Jeremiah 15:2

15:2 If they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ tell them the Lord says this:

“Those who are destined to die of disease will go to death by disease.

Those who are destined to die in war will go to death in war.

Those who are destined to die of starvation will go to death by starvation.

Those who are destined to go into exile will go into exile.” ¹ 

Proverbs 29:1

29:1 The one who stiffens his neck ²  after numerous rebukes ³ 

will suddenly be destroyed ⁴  without remedy. ⁵ 

Isaiah 24:17

24:17 Terror, pit, and snare

are ready to overtake you inhabitants of the earth! ⁶ 

Amos 2:14-15

2:14 Fast runners will find no place to hide; ⁷ 

strong men will have no strength left; ⁸ 

warriors will not be able to save their lives.

2:15 Archers ⁹  will not hold their ground; ¹⁰ 

fast runners will not save their lives,

nor will those who ride horses. ¹¹ 

Amos 5:19

5:19 Disaster will be inescapable, ¹² 

as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear,

then escaped ¹³  into a house,

leaned his hand against the wall,

and was bitten by a poisonous snake.

Amos 9:1-4

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ¹⁴  standing by the altar ¹⁵  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ¹⁶  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ¹⁷ 

and I will kill the survivors ¹⁸  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ¹⁹ 

no one will be able to escape. ²⁰ 

9:2 Even if they could dig down into the netherworld, ²¹ 

my hand would pull them up from there.

Even if they could climb up to heaven,

I would drag them down from there.

9:3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel,

I would hunt them down and take them from there.

Even if they tried to hide from me ²²  at the bottom of the sea,

from there ²³  I would command the Sea Serpent ²⁴  to bite them.

9:4 Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, ²⁵ 

from there ²⁶  I will command the sword to kill them.

I will not let them out of my sight;

they will experience disaster, not prosperity.” ²⁷ 

Amos 9:1

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ²⁸  standing by the altar ²⁹  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ³⁰  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ³¹ 

and I will kill the survivors ³²  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ³³ 

no one will be able to escape. ³⁴ 

Amos 5:3

5:3 The sovereign Lord says this:

“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers ³⁵  will have only a hundred left;

the town ³⁶  that marches out with a hundred soldiers ³⁷  will have only ten left for the family of Israel.” ³⁸ 

Hebrews 1:3

1:3 The Son is ³⁹  the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, ⁴⁰  and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ⁴¹ 

Revelation 6:16-17

6:16 They ⁴²  said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, ⁴³  6:17 because the great day of their ⁴⁴  wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?” ⁴⁵ 

[15:2]  ¹ tn It is difficult to render the rhetorical force of this passage in meaningful English. The text answers the question “Where should we go?” with four brief staccato-like expressions with a play on the preposition “to”: Heb “Who to the death, to the death and who to the sword, to the sword and who to the starvation, to the starvation and who to the captivity, to the captivity.” The word “death” here is commonly understood to be a poetic substitute for “plague” because of the standard trio of sword, famine, and plague (see, e.g., 14:12 and the notes there). This is likely here and in 18:21. For further support see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:440. The nuance “starvation” rather than “famine” has been chosen in the translation because the referents here are all things that accompany war.

[29:1]  ² tn The idiom “to harden the neck” (מַקְשֶׁה־עֹרֶף, maqsheh-’oref) is the idea of resisting the rebukes and persisting in obstinacy (e.g., Exod 32:9). The opposite of a “stiff neck” would be the bending back, i.e., submission.

[29:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew construction is אִישׁ תּוֹכָחוֹת (’ish tokhakhot, “a man of rebukes”), meaning “a man who has (or receives) many rebukes.” This describes a person who is deserving of punishment and who has been given many warnings. The text says, then, “a man of rebukes hardening himself.”

[29:1]  ⁴ sn The stubborn person refuses to listen; he will suddenly be destroyed when the calamity strikes (e.g., Prov 6:15; 13:18; 15:10).

[29:1]  ⁵ tn Or “healing” (NRSV).

