Jeremiah 5:10

5:10 The Lord commanded the enemy, ¹ 

“March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them. ² 

But do not destroy them completely.

Strip off their branches

for these people do not belong to the Lord. ³ 

Jeremiah 52:6-7

52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ⁴  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ⁵  had no food. 52:7 They broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. ⁶  (The Babylonians had the city surrounded.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 52:2

52:2 He did what displeased the Lord ⁸  just as Jehoiakim had done.

Jeremiah 25:4

25:4 Over and over again ⁹  the Lord has sent ¹⁰  his servants the prophets to you. But you have not listened or paid attention. ¹¹ 

Ezekiel 33:21

The Fall of Jerusalem

33:21 In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, ¹²  a refugee came to me from Jerusalem ¹³  saying, “The city has been defeated!” ¹⁴ 

Micah 2:12-13

The Lord Will Restore His People

2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. ¹⁵ 

I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ¹⁶ 

like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ¹⁷ 

they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ¹⁸ 

2:13 The one who can break through barriers will lead them out ¹⁹ 

they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. ²⁰ 

Their king will advance ²¹  before them,

The Lord himself will lead them. ²² 

Zephaniah 1:10

1:10 On that day,” says the Lord,

“a loud cry will go up ²³  from the Fish Gate, ²⁴ 

wailing from the city’s newer district, ²⁵ 

and a loud crash ²⁶  from the hills.

[5:10]  ¹ tn These words to not appear in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for the sake of clarity to identify the implied addressee.

[5:10]  ² tn Heb “through her vine rows and destroy.” No object is given but “vines” must be implicit. The word for “vineyards” (or “vine rows”) is a hapax legomenon and its derivation is debated. BDB 1004 s.v. שּׁוּרָה repoints שָׁרוֹתֶיהָ (sharoteha) to שֻׁרוֹתֶיהָ (shuroteha) and relates it to a Mishnaic Hebrew and Palestinian Aramaic word meaning “row.” HALOT 1348 s.v. שּׁוּרָה also repoints to שֻׁרוֹתֶיהָ and relates it to a noun meaning “wall,” preferring to see the reference here to the walled terraces on which the vineyards were planted. The difference in meaning is minimal.

[5:10]  ³ tn Heb “for they do not belong to the Lord.” In the light of the context and Jeremiah’s identification of Israel as a vine (cf., e.g., 2:21) and a vineyard (cf., e.g., 12:10), it is likely that this verse has a totally metaphorical significance. The enemy is to go through the vineyard that is Israel and Judah and destroy all those who have been unfaithful to the Lord. It is not impossible, however, that the verse has a double meaning, a literal one and a figurative one: the enemy is not only to destroy Israel and Judah’s vines but to destroy Israel and Judah, lopping off the wicked Israelites who, because of their covenant unfaithfulness, the Lord has disowned. If the verse is totally metaphorical one might translate: “Pass through my vineyard, Israel and Judah, wreaking destruction. But do not destroy all of the people. Cut down like branches those unfaithful people because they no longer belong to the Lord.”

[52:6]  ⁴ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[52:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the people of the land.”

[52:7]  ⁶ sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

[52:7]  ⁷ sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

[52:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

[25:4]  ⁹ tn For the idiom involved here see the notes at 7:13 and 11:7.

[25:4]  ¹⁰ tn The vav consecutive with the perfect in a past narrative is a little unusual. Here it is probably indicating repeated action in past time in keeping with the idiom that precedes and follows it. See GKC 332 §112.f for other possible examples.

[25:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “inclined your ear to hear.” This is idiomatic for “paying attention.” It is often parallel with “listen” as here or with “pay attention” (see, e.g., Prov 4:20; 51:1).

[33:21]  ¹² tn January 19, 585 b.c.

[33:21]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[33:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “smitten.”

[2:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”

[2:12]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads בָּצְרָה (batsrah, “Bozrah”) but the form should be emended to בַּצִּרָה (batsirah, “into the fold”). See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 38.

[2:12]  ¹⁷ tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.

[2:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and they will be noisy [or perhaps, “excited”] from men.” The subject of the third feminine plural verb תְּהִימֶנָה (tÿhimenah, “they will be noisy”) is probably the feminine singular צֹאן (tso’n, “flock”). (For another example of this collective singular noun with a feminine plural verb, see Gen 30:38.) In the construction מֵאָדָם (me’adam, “from men”) the preposition is probably causal. L. C. Allen translates “bleating in fear of men” (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah [NICOT], 300), but it is possible to take the causal sense as “because of the large quantity of men.” In this case the sheep metaphor and the underlying reality are mixed.

[2:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the one who breaks through goes up before them.” The verb form is understood as a perfect of certitude, emphasizing the certainty of this coming event.

[2:13]  ²⁰ tn The three verb forms (a perfect and two preterites with vav [ו] consecutive) indicate certitude.

[2:13]  ²¹ tn The verb form (a preterite with vav [ו] consecutive) indicates certitude.

[2:13]  ²² tn Heb “the Lord [will be] at their head.”

[1:10]  ²³ tn The words “will go up” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:10]  ²⁴ sn The Fish Gate was located on Jerusalem’s north side (cf. 2 Chr 33:14; Neh 3:3; 12:39).

[1:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from the second area.” This may refer to an area northwest of the temple where the rich lived (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 86; cf. NASB, NRSV “the Second Quarter”; NIV “the New Quarter”).

[1:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “great breaking.”