Jeremiah 24:5

24:5 “I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say: ‘The exiles whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon ¹  are like those good figs. I consider them to be good.

Isaiah 5:5

5:5 Now I will inform you

what I am about to do to my vineyard:

I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, ² 

I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there. ³ 

Isaiah 10:5-6

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ⁴ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ⁵ 

10:6 I sent him ⁶  against a godless ⁷  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ⁸ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ⁹  like dirt in the streets.

Isaiah 45:7

45:7 I am ¹⁰  the one who forms light

and creates darkness; ¹¹ 

the one who brings about peace

and creates calamity. ¹² 

I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.

Isaiah 59:1-2

Injustice Brings Alienation from God

59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak ¹³  to deliver you;

his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ¹⁴ 

59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;

your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹⁵ 

Amos 3:6

3:6 If an alarm sounds ¹⁶  in a city, do people not fear? ¹⁷ 

If disaster overtakes a ¹⁸  city, is the Lord not responsible? ¹⁹ 

[24:5]  ¹ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.

[5:5]  ² tn Heb “and it will become [a place for] grazing.” בָּעַר (ba’ar, “grazing”) is a homonym of the more often used verb “to burn.”

[5:5]  ³ tn Heb “and it will become a trampled place” (NASB “trampled ground”).

[10:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

[10:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”

[10:6]  ⁶ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

[10:6]  ⁷ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[45:7]  ¹⁰ tn The words “I am” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the participle at the beginning of v. 7 stands in apposition to “the Lord” in v. 6.

[45:7]  ¹¹ tn On the surface v. 7a appears to describe God’s sovereign control over the cycle of day and night, but the following statement suggests that “light” and “darkness” symbolize “deliverance” and “judgment.”

[45:7]  ¹² sn This verses affirms that God is ultimately sovereign over his world, including mankind and nations. In accordance with his sovereign will, he can cause wars to cease and peace to predominate (as he was about to do for his exiled people through Cyrus), or he can bring disaster and judgment on nations (as he was about to do to Babylon through Cyrus).

[59:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[59:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”

[59:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”

[3:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”

[3:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”

[3:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”

[3:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “has the Lord not acted?”