Leviticus 26:16

26:16 I for my part ¹  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ²  You will sow your seed in vain because ³  your enemies will eat it. ⁴ 

Leviticus 26:25-46

26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. ⁵  Although ⁶  you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. ⁷  26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ⁸  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ⁹  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

26:27 “‘If in spite of this ¹⁰  you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, ¹¹  26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ¹²  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ¹³  26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ¹⁴  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ¹⁵  I will abhor you. ¹⁶  26:31 I will lay your cities waste ¹⁷  and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword ¹⁸  after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

26:34 “‘Then the land will make up for ¹⁹  its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 26:35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have ²⁰  on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

26:36 “‘As for ²¹  the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. 26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though ²²  there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand ²³  for you before your enemies. 26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ²⁴  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ²⁵  iniquities which are with them. 26:40 However, when ²⁶  they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, ²⁷  by which they also walked ²⁸  in hostility against me ²⁹  26:41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and ³⁰  then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for ³¹  their iniquity, 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, ³²  and I will remember the land. 26:43 The land will be abandoned by them ³³  in order that it may make up for ³⁴  its Sabbaths while it is made desolate ³⁵  without them, ³⁶  and they will make up for their iniquity because ³⁷  they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred ³⁸  my statutes. 26:44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 26:45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors ³⁹  whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

Summary Colophon

26:46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established ⁴⁰  between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through ⁴¹  Moses.

Deuteronomy 28:21-22

28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ⁴²  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He ⁴³  will afflict you with weakness, ⁴⁴  fever, inflammation, infection, ⁴⁵  sword, ⁴⁶  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish.

Deuteronomy 28:25

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ⁴⁷  to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deuteronomy 28:38-42

The Curse of Reversed Status

28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. ⁴⁸  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ⁴⁹  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil.

Deuteronomy 28:52-61

28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁵⁰  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁵¹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁵²  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ⁵³  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁵⁴  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ⁵⁵  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁵⁶  and her newborn children ⁵⁷  (since she has nothing else), ⁵⁸  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ⁵⁹  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt ⁶⁰  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ⁶¹  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ⁶²  until you have perished.

Deuteronomy 28:2

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ⁶³  if you obey the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 6:25

6:25 We will be innocent if we carefully keep all these commandments ⁶⁴  before the Lord our God, just as he demands.” ⁶⁵ 

Deuteronomy 6:1

Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Principles

6:1 Now these are the commandments, ⁶⁶  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ⁶⁷ 

Deuteronomy 21:12

21:12 you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, ⁶⁸  trim her nails,

Deuteronomy 21:2

21:2 your elders and judges must go out and measure how far it is to the cities in the vicinity of the corpse. ⁶⁹ 

Deuteronomy 6:1

Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Principles

6:1 Now these are the commandments, ⁷⁰  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ⁷¹ 

Deuteronomy 20:9

20:9 Then, when the officers have finished speaking, ⁷²  they must appoint unit commanders ⁷³  to lead the troops.

Psalms 105:34-35

105:34 He ordered locusts to come, ⁷⁴ 

innumerable grasshoppers.

105:35 They ate all the vegetation in their land,

and devoured the crops of their fields. ⁷⁵ 

Jeremiah 32:2

32:2 Now at that time, ⁷⁶  the armies of the king of Babylon were besieging Jerusalem. ⁷⁷  The prophet Jeremiah was confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse ⁷⁸  attached to the royal palace of Judah.

Jeremiah 39:1-3

39:1 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it. The siege began in the tenth month of the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah. ⁷⁹  39:2 It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ⁸⁰  On that day they broke through the city walls. 39:3 Then Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ⁸¹  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters ⁸²  in the Middle Gate. ⁸³ 

Ezekiel 14:21

14:21 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments – sword, famine, wild animals, and plague – to Jerusalem ⁸⁴  to kill both people and animals!

Joel 1:4-7

1:4 What the gazam-locust left the ‘arbeh-locust consumed, ⁸⁵ 

what the ‘arbeh-locust left the yeleq-locust consumed,

and what the yeleq-locust left the hasil-locust consumed! ⁸⁶ 

1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, ⁸⁷  and weep!

Wail, all you wine drinkers, ⁸⁸ 

because the sweet wine ⁸⁹  has been taken away ⁹⁰  from you. ⁹¹ 

1:6 For a nation ⁹²  has invaded ⁹³  our ⁹⁴  land.

