Judges 8:10

8:10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies. There were about fifteen thousand survivors from the army of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand sword-wielding soldiers had been killed. ¹ 

Judges 8:2

8:2 He said to them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Even Ephraim’s leftover grapes ²  are better quality than Abiezer’s harvest! ³ 

Judges 14:9-12

14:9 He scooped it up with his hands and ate it as he walked along. When he returned ⁴  to his father and mother, he offered them some and they ate it. But he did not tell them he had scooped the honey out of the lion’s carcass. ⁵ 

14:10 Then Samson’s father accompanied him to Timnah for the marriage. ⁶  Samson hosted a party ⁷  there, for this was customary for bridegrooms ⁸  to do. 14:11 When the Philistines saw he had no attendants, they gave him thirty groomsmen who kept him company. ⁹  14:12 Samson said to them, “I will give you a riddle. If you really can solve it during the seven days the party lasts, ¹⁰  I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty sets ¹¹  of clothes.

Psalms 3:1

Psalm 3 ¹² 

A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom. ¹³ 

3:1 Lord, how ¹⁴  numerous are my enemies!

Many attack me. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 33:16

33:16 No king is delivered by his vast army;

a warrior is not saved by his great might.

Psalms 118:10-12

118:10 All the nations surrounded me. ¹⁶ 

Indeed, in the name of the Lord ¹⁷  I pushed them away. ¹⁸ 

118:11 They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me.

Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.

118:12 They surrounded me like bees.

But they disappeared as quickly ¹⁹  as a fire among thorns. ²⁰ 

Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.

Isaiah 8:9-10

8:9 You will be broken, ²¹  O nations;

you will be shattered! ²² 

Pay attention, all you distant lands of the earth!

Get ready for battle, and you will be shattered!

Get ready for battle, and you will be shattered! ²³ 

8:10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted!

Issue your orders, but they will not be executed! ²⁴ 

For God is with us! ²⁵ 

[8:10]  ¹ tn Heb “About fifteen thousand [in number] were all the ones remaining from the army of the sons of the east. The fallen ones were a hundred and twenty thousand [in number], men drawing the sword.”

[8:2]  ² tn Heb “gleanings.”

[8:2]  ³ 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.

[14:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “went.” Samson apparently went home to his parents before going to Timnah for the marriage. Seeing and tasting the honey appears to encourage Manoah to go with his son to Timnah. Perhaps both Samson and his father viewed the honey as a good omen of future blessing. Possibly Samson considered it a symbol of sexual pleasure or an aphrodisiac. Note the use of honey imagery in Song 4:11 and 5:1.

[14:9]  ⁵ sn Touching the carcass of a dead animal undoubtedly violated Samson’s Nazirite status. See Num 6:6.

[14:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “And his father went down to the woman.”

[14:10]  ⁷ tn Or “[wedding] feast.”

[14:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “the young men.”

[14:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “When they saw him, they gave him thirty companions and they were with him.” Instead of כִּרְאוֹתָם (kir’otam, “when they saw”) some ancient witnesses (e.g., some mss of the LXX) assume the reading בְּיִרְאָתָם (bÿyir’atam, “because they feared”).

[14:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “If you really can tell it to me [during] the seven days of the feast and you find [its answer].”

[14:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “changes.”

[3:1]  ¹² sn Psalm 3. The psalmist acknowledges that he is confronted by many enemies (vv. 1-2). But, alluding to a divine oracle he has received (vv. 4-5), he affirms his confidence in God’s ability to protect him (vv. 3, 6) and requests that God make his promise a reality (vv. 7-8).

[3:1]  ¹³ sn According to Jewish tradition, David offered this prayer when he was forced to flee from Jerusalem during his son Absalom’s attempted coup (see 2 Sam 15:13-17).

[3:1]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term מָה (mah, “how”) is used here as an adverbial exclamation (see BDB 553 s.v.).

[3:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “many rise up against me.”

[118:10]  ¹⁶ sn The reference to an attack by the nations suggests the psalmist may have been a military leader.

[118:10]  ¹⁷ tn In this context the phrase “in the name of the Lord” means “by the Lord’s power.”

[118:10]  ¹⁸ tn Traditionally the verb has been derived from מוּל (mul, “to circumcise”) and translated “[I] cut [them] off” (see BDB 557-58 s.v. II מוּל). However, it is likely that this is a homonym meaning “to fend off” (see HALOT 556 s.v. II מול) or “to push away.” In this context, where the psalmist is reporting his past experience, the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite. The phrase also occurs in vv. 11, 12.

