:15]  ⁶ sn Chariots are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way that they kick up dust.

[66:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “to cause to return with the rage of his anger, and his battle cry [or “rebuke”] with flames of fire.”

[4:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “he is coming up like clouds.” The words “The enemy” are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and the word “gathering” is supplied to try to convey the significance of the simile, i.e., that of quantity and of an approaching storm.

[4:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “his chariots [are] like a whirlwind.” The words “roar” and “sound” are supplied in the translation to clarify the significance of the simile.

[4:13]  ¹⁰ tn The words “I cry out” are not in the text, but the words that follow are obviously not the Lord’s. They are either those of the people or of Jeremiah. Taking them as Jeremiah’s parallels the interjection of Jeremiah’s response in 4:10 which is formally introduced.

[4:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Woe to us!” The words “woe to” are common in funeral laments and at the beginning of oracles of judgment. In many contexts they carry the connotation of hopelessness or apprehensiveness of inevitable doom.