Discovery BoxJeremiah 4:6-7
Context4:6 Raise a signal flag that tells people to go to Zion. 1
Run for safety! Do not delay!
For I am about to bring disaster out of the north.
It will bring great destruction. 2
4:7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair 3
the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. 4
He is coming out to lay your land waste.
Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.
Jeremiah 5:15
Context5:15 The Lord says, 5 “Listen, 6 nation of Israel! 7
I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you.
It will be a nation that was founded long ago
and has lasted for a long time.
It will be a nation whose language you will not know.
Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.
Jeremiah 50:20-23
Context50:20 When that time comes,
no guilt will be found in Israel.
No sin will be found in Judah. 8
For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive. 9
I, the Lord, affirm it!’” 10
“Attack 12 the land of Merathaim
and the people who live in Pekod! 13
Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them! 14
Do just as I have commanded you! 15
50:22 The noise of battle can be heard in the land of Babylonia. 16
There is the sound of great destruction.
50:23 Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces.
But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! 17
See what an object of horror
Babylon has become among the nations!
Isaiah 10:3-7
Context10:3 What will you do on judgment day, 18
when destruction arrives from a distant place?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
10:4 You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners,
or to fall among those who have been killed. 19
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 20
10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 21
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 22
10:6 I sent him 23 against a godless 24 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 25
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 26 like dirt in the streets.
10:7 But he does not agree with this,
his mind does not reason this way, 27
for his goal is to destroy,
and to eliminate many nations. 28
Isaiah 13:3-5
Context13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers; 29
I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, 30
my boasting, arrogant ones. 31
13:4 32 There is a loud noise on the mountains –
it sounds like a large army! 33
There is great commotion among the kingdoms 34 –
nations are being assembled!
The Lord who commands armies is mustering
forces for battle.
13:5 They come from a distant land,
from the horizon. 35
It is the Lord with his instruments of judgment, 36
coming to destroy the whole earth. 37
Isaiah 54:16-17
Context54:16 Look, I create the craftsman,
who fans the coals into a fire
and forges a weapon. 38
I create the destroyer so he might devastate.
54:17 No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed;
you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. 39
This is what the Lord will do for his servants –
I will vindicate them,” 40
says the Lord.
Ezekiel 9:1-7
Context9:1 Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, 41 you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!” 9:2 Next, I noticed 42 six men 43 coming from the direction of the upper gate 44 which faces north, each with his war club in his hand. Among them was a man dressed in linen with a writing kit 45 at his side. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.
9:3 Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub where it had rested to the threshold of the temple. 46 He called to the man dressed in linen who had the writing kit at his side. 9:4 The Lord said to him, “Go through the city of Jerusalem 47 and put a mark 48 on the foreheads of the people who moan and groan over all the abominations practiced in it.”
9:5 While I listened, he said to the others, 49 “Go through the city after him and strike people down; do no let your eye pity nor spare 50 anyone! 9:6 Old men, young men, young women, little children, and women – wipe them out! But do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary!” So they began with the elders who were at the front of the temple.
9:7 He said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courtyards with corpses. Go!” So they went out and struck people down throughout the city.
Matthew 22:7
Context22:7 The 51 king was furious! He sent his soldiers, and they put those murderers to death 52 and set their city 53 on fire.
[4:6] 1 tn Heb “Raise up a signal toward Zion.”
[4:6] 2 tn Heb “out of the north, even great destruction.”
[4:7] 3 tn Heb “A lion has left its lair.” The metaphor is turned into a simile for clarification. The word translated “lair” has also been understood to refer to a hiding place. However, it appears to be cognate in meaning to the word translated “lair” in Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38, a word which also refers to the abode of the
[5:15] 5 tn Heb “oracle of the
[5:15] 7 tn Heb “house of Israel.”
[50:20] 8 tn Heb “In those days and at that time, oracle of the
[50:20] 9 sn Compare Jer 31:34 and 33:8.
[50:20] 10 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[50:21] 11 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[50:21] 12 sn The commands in this verse and in vv. 26-27 are directed to the armies from the north who are referred to in v. 3 as “a nation from the north” and in v. 9 as a “host of mighty nations from the land of the north.” The addressee in this section shifts from one referent to another.
[50:21] 13 sn Merathaim…Pekod. It is generally agreed that the names of these two regions were chosen for their potential for wordplay. Merathaim probably refers to a region in southern Babylon near where the Tigris and Euphrates come together before they empty into the Persian Gulf. It was known for its briny waters. In Hebrew the word would mean “double rebellion” and would stand as an epithet for the land of Babylon as a whole. Pekod refers to an Aramean people who lived on the eastern bank of the lower Tigris River. They are mentioned often in Assyrian texts and are mentioned in Ezek 23:23 as allies of Babylon. In Hebrew the word would mean “punishment.” As an epithet for the land of Babylon it would refer to the fact that Babylon was to be punished for her double rebellion against the
[50:21] 14 tn Heb “Smite down and completely destroy after them.” The word translated “kill” or “smite down” is a word of uncertain meaning and derivation. BDB 352 s.v. III חָרַב relates it to an Aramaic word meaning “attack, smite down.” KBL 329-30 s.v. II חָרַב sees it as a denominative from the word חֶרֶב (kherev, “sword”), a derivation which many modern commentaries accept and reflect in a translation “put to the sword.” KBL, however, gives “to smite down; to slaughter” which is roughly the equivalent of the meaning assigned to it in BDB. The word only occurs here and in v. 27 in the Qal and in 2 Kgs 3:23 in the Niphal where it means something like “attacked one another, fought with one another.” Many commentators question the validity of the word “after them” (אַחֲרֵיהֶם, ’akharehem) which occurs at the end of the line after “completely destroy.” The Targum reads “the last of them” (אַחֲרִיתָם, ’akharitam) which is graphically very close and accepted by some commentators. The present translation has chosen to represent “after them” by a paraphrase at the beginning “pursue them.”
