Jeremiah 5:9

5:9 I will surely punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.

“I will surely bring retribution on such a nation as this!” ¹ 

Jeremiah 5:29

5:29 I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.

“I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this! ² 

Jeremiah 8:12

8:12 Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things?

No, they are not at all ashamed!

They do not even know how to blush!

So they will die just like others have died. ³ 

They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:12

23:12 So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.

They will stumble and fall headlong.

For I will bring disaster on them.

A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ⁴ 

The Lord affirms it! ⁵ 

Jeremiah 46:21

46:21 Even her mercenaries ⁶ 

will prove to be like pampered, ⁷  well-fed calves.

For they too will turn and run away.

They will not stand their ground

when ⁸  the time for them to be destroyed comes,

the time for them to be punished.

Jeremiah 48:44

48:44 Anyone who flees at the sound of terror

will fall into a pit.

Anyone who climbs out of the pit

will be caught in a trap. ⁹ 

For the time is coming

when I will punish the people of Moab. ¹⁰ 

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 50:27

50:27 Kill all her soldiers! ¹² 

Let them be slaughtered! ¹³ 

They are doomed, ¹⁴  for their day of reckoning ¹⁵  has come,

the time for them to be punished.”

Hosea 9:7

9:7 The time of judgment ¹⁶  is about to arrive! ¹⁷ 

The time of retribution ¹⁸  is imminent! ¹⁹ 

Let Israel know! ²⁰ 

Israel Rejects Hosea’s Prophetic Exhortations

The prophet is considered a fool ²¹  –

the inspired man ²²  is viewed as a madman ²³  –

because of the multitude of your sins

and your intense ²⁴  animosity.

Micah 7:4

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ²⁵ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²⁶ 

and then you will experience confusion. ²⁷ 

Luke 19:44

19:44 They will demolish you ²⁸  – you and your children within your walls ²⁹  – and they will not leave within you one stone ³⁰  on top of another, ³¹  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ³² 

[5:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Should I not punish them…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions have the force of strong declarations.

[5:29]  ² tn Heb “Should I not punish…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions function as emphatic declarations.

[8:12]  ³ tn Heb “They will fall among the fallen.”

[23:12]  ⁴ tn For the last two lines see 11:23 and the notes there.

[23:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[46:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “her hirelings in her midst.”

[46:21]  ⁷ tn The word “pampered” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to explain the probable meaning of the simile. The mercenaries were well cared for like stall-fed calves, but in the face of the danger they will prove no help because they will turn and run away without standing their ground. Some see the point of the simile to be that they too are fattened for slaughter. However, the next two lines do not fit that interpretation too well.

[46:21]  ⁸ tn The temporal use of the particle כִּי (ki; BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 2.a) seems more appropriate to the context than the causal use.

[48:44]  ⁹ sn Jer 48:43-44a are in the main the same as Isa 24:17-18 which shows that the judgment was somewhat proverbial. For a very similar kind of argumentation see Amos 5:19; judgment is unavoidable.

[48:44]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “For I will bring upon her, even upon Moab, the year of her punishment.”

[48:44]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:27]  ¹² tn Heb “Kill all her young bulls.” Commentators are almost universally agreed that the reference to “young bulls” is figurative here for the princes and warriors (cf. BDB 831 s.v. פַּר 2.f, which compares Isa 34:7 and Ezek 39:18). This is virtually certain because of the reference to the time coming for them to be punished; this would scarcely fit literal bulls. For the verb rendered “kill” here see the translator’s note on v. 21.

[50:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “Let them go down to the slaughter.”

[50:27]  ¹⁴ tn Or “How terrible it will be for them”; Heb “Woe to them.” See the study note on 22:13 and compare the usage in 23:1; 48:1.

[50:27]  ¹⁵ tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the days of the visitation”; NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “the days of punishment.”

[9:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “has come” (בָּאוּ, ba’u). The two perfect tense (suffix-conjugation) verbs בָּאוּ (Qal perfect 3rd person common plural from בּוֹא, bo’, “to come”) repeated in this verse are both examples of the so-called “prophetic perfect”: the perfect, which connotes completed or factual action, is used in reference to future events to emphasize the certainty of the announced event taking place.

[9:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the days of the retribution”; NIV “of reckoning”; NRSV “of recompense.”

[9:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “has come”; NIV “are at hand”; NLT “is almost here.”

[9:7]  ²⁰ tc The Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex (the MT ms employed for BHS) both place the atnach (colon-divider) after יֵדְעוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל (yedÿ’u yisra’el, “Let Israel know!”), indicating that this line belongs with 9:7a (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV). However, the LXX reads κακωθήσεται (kakwqhsetai) which reflects an underlying Vorlage of יָרֵעוּ (yare’u, Qal imperfect 3rd person common plural from יָרַע, yara’, “to cry”), as opposed to the MT יֵדְעוּ (yedÿ’u, Qal jussive 3rd common plural from יָדַע, yada’, “to know”). The Old Greek connects יֵדְעוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל (“Israel cries out”) with the following lines (cf. NRSV), which appear to be quotations of Israel mocking Hosea. Aquila (ἔγνω, egnw) and Symmachus (γνώσεται, gnwsetai) both reflect the proto-MT tradition. For a discussion of this textual and syntactical problem, see H. W. Wolff, Hosea (Hermeneia), 150.

[9:7]  ²¹ tn Or “is distraught”; cf. CEV, NLT “are crazy.”

[9:7]  ²² tn Heb “the man of the Spirit”; NAB, NRSV “spirit.”

[9:7]  ²³ tn Or “is driven to despair.” The term מְשֻׁגָּע (mÿshugga’, Pual participle masculine singular from שָׁגַע, shaga’, “to be mad”) may be understood in two senses: (1) It could be a predicate adjective which is a figure of speech: “to be maddened,” to be driven to despair (Deut 28:34); or (2) it could be a substantive: “a madman,” referring to prophets who attempted to enter into a prophetic state through whipping themselves into a frenzy (1 Sam 21:16; 2 Kgs 9:11; Jer 29:26; see BDB 993 s.v. שָׁגַע). The prophetic context of 9:7 favors the latter option (which is followed by most English versions). Apparently, the general populace viewed these mantics with suspicion and questioned the legitimacy of their claim to be true prophets (e.g., 2 Kgs 9:11; Jer 29:26).

[9:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “great.”

[7:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[19:44]  ²⁸ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  ²⁹ tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

[19:44]  ³⁰ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ³¹ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ³² tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.