There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ⁹⁵ 

Their teeth are like those ⁹⁶  of a lion;

they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ⁹⁷ 

1:7 They ⁹⁸  have destroyed our ⁹⁹  vines; ¹⁰⁰ 

they have turned our ¹⁰¹  fig trees into mere splinters.

They have completely stripped off the bark ¹⁰²  and thrown them aside;

the ¹⁰³  twigs are stripped bare. ¹⁰⁴ 

Joel 2:25-26

2:25 I will make up for the years ¹⁰⁵ 

that the ‘arbeh-locust ¹⁰⁶  consumed your crops ¹⁰⁷  –

the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust –

my great army ¹⁰⁸  that I sent against you.

2:26 You will have plenty to eat,

and your hunger will be fully satisfied; ¹⁰⁹ 

you will praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has acted wondrously in your behalf.

My people will never again be put to shame.

[26:16]  ¹ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ² tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185.

[26:16]  ³ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ⁴ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.

[26:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”

[26:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.

[26:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “in hand of enemy,” but Tg. Ps.-J. and Tg. Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 454).

[26:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[26:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And if in this.”

[26:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:28]  ¹² tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”

[26:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:30]  ¹⁴ sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”

[26:30]  ¹⁵ tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.

[26:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

[26:31]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”

[26:33]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).

[26:34]  ¹⁹ tn There are two Hebrew roots רָצָה (ratsah), one meaning “to be pleased with; to take pleasure” (HALOT 1280-81 s.v. רצה; cf. “enjoy” in NASB, NIV, NRSV, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452), and the other meaning “to restore” (HALOT 1281-82 s.v. II רצה; cf. NAB “retrieve” and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 189).

[26:35]  ²⁰ tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.”

[26:36]  ²¹ tn Heb “And.”

[26:37]  ²² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.

[26:37]  ²³ tn The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies.

[26:39]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

[26:39]  ²⁵ tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).

[26:40]  ²⁶ tn Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if…”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 190). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation.

[26:40]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on Lev 5:15, although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.”

[26:40]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and also which they walked.”

[26:40]  ²⁹ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:41]  ³⁰ tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.”

[26:41]  ³¹ tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above.

[26:42]  ³² tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:43]  ³³ tn Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 455).

[26:43]  ³⁴ tn The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose.

[26:43]  ³⁵ tn The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix (GKC 182 §67.y; cf. v. 34).

[26:43]  ³⁶ tn Heb “from them.”

[26:43]  ³⁷ tn Heb “because and in because,” a double expression, which is used only here and in Ezek 13:10 (without the vav) for emphasis (GKC 492 §158.b).

[26:43]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and their soul has abhorred.”

[26:45]  ³⁹ tn Heb “covenant of former ones.”

[26:46]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.”

[26:46]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[28:21]  ⁴² tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[28:22]  ⁴³ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

[28:22]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:25]  ⁴⁷ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

[28:40]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ⁴⁹ tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).

[28:52]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁵² tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁵³ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁵⁴ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:60]  ⁶⁰ sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).

[28:60]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

[28:61]  ⁶² tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”

[28:2]  ⁶³ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[6:25]  ⁶⁴ tn The term “commandment” (מִצְוָה, mitsvah), here in the singular, refers to the entire body of covenant stipulations.

[6:25]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “as he has commanded us” (so NIV, NRSV).

[6:1]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.

[6:1]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”

[21:12]  ⁶⁸ sn This requirement for the woman to shave her head may symbolize the putting away of the old life and customs in preparation for being numbered among the people of the Lord. The same is true for the two following requirements.

[21:2]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “surrounding the slain [one].”

[6:1]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.

[6:1]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”

[20:9]  ⁷² tn The Hebrew text includes “to the people,” but this phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[20:9]  ⁷³ tn Heb “princes of hosts.”

[105:34]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “he spoke and locusts came.”

[105:35]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of their ground.”

[32:2]  ⁷⁶ sn Jer 32:2-5 are parenthetical, giving the background for the actual report of what the Lord said in v. 7. The background is significant because it shows that Jeremiah was predicting the fall of the city and the kingdom and was being held prisoner for doing so. Despite this pessimistic outlook, the Lord wanted Jeremiah to demonstrate his assurance of the future restoration (which has been the topic of the two preceding chapters) by buying a field as a symbolic act that the Israelites would again one day regain possession of their houses, fields, and vineyards (vv. 15, 44). (For other symbolic acts with prophetic import see Jer 13, 19.)