[50:21] 15 tn Heb “Do according to all I have commanded you.”
[50:22] 16 tn The words “of Babylonia” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.
[50:23] 17 tn Heb “How broken and shattered is the hammer of all the earth!” The “hammer” is a metaphor for Babylon who was God’s war club to shatter the nations and destroy kingdoms just like Assyria is represented in Isa 10:5 as a rod and a war club. Some readers, however, might not pick up on the metaphor or identify the referent, so the translation has incorporated an identification of the metaphor and the referent within it. “See how” and “See what” are an attempt to capture the nuance of the Hebrew particle אֵיךְ (’ekh) which here expresses an exclamation of satisfaction in a taunt song (cf. BDB 32 s.v. אֵיךְ 2 and compare usage in Isa 14:4, 12; Jer 50:23).
[10:3] 18 tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.
[10:4] 19 tn Heb “except one kneels in the place of the prisoner, and in the place of the slain [who] fall.” On the force of בִּלְתִּי (bilti, “except”) and its logical connection to what precedes, see BDB 116 s.v. בֵלֶת. On the force of תַּחַת (takhat, “in the place of”) here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:258, n. 6.
[10:4] 20 tn Heb “in all this his anger was not turned, and still his hand was outstretched”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “his had is stretched out still.”
[10:5] 21 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] 22 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] 23 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] 24 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
[10:6] 25 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
[10:6] 26 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
[10:7] 27 tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”
[10:7] 28 tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”
[13:3] 29 tn Heb “my consecrated ones,” i.e., those who have been set apart by God for the special task of carrying out his judgment.
[13:3] 30 tn Heb “my warriors with respect to my anger.”
[13:3] 31 tn Heb “the boasting ones of my pride”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV “my proudly exulting ones.”
[13:4] 32 sn In vv. 4-10 the prophet appears to be speaking, since the Lord is referred to in the third person. However, since the Lord refers to himself in the third person later in this chapter (see v. 13), it is possible that he speaks throughout the chapter.
[13:4] 33 tn Heb “a sound, a roar [is] on the mountains, like many people.”
[13:4] 34 tn Heb “a sound, tumult of kingdoms.”
[13:5] 35 tn Heb “from the end of the sky.”
[13:5] 36 tn Or “anger”; cf. KJV, ASV “the weapons of his indignation.”
[13:5] 37 tn Or perhaps, “land” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NLT). Even though the heading and subsequent context (see v. 17) indicate Babylon’s judgment is in view, the chapter has a cosmic flavor that suggests that the coming judgment is universal in scope. Perhaps Babylon’s downfall occurs in conjunction with a wider judgment, or the cosmic style is poetic hyperbole used to emphasize the magnitude and importance of the coming event.
[54:16] 38 tn Heb “who brings out an implement for his work.”
[54:17] 39 tn Heb “and every tongue that rises up for judgment with you will prove to be guilty.”
[54:17] 40 tn Heb “this is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication from me.”
[9:1] 41 tc Heb “they approached.” Reading the imperative assumes the same consonantal text but different vowels.
[9:2] 42 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
[9:2] 43 sn The six men plus the scribe would equal seven, which was believed by the Babylonians to be the number of planetary deities.
[9:2] 44 sn The upper gate was built by Jotham (2 Kgs 15:35).
[9:2] 45 tn Or “a scribe’s inkhorn.” The Hebrew term occurs in the OT only in Ezek 9 and is believed to be an Egyptian loanword.
[9:4] 47 tn Heb “through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem.”
[9:4] 48 tn The word translated “mark” is in Hebrew the letter ת (tav). Outside this context the only other occurrence of the word is in Job 31:35. In ancient Hebrew script this letter was written like the letter X.
[9:5] 49 tn Heb “to these he said in my ears.”
[9:5] 50 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.
[22:7] 51 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
[22:7] 52 tn Grk “he sent his soldiers, destroyed those murderers.” The verb ἀπώλεσεν (apwlesen) is causative, indicating that the king was the one behind the execution of the murderers. In English the causative idea is not expressed naturally here; either a purpose clause (“he sent his soldiers to put those murderers to death”) or a relative clause (“he sent his soldier who put those murderers to death”) is preferred.
[22:7] 53 tn The Greek text reads here πόλις (polis), which could be translated “town” or “city.” The prophetic reference is to the city of Jerusalem, so “city” is more appropriate here.
