Judges 9:4

9:4 They paid him seventy silver shekels out of the temple of Baal-Berith. Abimelech then used the silver to hire some lawless, dangerous ¹  men as his followers. ² 

Judges 9:27

9:27 They went out to the field, harvested their grapes, ³  squeezed out the juice, ⁴  and celebrated. They came to the temple ⁵  of their god and ate, drank, and cursed Abimelech.

Judges 8:33

Israel Returns to Baal-Worship

8:33 After Gideon died, the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They made Baal-Berith ⁶  their god.

Judges 8:1

8:1 The Ephraimites said to him, “Why have you done such a thing to us? You did not summon us ⁷  when you went to fight the Midianites!” They argued vehemently with him.

Judges 8:26

8:26 The total weight of the gold earrings he requested came to seventeen hundred gold shekels. ⁸  This was in addition to the crescent-shaped ornaments, jewelry, ⁹  purple clothing worn by the Midianite kings, and the necklaces on the camels. ¹⁰ 

Judges 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ¹¹  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ¹² 

Judges 1:2-4

1:2 The Lord said, “The men of Judah should take the lead. ¹³  Be sure of this! I am handing the land over to them.” ¹⁴  1:3 The men of Judah said to their relatives, the men of Simeon, ¹⁵  “Invade our allotted land with us and help us attack the Canaanites. ¹⁶  Then we ¹⁷  will go with you into your allotted land.” So the men of Simeon went with them.

1:4 The men of Judah attacked, ¹⁸  and the Lord handed the Canaanites and Perizzites over to them. They killed ten thousand men at Bezek.

Psalms 115:8

115:8 Those who make them will end up ¹⁹  like them,

as will everyone who trusts in them.

Isaiah 28:15-18

28:15 For you say,

“We have made a treaty with death,

with Sheol ²⁰  we have made an agreement. ²¹ 

When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ²² 

it will not reach us.

For we have made a lie our refuge,

we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ²³ 

28:16 Therefore, this is what the sovereign master, the Lord, says:

“Look, I am laying ²⁴  a stone in Zion,

an approved ²⁵  stone,

set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. ²⁶ 

The one who maintains his faith will not panic. ²⁷ 

28:17 I will make justice the measuring line,

fairness the plumb line;

hail will sweep away the unreliable refuge, ²⁸ 

the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place.

28:18 Your treaty with death will be dissolved; ²⁹ 

your agreement ³⁰  with Sheol will not last. ³¹ 

When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, ³² 

you will be overrun by it. ³³ 

Isaiah 37:38

37:38 One day, ³⁴  as he was worshiping ³⁵  in the temple of his god Nisroch, ³⁶  his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. ³⁷  They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

[9:4]  ¹ tn Heb “empty and reckless.”

[9:4]  ² tn Heb “and they followed him.”

[9:27]  ³ tn Heb “vineyards.”

[9:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “stomped” or “trampled.” This refers to the way in which the juice was squeezed out in the wine vats by stepping on the grapes with one’s bare feet. For a discussion of grape harvesting in ancient Israel, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-14.

[9:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[8:33]  ⁶ sn Baal-Berith was a local manifestation of the Canaanite storm god. The name means, ironically, “Baal of the covenant.” Israel’s covenant allegiance had indeed shifted.

[8:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “by not summoning us.”

[8:26]  ⁸ sn Seventeen hundred gold shekels would be about 42.7 pounds (19.4 kilograms) of gold.

[8:26]  ⁹ tn Or “pendants.”

[8:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.”

[8:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “gleanings.”

[8:2]  ¹² sn Ephraim’s leftover grapes are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest. Gideon employs an agricultural metaphor. He argues that Ephraim’s mopping up operations, though seemingly like the inferior grapes which are missed initially by the harvesters or left for the poor, are actually more noteworthy than the military efforts of Gideon’s family.

[1:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “Judah should go up.”

[1:2]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew exclamation הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally, “Behold”), translated “Be sure of this,” draws attention to the following statement. The verb form in the following statement (a Hebrew perfect, indicating completed action from the standpoint of the speaker) emphasizes the certainty of the event. Though it had not yet taken place, the Lord speaks of it as a “done deal.”

[1:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Judah said to Simeon, his brother.”

[1:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Come up with me into our allotted land and let us attack the Canaanites.”

[1:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I.” The Hebrew pronoun is singular, agreeing with the collective singular “Judah” earlier in the verse. English style requires a plural pronoun here, however.

[1:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Judah went up.”

[115:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will be.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a prayer, “may those who make them end up like them.”

[28:15]  ²⁰ sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.

[28:15]  ²¹ tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.

[28:15]  ²² tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).

[28:15]  ²³ sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.

[28:16]  ²⁴ tc The Hebrew text has a third person verb form, which does not agree with the first person suffix that precedes. The form should be emended to יֹסֵד (yosed), a Qal active participle used in a present progressive or imminent future sense.

[28:16]  ²⁵ tn Traditionally “tested,” but the implication is that it has passed the test and stands approved.

[28:16]  ²⁶ sn The reality behind the metaphor is not entirely clear from the context. The stone appears to represent someone or something that gives Zion stability. Perhaps the ideal Davidic ruler is in view (see 32:1). Another option is that the image of beginning a building project by laying a precious cornerstone suggests that God is about to transform Zion through judgment and begin a new covenant community that will experience his protection (see 4:3-6; 31:5; 33:20-24; 35:10).

[28:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “will not hurry,” i.e., act in panic.

[28:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “[the] refuge, [the] lie.” See v. 15.

[28:18]  ²⁹ tn On the meaning of כָּפַר (kafar) in this context, see HALOT 494 s.v. I כפר and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:515, n. 9.

[28:18]  ³⁰ tn Normally the noun חָזוּת (khazut) means “vision.” See the note at v. 15.

[28:18]  ³¹ tn Or “will not stand” (NIV, NRSV).

[28:18]  ³² tn See the note at v. 15.

[28:18]  ³³ tn Heb “you will become a trampling place for it.”

[37:38]  ³⁴ sn The assassination of King Sennacherib probably took place in 681 b.c.

[37:38]  ³⁵ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[37:38]  ³⁶ sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name Nisroch is a corruption of Nusku.

[37:38]  ³⁷ sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.