Joshua 23:13

23:13 know for certain that the Lord our God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you; ¹  they will be a whip that tears ²  your sides and thorns that blind ³  your eyes until you disappear ⁴  from this good land the Lord your God gave you.

Job 5:5

5:5 The hungry ⁵  eat up his harvest, ⁶ 

and take it even from behind the thorns, ⁷ 

and the thirsty ⁸  swallow up ⁹  their fortune. ¹⁰ 

Job 31:40

31:40 then let thorns sprout up in place of wheat,

and in place of barley, weeds!” ¹¹ 

The words of Job are ended.

Proverbs 22:5

22:5 Thorns and snares ¹²  are in the path of the perverse,

but the one who guards himself keeps far from them.

Proverbs 24:31

24:31 I saw ¹³  that thorns had grown up all over it,

the ground ¹⁴  was covered with weeds,

and its stone wall was broken down.

Isaiah 5:6

5:6 I will make it a wasteland;

no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ¹⁵ 

and thorns and briers will grow there.

I will order the clouds

not to drop any rain on it.

Isaiah 7:23

7:23 At that time ¹⁶  every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be overrun ¹⁷  with thorns and briers.

Isaiah 32:13

32:13 Mourn ¹⁸  over the land of my people,

which is overgrown with thorns and briers,

and over all the once-happy houses ¹⁹ 

in the city filled with revelry. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 4:3

4:3 Yes, ²¹  the Lord has this to say

to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground,

you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning;

just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted,

you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives. ²² 

Jeremiah 12:13

12:13 My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. ²³ 

They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it.

They will be disappointed in their harvests ²⁴ 

because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger. ²⁵ 

Matthew 13:7

13:7 Other seeds fell among the thorns, ²⁶  and they grew up and choked them. ²⁷ 

Hebrews 6:8

6:8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; ²⁸  its fate is to be burned.

[23:13]  ¹ tn Heb “be a trap and a snare to you.”

[23:13]  ² tn Heb “in.”

[23:13]  ³ tn Heb “thorns in your eyes.”

[23:13]  ⁴ tn Or “perish.”

[5:5]  ⁵ sn The hungry are other people, possibly the hungry poor to whom the wealthy have refused to give bread (22:7). The sons are so helpless that even the poor take their property.

[5:5]  ⁶ tn The MT reads “whose harvest the hungry eat up.” Some commentators want to follow the LXX and repoint קְצִירוֹ (qÿtsiro, “his harvest”) to קָצְרוּ (qatsÿru, “[what] they have reaped”; cf. NAB). The reference as it stands in the MT seems to be to the image of taking root in v. 3; whatever took root – the prosperity of his life – will not belong to him or his sons to enjoy. If the emendation is accepted, then the reference would be immediately to the “sons” in the preceding verse.

[5:5]  ⁷ tn The line is difficult; the Hebrew text reads literally “and unto from thorns he takes it.” The idea seems to be that even from within an enclosed hedge of thorns other people will take the harvest. Many commentators either delete the line altogether or try to repoint it to make more sense out of it. G. R. Driver had taken the preposition אֶל (’el, “towards”) as the noun אֵל (’el, “strong man”) and the noun צִנִּים (tsinnim, “thorns”) connected to Aramaic צִנָּה (tsinnah, “basket”); he read it as “a strong man snatches it from the baskets” (G. R. Driver, “on Job 5:5,” TZ 12 [1956]: 485-86). E. Dhorme (Job, 60) changed the word slightly to מַצְפֻּנִים (matspunim, “hiding places”), instead of מִצִּנִּים (mitsinnim, “out of the thorns”), to get the translation “and unto hiding places he carries it.” This fits the use of the verb לָקַח (laqakh, “to take”) with the preposition אֶל (’el, “towards”) meaning “carry to” someplace. There seems to be no easy solution to the difficulty of the line.

[5:5]  ⁸ tn The word צַמִּים (tsammim) has been traditionally rendered “robbers.” But it has been connected by some of the ancient versions to the word for “thirst,” making a nice parallel with “hungry.” This would likely be pointed צְמֵאִים (tsÿme’im).

