Discovery BoxJeremiah 50:40-41
Context50:40 I will destroy Babylonia just like I did
Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns.
No one will live there. 1
No human being will settle in it,”
says the Lord. 2
50:41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north.
A mighty nation and many kings 3 are stirring into action
in faraway parts of the earth.
Isaiah 34:8-17
Context34:8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, 4
a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion. 5
34:9 Edom’s 6 streams will be turned into pitch
and her soil into brimstone;
her land will become burning pitch.
34:10 Night and day it will burn; 7
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.
34:11 Owls and wild animals 8 will live there, 9
all kinds of wild birds 10 will settle in it.
The Lord 11 will stretch out over her
the measuring line of ruin
and the plumb line 12 of destruction. 13
34:12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom
and all her officials will disappear. 14
34:13 Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns;
thickets and weeds will grow 15 in her fortified cities.
Jackals will settle there;
ostriches will live there. 16
34:14 Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there; 17
wild goats will bleat to one another. 18
Yes, nocturnal animals 19 will rest there
and make for themselves a nest. 20
34:15 Owls 21 will make nests and lay eggs 22 there;
they will hatch them and protect them. 23
Yes, hawks 24 will gather there,
each with its mate.
34:16 Carefully read the scroll of the Lord! 25
Not one of these creatures will be missing, 26
none will lack a mate. 27
For the Lord has issued the decree, 28
and his own spirit gathers them. 29
34:17 He assigns them their allotment; 30
he measures out their assigned place. 31
They will live there 32 permanently;
they will settle in it through successive generations.
Revelation 18:20-24
Context18:20 (Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you saints and apostles and prophets,
for God has pronounced judgment 33 against her on your behalf!) 34
18:21 Then 35 one powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone, threw it into the sea, and said,
“With this kind of sudden violent force 36
Babylon the great city will be thrown down 37
and it will never be found again!
18:22 And the sound of the harpists, musicians,
flute players, and trumpeters
will never be heard in you 38 again.
No 39 craftsman 40 who practices any trade
will ever be found in you again;
the noise of a mill 41 will never be heard in you again.
18:23 Even the light from a lamp
will never shine in you again!
The voices of the bridegroom and his bride
will never be heard in you again.
For your merchants were the tycoons of the world,
because all the nations 42 were deceived by your magic spells! 43
18:24 The 44 blood of the saints and prophets was found in her, 45
along with the blood 46 of all those who had been killed on the earth.”
[50:40] 1 tn Heb “‘Like [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns,’ oracle of the
[50:40] 2 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[50:41] 3 sn A mighty nation and many kings is an allusion to the Medo-Persian empire and the vassal kings who provided forces for the Medo-Persian armies.
[34:8] 4 tn Heb “for a day of vengeance [is] for the Lord.”
[34:8] 5 tn Heb “a year of repayment for the strife of Zion.” The translation assumes that רִיב (riv) refers to Edom’s hostility toward Zion. Another option is to understand רִיב (riv) as referring to the Lord’s taking up Zion’s cause. In this case one might translate, “a time when he will repay Edom and vindicate Zion.”
[34:9] 6 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Edom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[34:10] 7 tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”
[34:11] 8 tn קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). קִפּוֹד (qippod) may also refer to a type of bird (NAB “hoot owl”; NIV “screech owl”; TEV “ravens”), but some have suggested a rodent may be in view (cf. NCV “small animals”; ASV “porcupine”; NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”).
[34:11] 9 tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).
[34:11] 10 tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof vÿ’orev). Both the יַנְשׁוֹף (“owl”; see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16) and עֹרֵב (“raven”; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14) were types of wild birds.
[34:11] 11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[34:11] 12 tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.
[34:11] 13 sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.
[34:12] 14 tn Heb “will be nothing”; NCV, TEV, NLT “will all be gone.”
[34:13] 15 tn The words “will grow” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[34:13] 16 tc Heb “and she will be a settlement for wild dogs, a dwelling place for ostriches.” The translation assumes an emendation of חָצִיר (khatsir, “grass”) to חָצֵר (khatser, “settlement”). One of the Qumran scrolls of Isaiah (1QIsaa) supports this emendation (cf. HALOT 344 s.v. II חָצִיר)
[34:14] 17 tn Heb “will meet” (so NIV); NLT “will mingle there.”