[118:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “were extinguished.”

[118:12]  ²⁰ tn The point seems to be that the hostility of the nations (v. 10) is short-lived, like a fire that quickly devours thorns and then burns out. Some, attempting to create a better parallel with the preceding line, emend דֹּעֲכוּ (do’akhu, “they were extinguished”) to בָּעֲרוּ (ba’aru, “they burned”). In this case the statement emphasizes their hostility.

[8:9]  ²¹ tn The verb רֹעוּ (ro’u) is a Qal imperative, masculine plural from רָעַע (ra’a’, “break”). Elsewhere both transitive (Job 34:24; Ps 2:9; Jer 15:12) and intransitive (Prov 25:19; Jer 11:16) senses are attested for the Qal of this verb. Because no object appears here, the form is likely intransitive: “be broken.” In this case the imperative is rhetorical (like “be shattered” later in the verse) and equivalent to a prediction, “you will be broken.” On the rhetorical use of the imperative in general, see IBHS 572 §34.4c; GKC 324 §110.c.

[8:9]  ²² tn The imperatival form (Heb “be shattered”) is rhetorical and expresses the speaker’s firm conviction of the outcome of the nations’ attack. See the note on “be broken.”

[8:9]  ²³ tn The initial imperative (“get ready for battle”) acknowledges the reality of the nations’ hostility; the concluding imperative (Heb “be shattered”) is rhetorical and expresses the speakers’ firm conviction of the outcome of the nations’ attack. (See the note on “be broken.”) One could paraphrase, “Okay, go ahead and prepare for battle since that’s what you want to do, but your actions will backfire and you’ll be shattered.” This rhetorical use of the imperatives is comparable to saying to a child who is bent on climbing a high tree, “Okay, go ahead, climb the tree and break your arm!” What this really means is: “Okay, go ahead and climb the tree since that’s what you really want to do, but your actions will backfire and you’ll break your arm.” The repetition of the statement in the final two lines of the verse gives the challenge the flavor of a taunt (ancient Israelite “trash talking,” as it were).

[8:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “speak a word, but it will not stand.”

[8:10]  ²⁵ sn In these vv. 9-10 the tone shifts abruptly from judgment to hope. Hostile nations like Assyria may attack God’s people, but eventually they will be destroyed, for God is with his people, sometimes to punish, but ultimately to vindicate. In addition to being a reminder of God’s presence in the immediate crisis faced by Ahaz and Judah, Immanuel (whose name is echoed in this concluding statement) was a guarantee of the nation’s future greatness in fulfillment of God’s covenantal promises. Eventually God would deliver his people from the hostile nations (vv. 9-10) through another child, an ideal Davidic ruler who would embody God’s presence in a special way (see 9:6-7). Jesus the Messiah is the fulfillment of the Davidic ideal prophesied by Isaiah, the one whom Immanuel foreshadowed. Through the miracle of the incarnation he is literally “God with us.” Matthew realized this and applied Isaiah’s ancient prophecy of Immanuel’s birth to Jesus (Matt 1:22-23). The first Immanuel was a reminder to the people of God’s presence and a guarantee of a greater child to come who would manifest God’s presence in an even greater way. The second Immanuel is “God with us” in a heightened and infinitely superior sense. He “fulfills” Isaiah’s Immanuel prophecy by bringing the typology intended by God to realization and by filling out or completing the pattern designed by God. Of course, in the ultimate fulfillment of the type, the incarnate Immanuel’s mother must be a virgin, so Matthew uses a Greek term (παρθένος, parqenos), which carries that technical meaning (in contrast to the Hebrew word עַלְמָה [’almah], which has the more general meaning “young woman”). Matthew draws similar analogies between NT and OT events in 2:15, 18. The linking of these passages by analogy is termed “fulfillment.” In 2:15 God calls Jesus, his perfect Son, out of Egypt, just as he did his son Israel in the days of Moses, an historical event referred to in Hos 11:1. In so doing he makes it clear that Jesus is the ideal Israel prophesied by Isaiah (see Isa 49:3), sent to restore wayward Israel (see Isa 49:5, cf. Matt 1:21). In 2:18 Herod’s slaughter of the infants is another illustration of the oppressive treatment of God’s people by foreign tyrants. Herod’s actions are analogous to those of the Assyrians, who deported the Israelites, causing the personified land to lament as inconsolably as a mother robbed of her little ones (Jer 31:15).