Jude 1:20

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ¹ 

Isaiah 10:16

10:16 For this reason ²  the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. ³  His majestic glory will go up in smoke. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 48:45-46

48:45 In the shadows of the walls of Heshbon

those trying to escape will stand helpless.

For a fire will burst forth from Heshbon.

Flames will shoot out from the former territory of Sihon.

They will burn the foreheads of the people of Moab,

the skulls of those war-loving people. ⁵ 

48:46 Moab, you are doomed! ⁶ 

You people who worship Chemosh will be destroyed.

Your sons will be taken away captive.

Your daughters will be carried away into exile. ⁷ 

Amos 1:4

1:4 So I will set Hazael’s house ⁸  on fire;

fire ⁹  will consume Ben Hadad’s ¹⁰  fortresses.

Amos 1:7

1:7 So I will set Gaza’s city wall ¹¹  on fire;

fire ¹²  will consume her fortresses.

Amos 1:10

1:10 So I will set fire to Tyre’s city wall; ¹³ 

fire ¹⁴  will consume her fortresses.”

Amos 1:12

1:12 So I will set Teman ¹⁵  on fire;

fire ¹⁶  will consume Bozrah’s ¹⁷  fortresses.”

Amos 1:14

1:14 So I will set fire to Rabbah’s ¹⁸  city wall; ¹⁹ 

fire ²⁰  will consume her fortresses.

War cries will be heard on the day of battle; ²¹ 

a strong gale will blow on the day of the windstorm. ²² 

Amos 2:2

2:2 So I will set Moab on fire, ²³ 

and it will consume Kerioth’s ²⁴  fortresses.

Moab will perish ²⁵  in the heat of battle ²⁶ 

amid war cries and the blaring ²⁷  of the ram’s horn. ²⁸ 

Amos 2:5

2:5 So I will set Judah on fire,

and it will consume Jerusalem’s fortresses.” ²⁹ 

[1:20]  ¹ tn The participles in v. 20 have been variously interpreted. Some treat them imperativally or as attendant circumstance to the imperative in v. 21 (“maintain”): “build yourselves up…pray.” But they do not follow the normal contours of either the imperatival or attendant circumstance participles, rendering this unlikely. A better option is to treat them as the means by which the readers are to maintain themselves in the love of God. This both makes eminently good sense and fits the structural patterns of instrumental participles elsewhere.

[10:16]  ² sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.

[10:16]  ³ tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”

[10:16]  ⁴ tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”

[48:45]  ⁵ tn Or “of those noisy boasters.” Or “They will burn up the frontiers of Moab. They will burn up the mountain heights of those war-loving people.” The meaning of this verse is not entirely certain because of the highly figurative nature of the last two lines. The Hebrew text has been translated somewhat literally here. The Hebrew text reads: “In the shadow of Heshbon those fleeing stand without strength. For a fire goes forth from Heshbon, a flame from the midst of Sihon. And it devours the forehead of Moab and the skull of the sons of noise.” The meaning of the first part is fairly clear because v. 2 has already spoken of the conquest of Heshbon and a plot formed there to conquer the rest of the nation. The fire going forth from Heshbon would hence refer here to the conflagrations of war spreading from Heshbon to the rest of the country. The reference to the “midst of Sihon” is to be understood metonymically as a reference for the ruler to what he once ruled (cf. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 583). The last two lines must refer to more than the fugitives who stopped at Heshbon for protection because it refers to the forehead of Moab (a personification of the whole land or nation). It is unclear, however, why reference is made to the foreheads and skulls of the Moabites, other than the fact that this verse seems to be a readaptation or reuse of Num 24:17 where the verb used with them is “smite” which fits nicely in the sense of martial destruction. Translated rather literally, it appears here to refer to the destruction by the fires of war of the Moabites, the part (forehead and skulls) put for the whole. TEV sees a reference here to the “frontiers” and “mountain heights” of Moab and this would work nicely for “foreheads” which is elsewhere used of the corner or border of a land in Neh 9:22. The word “crown” or “skull” might be a picturesque metaphor for the mountain heights of a land, but the word is never used elsewhere in such a figurative way. TEV (and CEV) which follows it might be correct here but there is no way to validate it. The meaning “war-loving people” for the phrase “sons of noise” is based on the suggestion of BDB 981 s.v. שָׁאוֹן 1 which relates the phrase to the dominant use for שָׁאוֹן (sha’on) and is adopted also by TEV, CEV, and C. von Orelli, Jeremiah, 341. REB “braggarts” and NIV “noisy boasters” seem to base the nuance on the usage of שָׁאוֹן (sha’on) in Jer 46:17 where Pharaoh is referred to as an empty noise and the reference to Moab’s arrogance and boasting in 48:29.

[48:46]  ⁶ tn Heb “Woe to you, Moab.” For the usage of this expression see 4:13, 31; 13:17 and the translator’s note on 4:13 and 10:19.

[48:46]  ⁷ tn Heb “Your sons will be taken away into captivity, your daughters into exile.”

[1:4]  ⁸ tn “Hazael’s house” (“the house of Hazael”) refers to the dynasty of Hazael.

[1:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:4]  ¹⁰ sn Ben-hadad may refer to Hazael’s son and successor (2 Kgs 13:3, 24) or to an earlier king (see 1 Kgs 20), perhaps the ruler whom Hazael assassinated when he assumed power.

[1:7]  ¹¹ sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

[1:7]  ¹² tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:10]  ¹³ sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

[1:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:12]  ¹⁵ sn Teman was an important region (or perhaps city) in Edom.

[1:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:12]  ¹⁷ sn Bozrah was a city located in northern Edom.

[1:14]  ¹⁸ sn Rabbah was the Ammonite capital.

[1:14]  ¹⁹ sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

[1:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “with a war cry in the day of battle.”

[1:14]  ²² tn Heb “with wind in the day of the windstorm.”

[2:2]  ²³ sn The destruction of Moab by fire is an example of a judgment in kind – as the Moabites committed the crime of “burning,” so the Lord will punish them by setting them on fire.

[2:2]  ²⁴ sn Kerioth was an important Moabite city. See Jer 48:24, 41.

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “die” (KJV, NASB, NRSV, TEV); NAB “shall meet death.”

[2:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “in the tumult.” This word refers to the harsh confusion of sounds that characterized an ancient battle – a mixture of war cries, shouts, shrieks of pain, clashes of weapons, etc.

[2:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “sound” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[2:2]  ²⁸ sn The ram’s horn (used as a trumpet) was blown to signal the approaching battle.

[2:5]  ²⁹ map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.