[34:14] 18 tn Heb “and a goat will call to its neighbor.”
[34:14] 19 tn The precise meaning of לִּילִית (lilit) is unclear, though in this context the word certainly refers to some type of wild animal or bird. The word appears to be related to לַיְלָה (laylah, “night”). Some interpret it as the name of a female night demon, on the basis of an apparent Akkadian cognate used as the name of a demon. Later Jewish legends also identified Lilith as a demon. Cf. NRSV “Lilith.”
[34:14] 20 tn Heb “and will find for themselves a resting place.”
[34:15] 21 tn Hebrew קִפּוֹז (qippoz) occurs only here; the precise meaning of the word is uncertain.
[34:15] 22 tn For this proposed meaning for Hebrew מָלַט (malat), see HALOT 589 s.v. I מלט.
[34:15] 23 tn Heb “and brood [over them] in her shadow.”
[34:15] 24 tn The precise meaning of דַּיָּה (dayyah) is uncertain, though the term appears to refer to some type of bird of prey, perhaps a vulture.
[34:16] 25 tn Heb “Seek from upon the scroll of the Lord and read.”
[34:16] 26 tn Heb “one from these will not be missing.” הֵנָּה (hennah, “these”) is feminine plural in the Hebrew text. It may refer only to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or may include all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).
[34:16] 27 tn Heb “each its mate they will not lack.”
[34:16] 28 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for a mouth, it has commanded.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa and a few medieval
[34:16] 29 tn Heb “and his spirit, he gathers them.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).
[34:17] 30 tn Heb “and he causes the lot to fall for them.” Once again the pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).
[34:17] 31 tn Heb “and his hand divides for them with a measuring line.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) now switches to masculine plural, referring to all the animals and birds mentioned in vv. 11-15, some of which were identified with masculine nouns. This signals closure for this portion of the speech, which began in v. 11. The following couplet (v. 17b) forms an inclusio with v. 11a through verbal repetition.
[34:17] 32 tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV); NCV “they will own that land forever.”
[18:20] 33 tn On the phrase “pronounced judgment” BDAG 567 s.v. κρίμα 4.b states, “The OT is the source of the expr. κρίνειν τὸ κρ. (cp. Zech 7:9; 8:16; Ezk 44:24) ἔκρινεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ κρίμα ὑμῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς God has pronounced judgment for you against her or God has pronounced on her the judgment she wished to impose on you (HHoltzmann, Hdb. 1893 ad loc.) Rv 18:20.”
[18:20] 34 tn Grk “God has judged a judgment of you of her.” Verse 20 is set in parentheses because in it the saints, etc. are addressed directly in the second person.
[18:21] 35 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
[18:21] 36 tn On ὅρμημα ({ormhma) BDAG 724 s.v. states, “violent rush, onset ὁρμήματι βληθήσεται Βαβυλών Babylon will be thrown down with violence Rv 18:21.” L&N 68.82 refers to the suddenness of the force or violence.
[18:21] 37 sn Thrown down is a play on both the words and the action. The angel’s action with the stone illustrates the kind of sudden violent force with which the city will be overthrown.
[18:22] 38 tn The shift to a second person pronoun here corresponds to the Greek text.
[18:22] 39 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
[18:22] 40 tn On this term BDAG 1001 s.v. τεχνίτης states, “craftsperson, artisan, designer…Of a silversmith Ac 19:24, 25 v.l., 38….Of a potter 2 Cl 8:2 (metaph., cp. Ath. 15:2). πᾶς τεχνίτης πάσης τέχνης Rv 18:22.”
[18:22] 41 tn This is a different Greek word (μύλος, mulos) from the one for the millstone in v. 21 (μύλινος, mulinos). See L&N 7.68.
[18:23] 42 tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).
[18:23] 43 tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”
[18:24] 44 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
[18:24] 45 tn The shift in pronouns from second to third person corresponds to the Greek text.
[18:24] 46 tn Grk “and of all.” The phrase “along with the blood” has been repeated from the previous clause for stylistic reasons.
