Jeremiah 51:6

51:6 Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. ¹ 

Flee to save your lives.

Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins.

For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge.

He will pay Babylonia ²  back for what she has done. ³ 

Jeremiah 51:45

51:45 “Get out of Babylon, my people!

Flee to save your lives

from the fierce anger of the Lord! ⁴ 

Jeremiah 31:21

31:21 I will say, ⁵  ‘My dear children of Israel, ⁶  keep in mind

the road you took when you were carried off. ⁷ 

Mark off in your minds the landmarks.

Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back.

Return, my dear children of Israel.

Return to these cities of yours.

Jeremiah 44:28

44:28 Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed! ⁸  Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true, ⁹  mine or theirs.’

Jeremiah 50:8

50:8 “People of Judah, ¹⁰  get out of Babylon quickly!

Leave the land of Babylonia! ¹¹ 

Be the first to depart! ¹² 

Be like the male goats that lead the herd.

Isaiah 48:20

48:20 Leave Babylon!

Flee from the Babylonians!

Announce it with a shout of joy!

Make this known!

Proclaim it throughout the earth! ¹³ 

Say, ‘The Lord protects ¹⁴  his servant Jacob.

Isaiah 51:11

51:11 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return;

they will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ¹⁵ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ¹⁶  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 52:2

52:2 Shake off the dirt! ¹⁸ 

Get up, captive ¹⁹  Jerusalem!

Take off the iron chains around your neck,

O captive daughter Zion!

Isaiah 52:11-12

52:11 Leave! Leave! Get out of there!

Don’t touch anything unclean!

Get out of it!

Stay pure, you who carry the Lord’s holy items! ²⁰ 

52:12 Yet do not depart quickly

or leave in a panic. ²¹ 

For the Lord goes before you;

the God of Israel is your rear guard.

Zechariah 2:7-9

2:7 “Escape, Zion, you who live among the Babylonians!” ²²  2:8 For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory ²³  he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil ²⁴  of his ²⁵  eye. 2:9 “I am about to punish them ²⁶  in such a way,” he says, “that they will be looted by their own slaves.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

Revelation 18:4

18:4 Then ²⁷  I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so you will not take part in her sins and so you will not receive her plagues,

[51:6]  ¹ tn The words “you foreign people” are not in the text and many think the referent is the exiles of Judah. While this is clearly the case in v. 45 the referent seems broader here where the context speaks of every man going to his own country (v. 9).

[51:6]  ² tn Heb “her.”

[51:6]  ³ tn Heb “paying to her a recompense [i.e., a payment in kind].”

[51:45]  ⁴ tn Heb “Go out from her [Babylon’s] midst, my people. Save each man his life from the fierce anger of the Lord.” The verb has been paraphrased to prevent gender specific terms.

[31:21]  ⁵ tn The words “I will say” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to mark the transition from the address about Israel in a response to Rachel’s weeping (vv. 15-20) to a direct address to Israel which is essentially the answer to Israel’s prayer of penitence (cf. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 121.)

[31:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “Virgin Israel.” For the significance see the study note on 31:3.

[31:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “Set your mind to the highway, the way which you went.” The phrase “the way you went” has been translated “the road you took when you were carried off” to help the reader see the reference to the exile implicit in the context. The verb “which you went” is another example of the old second feminine singular which the Masoretes typically revocalize (Kethib הָלָכְתִּי [halakhti]; Qere הָלָכְתְּ [halakht]). The vocative has been supplied in the translation at the beginning to help make the transition from third person reference to Ephraim/Israel in the preceding to second person in the following and to identify the referent of the imperatives. Likewise, this line has been moved to the front to show that the reference to setting up sign posts and landmarks is not literal but figurative, referring to making a mental note of the way they took when carried off so that they can easily find their way back. Lines three and four in the Hebrew text read, “Set up sign posts for yourself; set up guideposts/landmarks for yourself.” The word translated “telltale signs marking the way” occurs only here. Though its etymology and precise meaning are unknown, all the lexicons agree in translating it as “sign post” or something similar based on the parallelism.

[44:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “The survivors of the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number [more literally, “men of number”; for the idiom see BDB 709 s.v. מִסְפָּר 1.a].” The term “survivors of the sword” may be intended to represent both those who survive death in war or death by starvation or disease, a synecdoche of species for all three genera.

[44:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “will stand,” i.e., in the sense of being fulfilled, proving to be true, or succeeding (see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g).

[50:8]  ¹⁰ tn The words “People of Judah” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the subject of the address.

[50:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[50:8]  ¹² tn The words “Be the first to leave” are not in the text but spell out the significance of the simile that follows. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[48:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[48:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.

[51:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.

[51:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “overtake” (so NIV); NASB “they will obtain.”

[51:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee.”

[52:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Shake yourself free from the dirt.”

[52:2]  ¹⁹ tc The Hebrew text has שְּׂבִי (shÿvi), which some understand as a feminine singular imperative from יָשַׁב (yashav, “sit”). The LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, and the Targum support the MT reading (the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does indirectly). Some interpret this to mean “take your throne”: The Lord exhorts Jerusalem to get up from the dirt and sit, probably with the idea of sitting in a place of honor (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:361). However, the form is likely a corruption of שְׁבִיָּה (shÿviyyah, “captive”), which appears in the parallel line.

[52:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the vessels of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).

[52:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “or go in flight”; NAB “leave in headlong flight.”

[2:7]  ²² tn Heb “live in [or “with” (cf. NASB), i.e., “among”] the daughter of Babylon” (so NIV; NAB “dwell in daughter Babylon”).

[2:8]  ²³ tn Heb “After glory has he sent me” (similar KJV, NASB). What is clearly in view is the role of Zechariah who, by faithful proclamation of the message, will glorify the Lord.

[2:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “gate” (בָּבָה, bavah) of the eye, that is, pupil. The rendering of this term by KJV as “apple” has created a well-known idiom in the English language, “the apple of his eye” (so ASV, NIV). The pupil is one of the most vulnerable and valuable parts of the body, so for Judah to be considered the “pupil” of the Lord’s eye is to raise her value to an incalculable price (cf. NLT “my most precious possession”).

[2:8]  ²⁵ tc A scribal emendation (tiqqun sopherim) has apparently altered an original “my eye” to “his eye” in order to allow the prophet to be the speaker throughout vv. 8-9. This alleviates the problem of the Lord saying, in effect, that he has sent himself on the mission to the nations.

[2:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “I will wave my hand over them” (so NASB); NIV, NRSV “raise my hand against them.”

[18:4]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.