[32:2]  ⁷⁷ sn According to Jer 39:1 the siege began in Zedekiah’s ninth year (i.e., in 589/88 b.c.). It had been interrupted while the Babylonian army was occupied with fighting against an Egyptian force that had invaded Judah. During this period of relaxed siege Jeremiah had attempted to go to his home town in Anathoth to settle some property matters, had been accused of treason, and been thrown into a dungeon (37:11-15). After appealing to Zedekiah he had been moved from the dungeon to the courtyard of the guardhouse connected to the palace (37:21) where he remained confined until Jerusalem was captured in 587/86 b.c. (38:28).

[32:2]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “the courtyard of the guarding” or “place of guarding.” This expression occurs only in the book of Jeremiah (32:2, 8, 12; 33:1; 37:21; 38:6, 12, 28; 39:14, 15) and in Neh 3:25. It is not the same as an enclosed prison which is where Jeremiah was initially confined (37:15-16; literally a “house of imprisoning” [בֵּית הָאֵסוּר, bet ha’esur] or “house of confining” [בֵּית הַכֶּלֶא, bet hakkele’]). It is said to have been in the palace compound (32:2) near the citadel or upper palace (Neh 3:25). Though it was a place of confinement (32:2; 33:1; 39:15) Jeremiah was able to receive visitors, e.g., his cousin Hanamel (32:8) and the scribe Baruch (32:12), and conduct business there (32:12). According to 32:12 other Judeans were also housed there. A cistern of one of the royal princes, Malkijah, was located in this courtyard, so this is probably not a “prison compound” as NJPS interpret but a courtyard adjacent to a guardhouse or guard post (so G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 151, and compare Neh 12:39 where reference is made to a Gate of the Guard/Guardhouse) used here for housing political prisoners who did not deserve death or solitary confinement as some of the officials though Jeremiah did.

[39:1]  ⁷⁹ sn 2 Kgs 25:1 and Jer 52:4 give the more precise date of the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year which would have been Jan 15, 588 b.c. The reckoning is based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring (Nisan = March/April).

[39:2]  ⁸⁰ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[39:3]  ⁸¹ tn English versions and commentaries differ on the number of officials named here and the exact spelling of their names. For a good discussion of the options see F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations (NAC), 341, n. 71. Most commentaries follow the general lead of J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 243) as the present translation has done here. However, the second name is not emended on the basis of v. 13 as Bright does, nor is the second Nergal-Sharezer regarded as the same man as the first and the information on the two combined as he does. The first Nergal-Sharezer is generally identified on the basis of Babylonian records as the man who usurped the throne from Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Awel-Marduk or Evil-Merodach as he is known in the OT (Jer 52:31; 2 Kgs 25:27). The present translation renders the two technical Babylonian terms “Rab-Saris” (only in Jer 39:3, 13; 2 Kgs 18:17) and “Rab-Mag” (only in Jer 39:3, 13) as “chief officer” and “high official” without knowing precisely what offices they held. This has been done to give the modern reader some feeling of their high position without specifying exactly what their precise positions were (i.e., the generic has been used for the [unknown] specific).

[39:3]  ⁸² tn Heb “sat.” The precise meaning of this phrase is not altogether clear, but J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 243) is undoubtedly correct in assuming that it had to do with setting up a provisional military government over the city.

[39:3]  ⁸³ tn The Hebrew style here is typically full or redundant, giving a general subject first and then listing the specifics. The Hebrew text reads: “Then all the officers of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate, Nergal-Sharezer…and all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.” In the translation the general subject has been eliminated and the list of the “real” subjects used instead; this eliminates the dashes or commas typical of some modern English versions.

[14:21]  ⁸⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:4]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “eaten.” This verb is repeated three times in v. 4 to emphasize the total devastation of the crops by this locust invasion.