[24:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “[are] upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.” The first line of v. 17 provides another classic example of Hebrew wordplay. The names of the three instruments of judgment (פָח,פַחַת,פַּחַד [pakhad, fakhat, fakh]) all begin with the letters פח (peh-khet) and the first two end in dental consonants (ת/ד, tet/dalet). Once again the repetition of sound draws attention to the statement and contributes to the theme of the inescapability of judgment. As their similar-sounding names suggest, terror, pit, and snare are allies in destroying the objects of divine wrath.

[2:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “and a place of refuge will perish from the swift.”

[2:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “the strong will not increase his strength.”

[2:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “the one who holds the bow.”

[2:15]  ¹⁰ tn For the idiom of “holding [or “standing”] one’s ground” in battle, there is a similar phrase in Ezek 13:5; also related is the expression “to hold one’s own against” (or “to withstand”) in Judg 2:14; 2 Kgs 10:4; Dan 8:7 (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 97). Other options include “will not endure” or “will not survive.”

[2:15]  ¹¹ tn The last two lines read literally, “The one fast in his feet will not rescue [his life], and the rider of the horse will not rescue his life.” The phrase “his life” does double duty in the parallelism and should be understood in both lines.

[5:19]  ¹² tn The words “Disaster will be inescapable” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “went” (so KJV, NRSV).

[9:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ¹⁵ sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”

[9:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.

[9:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”

[9:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “into Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), that is, the land of the dead localized in Hebrew thought in the earth’s core or the grave. Cf. KJV “hell”; NCV, NLT “the place of the dead”; NIV “the depths of the grave.”

[9:3]  ²² tn Heb “from before my eyes.”

[9:3]  ²³ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:3]  ²⁴ sn If the article indicates a definite serpent, then the mythological Sea Serpent, symbolic of the world’s chaotic forces, is probably in view. See Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 (where it is also called Leviathan). Elsewhere in the OT this serpent is depicted as opposing the Lord, but this text implies that even this powerful enemy of God is ultimately subject to his sovereign will.

[9:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Even if they go into captivity before their enemies.”

[9:4]  ²⁶ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I will set my eye on them for disaster, not good.”

[9:1]  ²⁸ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ²⁹ sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ³⁰ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”

[9:1]  ³² tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.

[9:1]  ³³ tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ³⁴ tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”

[5:3]  ³⁵ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “The one.” The word “town” has been used in the translation in keeping with the relative sizes of the armed contingents sent out by each. It is also possible that this line is speaking of the same city of the previous line. In other words, the contingent sent by that one city would have suffered a ninety-nine percent casualty loss.

[5:3]  ³⁷ tn The word “soldiers” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “for/to the house of Israel.” The translation assumes that this is a graphic picture of what is left over for the defense of the nation (NEB, NJB, NASB, NKJV). Others suggest that this phrase completes the introductory formula (“The sovereign Lord says this…”; see v. 4a; NJPS). Another option is that the preposition has a vocative force, “O house of Israel” (F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 476). Some simply delete the phrase as dittography from the following line (NIV).

[1:3]  ³⁹ tn Grk “who being…and sustaining.” Heb 1:1-4 form one skillfully composed sentence in Greek, but it must be broken into shorter segments to correspond to contemporary English usage, which does not allow for sentences of this length and complexity.

[1:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “by the word of his power.”

[1:3]  ⁴¹ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1, quoted often in Hebrews.

[6:16]  ⁴² tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:16]  ⁴³ tn It is difficult to say where this quotation ends. The translation ends it after “withstand it” at the end of v. 17, but it is possible that it should end here, after “Lamb” at the end of v. 16. If it ends after “Lamb,” v. 17 is a parenthetical explanation by the author.

[6:17]  ⁴⁴ tc Most mss (A Ï bo) change the pronoun “their” to “his” (αὐτοῦ, autou) in order to bring the text in line with the mention of the one seated on the throne in the immediately preceding verse, and to remove the ambiguity about whose wrath is in view here. The reading αὐτῶν (autwn, “their”) is well supported by א C 1611 1854 2053 2329 2344 pc latt sy. On both internal and external grounds, it should be regarded as original.

[6:17]  ⁴⁵ tn The translation “to withstand (it)” for ἵστημι (Jisthmi) is based on the imagery of holding one’s ground in a military campaign or an attack (BDAG 482 s.v. B.4).