[5:5]  ⁹ tn The verb has been given many different renderings, some more radical than others: “engulf,” “draws,” “gather,” “swallow” (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 53). The idea of “swallow” is found in Job 20:15. The general sense of the line is clear, in spite of the difficulties of determining the exact meaning of the verb.

[5:5]  ¹⁰ tn The LXX has several variations for the line. It reads something like the following: “for what they have collected the just shall eat, but they shall not be delivered out of calamities; let their strength be utterly exhausted.” The LXX may have gotten the idea of the “righteous” as those who suffer from hunger. Instead of “thorns” the LXX has the idea of “trouble.” The Targum to Job interprets it with “shield” and adds “warriors” as the subject.

[31:40]  ¹¹ tn The word בָּאְשָׁה (bo’shah, from בָּאַשׁ [ba’as, “to have a foul smell”]) must refer to foul smelling weeds.

[22:5]  ¹² tc Because MT reading צִנִּים (tsinnim, “thorns”) does not make a very good match with “traps,” it has created some difficulty for interpreters. The word “thorns” may be obscure, but it is supported by the LXX (“prickly plants”) and an apparent cognate “thorns” in Num 33:55 and Josh 23:13. But some (including the editors of BHS) suggest changing it to צַמִּים (tsammim, “traps” changing a נ [nun] to a מ [mem]). But BDB 855 s.v. צַמִּים acknowledges that this word is a doubtful word, attested only a couple of times in Job (e.g., 18:9). W. McKane traces a development from the idea of צֵן (tsen, “basket; trap”) to support this change (Proverbs [OTL], 565). The present translation (like many other English versions) has retained “thorns,” even though the parallelism with “traps” is not very good; as the harder reading it is preferred. The variant readings have little textual or philological support, and simplify the line.

[24:31]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew term וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, traditionally “and, lo” [KJV, ASV]) is a deictic particle that calls attention to what comes next. “And look” is too abrupt here; “I saw” calls attention to the field that was noticed.

[24:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “its face” (so KJV, ASV).

[5:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.

[7:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[7:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “will become” (so NASB); NAB “shall be turned to.”

[32:13]  ¹⁸ tn “Mourn” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 12-13 are one long sentence.

[32:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “indeed, over all the houses of joy.” It is not certain if this refers to individual homes or to places where parties and celebrations were held.

[32:13]  ²⁰ sn This same phrase is used in 22:2.

[4:3]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew particle is obviously asseverative here since a causal connection appears to make little sense.

[4:3]  ²² tn Heb “Plow up your unplowed ground and do not sow among the thorns.” The translation is an attempt to bring out the force of a metaphor. The idea seems to be that they are to plow over the thorns and make the ground ready for the seeds which will produce a new crop where none had been produced before.

[12:13]  ²³ sn Invading armies lived off the land, using up all the produce and destroying everything they could not consume.

[12:13]  ²⁴ tn The pronouns here are actually second plural: Heb “Be ashamed/disconcerted because of your harvests.” Because the verb form (וּבֹשׁוּ, uvoshu) can either be Qal perfect third plural or Qal imperative masculine plural many emend the pronoun on the noun to third plural (see, e.g., BHS). However, this is the easier reading and is not supported by either the Latin or the Greek which have second plural. This is probably another case of the shift from description to direct address that has been met with several times already in Jeremiah (the figure of speech called apostrophe; for other examples see, e.g., 9:4; 11:13). As in other cases the translation has been leveled to third plural to avoid confusion for the contemporary English reader. For the meaning of the verb here see BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2 and compare the usage in Jer 48:13.

[12:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “be disappointed in their harvests from the fierce anger of the Lord.” The translation makes explicit what is implicit in the elliptical poetry of the Hebrew original.

[13:7]  ²⁶ sn Palestinian weeds like these thorns could grow up to six feet in height and have a major root system.

[13:7]  ²⁷ sn That is, crowded out the good plants.

[6:8]  ²⁸ tn Grk “near to a curse.”