Discovery BoxLeviticus 26:19
Context26:19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze.
Leviticus 26:1
Context26:1 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols, 1 so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before 2 it, for I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 17:1
Context17:1 The Lord spoke to Moses:
Leviticus 18:2
Context18:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘I am the Lord your God!
Jeremiah 14:1-6
Context14:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah 4 about the drought. 5
14:2 “The people of Judah are in mourning.
The people in her cities are pining away.
They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. 6
Cries of distress come up to me 7 from Jerusalem. 8
14:3 The leading men of the cities send their servants for water.
They go to the cisterns, 9 but they do not find any water there.
They return with their containers 10 empty.
Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. 11
14:4 They are dismayed because the ground is cracked 12
because there has been no rain in the land.
The farmers, too, are dismayed
and bury their faces in their hands.
14:5 Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn 13 in the field
because there is no grass.
14:6 Wild donkeys stand on the hilltops
and pant for breath like jackals.
Their eyes are strained looking for food,
because there is none to be found.” 14
Amos 4:7
Context4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. 15
I gave rain to one city, but not to another.
One field 16 would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.
[26:1] 1 sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”
[26:1] 2 tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449).
[14:1] 3 sn The form of Jer 14:1–15:9 is very striking rhetorically. It consists essentially of laments and responses to them. However, what makes it so striking is its deviation from normal form (cf. 2 Chr 20:5-17 for what would normally be expected). The descriptions of the lamentable situation come from the mouth of God not the people (cf.14:1-6, 17-18). The prophet utters the petitions with statements of trust (14:7-9, 19-22) and the
[14:1] 4 tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the
[14:1] 5 sn Drought was one of the punishments for failure to adhere to the terms of their covenant with God. See Deut 28:22-24; Lev 26:18-20.
[14:2] 6 tn Heb “Judah mourns, its gates pine away, they are in mourning on the ground.” There are several figures of speech involved here. The basic figure is that of personification where Judah and it cities are said to be in mourning. However, in the third line the figure is a little hard to sustain because “they” are in mourning on the ground. That presses the imagination of most moderns a little too far. Hence the personification has been interpreted “people of” throughout. The term “gates” here is used as part for whole for the “cities” themselves as in several other passages in the OT (cf. BDB 1045 s.v. שַׁעַר 2.b, c and see, e.g., Isa 14:31).
[14:2] 7 tn The words “to me” are not in the text. They are implicit from the fact that the
[14:2] 8 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[14:3] 9 tn Though the concept of “cisterns” is probably not familiar to some readers, it would be a mistake to translate this word as “well.” Wells have continual sources of water. Cisterns were pits dug in the ground and lined with plaster to hold rain water. The drought had exhausted all the water in the cisterns.
[14:3] 10 tn The word “containers” is a generic word in Hebrew = “vessels.” It would probably in this case involve water “jars” or “jugs.” But since in contemporary English one would normally associate those terms with smaller vessels, “containers” may be safer.
[14:3] 11 tn Heb “they cover their heads.” Some of the English versions have gone wrong here because of the “normal” use of the words translated here “disappointed” and “dismayed.” They are regularly translated “ashamed” and “disgraced, humiliated, dismayed” elsewhere (see e.g., Jer 22:22); they are somewhat synonymous terms which are often parallel or combined. The key here, however, is the expression “they cover their heads” which is used in 2 Sam 15:30 for the expression of grief. Moreover, the word translated here “disappointed” (בּוֹשׁ, bosh) is used that way several times. See for example Jer 12:13 and consult examples in BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2. A very similar context with the same figure is found in Jer 2:36-37.
[14:4] 12 tn For the use of the verb “is cracked” here see BDB 369 s.v. חָתַת Qal.1 and compare the usage in Jer 51:56 where it refers to broken bows. The form is a relative clause without relative pronoun (cf., GKC 486-87 §155.f). The sentence as a whole is related to the preceding through a particle meaning “because of” or “on account of.” Hence the subject and verb have been repeated to make the connection.
[14:5] 13 tn Heb “she gives birth and abandons.”
[14:6] 14 tn Heb “their eyes are strained because there is no verdure.”
[4:7] 15 sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.
[4:7] 16 tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.