[1:4]  ⁸⁶ tn The four Hebrew terms used in this verse are of uncertain meaning. English translations show a great deal of variation in dealing with these: (1) For ָגּזָם (gazam) KJV has “palmerworm,” NEB “locust,” NAB “cutter”, NASB “gnawing locust,” NIV “locust swarm,” NKJV “chewing locust,” NRSV, NLT “cutting locust(s),” NIrV “giant locusts”; (2) for אַרְבֶּה (’arbeh) KJV has “locust,” NEB “swarm,” NAB “locust swarm,” NASB, NKJV, NRSV, NLT “swarming locust(s),” NIV “great locusts,” NIrV “common locusts”; (3) for יֶלֶק (yeleq) KJV has “cankerworm,” NEB “hopper,” NAB “grasshopper,” NASB “creeping locust,” NIV, NIrV “young locusts,” NKJV “crawling locust,” NRSV, NLT “hopping locust(s)”; (4) for חָסִיל (khasil) KJV has “caterpillar,” NEB “grub,” NAB “devourer,” NASB, NLT “stripping locust(s),” NIV, NIrV “other locusts,” NKJV “consuming locust,” NRSV “destroying locust.” It is debated whether the Hebrew terms describe different species of locusts or similar insects or different developmental stages of the same species, or are virtual synonyms. While the last seems more likely, given the uncertainty over their exact meaning, the present translation has transliterated the Hebrew terms in combination with the word “locust.”

[1:5]  ⁸⁷ sn The word drunkards has a double edge here. Those accustomed to drinking too much must now lament the unavailability of wine. It also may hint that the people in general have become religiously inebriated and are unresponsive to the Lord. They are, as it were, drunkards from a spiritual standpoint.

[1:5]  ⁸⁸ sn Joel addresses the first of three groups particularly affected by the locust plague. In v. 5 he describes the effects on the drunkards, who no longer have a ready supply of intoxicating wine; in vv. 11-12 he describes the effects on the farmers, who have watched their labors come to naught because of the insect infestation; and in vv. 13-14 he describes the effects on the priests, who are no longer able to offer grain sacrifices and libations in the temple.

[1:5]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “over the sweet wine, because it.” Cf. KJV, NIV, TEV, NLT “new wine.”

[1:5]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “will be withheld.”

[1:5]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “your mouth.” This is a synecdoche of part (the mouth) for whole (the person).

[1:6]  ⁹² sn As becomes increasingly clear in what follows, this nation is to be understood figuratively. It refers to the locust invasion as viewed from the standpoint of its methodical, destructive advance across the land (BDB 156 s.v. גּוֹי 2). This term is used figuratively to refer to animals one other time (Zeph 2:14).

[1:6]  ⁹³ tn Heb “has come up against.”

[1:6]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb “my.”

[1:6]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “[It] is huge and there is not number.”

[1:6]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb “its teeth are the teeth of a lion.”

[1:6]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “its incisors are those of a lioness.” The sharp, cutting teeth are metonymical for the action of tearing apart and eating prey. The language is clearly hyperbolic. Neither locusts nor human invaders literally have teeth of this size. The prophet is using exaggerated and picturesque language to portray in vivid terms the enormity of the calamity. English versions vary greatly on the specifics: KJV “cheek teeth”; ASV “jaw-teeth”; NAB “molars”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “fangs.”

[1:7]  ⁹⁸ tn Heb “it.” Throughout vv. 6-7 the Hebrew uses singular forms to describe the locust swarm, but the translation uses plural forms because several details of the text make more sense in English as if they are describing the appearance and effects of individual locusts.

[1:7]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “my.”

[1:7]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Both “vines” and “fig trees” are singular in the Hebrew text, but are regarded as collective singulars.

[1:7]  ¹⁰¹ tn Heb “my.”

[1:7]  ¹⁰² tn Heb “it has completely stripped her.”

[1:7]  ¹⁰³ tn Heb “her.”

[1:7]  ¹⁰⁴ tn Heb “grow white.”

[2:25]  ¹⁰⁵ tn Heb “I will restore to you the years.”

[2:25]  ¹⁰⁶ sn The same four terms for locust are used here as in 1:4, but in a different order. This fact creates some difficulty for the notion that the four words refer to four distinct stages of locust development.

[2:25]  ¹⁰⁷ tn The term “your crops” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[2:25]  ¹⁰⁸ sn Here Joel employs military language to describe the locusts. In the prophet’s thinking this invasion was far from being a freak accident. Rather, the Lord is pictured here as a divine warrior who leads his army into the land as a punishment for past sin and as a means of bringing about spiritual renewal on the part of the people.

[2:26]  ¹⁰⁹ tn Heb “you will surely eat and be satisfied.”