Jeremiah 12:12

12:12 A destructive army ¹  will come marching

over the hilltops in the desert.

For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon ² 

against ³  everyone from one end of the land to the other.

No one will be safe. ⁴ 

Leviticus 26:30

26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ⁵  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ⁶  I will abhor you. ⁷ 

Isaiah 27:9

27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, ⁸ 

and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: ⁹ 

They will make all the stones of the altars ¹⁰ 

like crushed limestone,

and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. ¹¹ 

Ezekiel 6:3

6:3 Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, ¹²  Hear the word of the sovereign Lord! ¹³  This is what the sovereign Lord says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am bringing ¹⁴  a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 16:39

16:39 I will give you into their hands and they will destroy your chambers and tear down your pavilions. They will strip you of your clothing and take your beautiful jewelry and leave you naked and bare.

Micah 1:5-7

1:5 All this is because of Jacob’s rebellion

and ¹⁶  the sins of the nation ¹⁷  of Israel.

How has Jacob rebelled, you ask? ¹⁸ 

Samaria epitomizes their rebellion! ¹⁹ 

Where are Judah’s pagan worship centers, you ask? ²⁰ 

They are right in Jerusalem! ²¹ 

1:6 “I will turn Samaria ²²  into a heap of ruins in an open field –

vineyards will be planted there! ²³ 

I will tumble ²⁴  the rubble of her stone walls ²⁵  down into the valley,

and tear down her fortifications to their foundations. ²⁶ 

1:7 All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces;

all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. ²⁷ 

I will make a waste heap ²⁸  of all her images.

Since ²⁹  she gathered the metal ³⁰  as a prostitute collects her wages,

the idols will become a prostitute’s wages again.” ³¹ 

[12:12]  ¹ tn Heb “destroyers.”

[12:12]  ² tn Heb “It is the Lord’s consuming sword.”

[12:12]  ³ tn Heb “For a sword of the Lord will devour.” The sword is often symbolic for destructive forces of all kinds. Here and in Isa 34:6; Jer 47:6 it is symbolic of the enemy armies that the Lord uses to carry out destructive punishment against his enemies, hence the translation “his destructive weapon.” A similar figure is use in Isa 10:5 where the figure is more clearly identified; Assyria is the rod/club that the Lord will use to discipline unfaithful Israel.

[12:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “There is no peace to all flesh.”

[26:30]  ⁵ sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”

[26:30]  ⁶ tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.

[26:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

[27:9]  ⁸ tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”

[27:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “and this [is] all the fruit of removing his sin.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear, though “removing his sin” certainly parallels “Jacob’s sin will be removed” in the preceding line. If original, “all the fruit” may refer to the result of the decision to remove sin, but the phrase may be a corruption of לְכַפֵּר (lekhaper, “to atone for”), which in turn might be a gloss on הָסִר (hasir, “removing”).

[27:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “when he makes the stones of an altar.” The singular “altar” is collective here; pagan altars are in view, as the last line of the verse indicates. See also 17:8.

[27:9]  ¹¹ sn As interpreted and translated above, this verse says that Israel must totally repudiate its pagan religious practices in order to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another option is to understand “in this way” and “this” in v. 9a as referring back to the judgment described in v. 8. In this case כָּפַר (kafar, “atone for”) is used in a sarcastic sense; Jacob’s sin is “atoned for” and removed through severe judgment. Following this line of interpretation, one might paraphrase the verse as follows: “So in this way (through judgment) Jacob’s sin will be “atoned for,” and this is the way his sin will be removed, when he (i.e., God) makes all the altar stones like crushed limestone….” This interpretation is more consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-11.

[6:3]  ¹² tn The phrase “mountains of Israel” occurs only in the book of Ezekiel (6:2, 3; 19:9; 33:28; 34:13, 14; 35:12; 36:1, 4, 8; 37:22; 38:8; 39:2, 4, 17). The expression refers to the whole land of Israel.

[6:3]  ¹³ tn The introductory formula “Hear the word of the sovereign Lord” parallels a pronouncement delivered by the herald of a king (2 Kgs 18:28).

[6:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Look I, I am bringing.” The repetition of the pronoun draws attention to the speaker. The construction also indicates that the action is soon to come; the Lord is “about to bring a sword against” them.

[6:3]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term refers to elevated platforms where pagan sacrifices were performed.

[1:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and because of.” This was simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[1:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “What is the rebellion of Jacob?”

[1:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Is it not Samaria?” The negated rhetorical question expects the answer, “It certainly is!” To make this clear the question has been translated as a strong affirmative statement.

[1:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “What are Judah’s high places?”

[1:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “Is it not Jerusalem?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “It certainly is!”

[1:6]  ²² map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[1:6]  ²³ tn Heb “into a planting place for vineyards.”

[1:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “pour” (so NASB, NIV); KJV, NRSV “pour down”; NAB “throw down”; NLT “roll.”

[1:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “her stones.” The term stones is a metonymy for the city walls whose foundations were constructed of stone masonry.

[1:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “I will uncover her foundations.” The term “foundations” refers to the lower courses of the stones of the city’s outer fortification walls.

[1:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and all her prostitute’s wages will be burned with fire.”

[1:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I will make desolate” (so NASB).

[1:7]  ²⁹ tn Or “for” (KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[1:7]  ³⁰ tn No object is specified in the Hebrew text; the words “the metal” are supplied from the context.

[1:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “for from a prostitute’s wages she gathered, and to a prostitute’s wages they will return.” When the metal was first collected it was comparable to the coins a prostitute would receive for her services. The metal was then formed into idols, but now the Lord’s fiery judgment would reduce the metal images to their original condition.