Discovery BoxJeremiah 50:27
Context50:27 Kill all her soldiers! 1
Let them be slaughtered! 2
They are doomed, 3 for their day of reckoning 4 has come,
the time for them to be punished.”
Psalms 37:20
Context37:20 But 5 evil men will die;
the Lord’s enemies will be incinerated 6 –
they will go up in smoke. 7
Psalms 44:22
Context44:22 Yet because of you 8 we are killed all day long;
we are treated like 9 sheep at the slaughtering block. 10
Isaiah 34:6
Context34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,
it is covered 11 with fat;
it drips 12 with the blood of young rams and goats
and is covered 13 with the fat of rams’ kidneys.
For the Lord is holding a sacrifice 14 in Bozrah, 15
a bloody 16 slaughter in the land of Edom.
Ezekiel 39:18
Context39:18 You will eat the flesh of warriors 17 and drink the blood of the princes of the earth – the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan.
[50:27] 1 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] 2 tn Heb “Let them go down to the slaughter.”
[50:27] 3 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] 4 tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[37:20] 5 tn Or “for,” but Hebrew כי in this case would have to extend all the way back to v. 17a. Another option is to understand the particle as asseverative, “surely” (see v. 22).
[37:20] 6 tc The meaning of the MT (כִּיקַר כָּרִים [kiqar karim], “like what is precious among the pastures/rams”) is uncertain. One possibility is to take the noun כָּרִים as “pastures” and interpret “what is precious” as referring to flowers that blossom but then quickly disappear (see v. 2 and BDB 430 s.v. יָקָר 3). If כָּרִים is taken as “rams,” then “what is precious” might refer to the choicest portions of rams. The present translation follows a reading in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpPs37), כיקוד כורם (“like the burning of an oven”). The next line, which pictures the
[37:20] 7 tn Heb “they perish in smoke, they perish.” In addition to repeating the verb for emphasis, the psalmist uses the perfect form of the verb to picture the enemies’ demise as if it had already taken place. In this way he draws attention to the certitude of their judgment.
[44:22] 8 tn The statement “because of you” (1) may simply indicate that God is the cause of the Israelites’ defeat (see vv. 9-14, where the nation’s situation is attributed directly to God’s activity, and cf. NEB, NRSV), or (2) it may suggest they suffer because of their allegiance to God (see Ps 69:7 and Jer 15:15). In this case one should translate, “for your sake” (cf. NASB, NIV). The citation of this verse in Rom 8:36 follows the LXX (Ps 43:23 LXX), where the Greek term ἕνεκεν (Jeneken; LXX ἕνεκα) may likewise mean “because of” or “for the sake of” (BDAG 334 s.v. ἕνεκα 1).
[44:22] 9 tn Or “regarded as.”
[44:22] 10 tn Heb “like sheep of slaughtering,” that is, sheep destined for slaughter.
[34:6] 11 tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.
[34:6] 12 tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[34:6] 13 tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[34:6] 14 tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”
[34:6] 15 sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.
[34:6] 16 tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
[39:18] 17 sn See Rev 19:17-18.
