Discovery BoxNahum 3:2-3
Context3:2 The chariot drivers will crack their whips; 1
the chariot wheels will shake the ground; 2
the chariot horses 3 will gallop; 4
the war chariots 5 will bolt forward! 6
3:3 The charioteers 7 will charge ahead; 8
and their spears 11 will glimmer! 12
There will be many people slain; 13
there will be piles of the dead,
and countless casualties 14 –
so many that people 15 will stumble over the corpses.
Isaiah 37:24
Context37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, 16
‘With my many chariots I climbed up
the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions, 17
its thickest woods.
Isaiah 66:15
Context66:15 For look, the Lord comes with fire,
his chariots come like a windstorm, 18
to reveal his raging anger,
his battle cry, and his flaming arrows. 19
Jeremiah 4:13
Context4:13 Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. 20
The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. 21
His horses move more swiftly than eagles.”
I cry out, 22 “We are doomed, 23 for we will be destroyed!”
Ezekiel 26:10
Context26:10 He will cover you with the dust kicked up by his many horses. 24 Your walls will shake from the noise of the horsemen, wheels, and chariots when he enters your gates like those who invade through a city’s broken walls. 25
Daniel 11:40
Context11:40 “At the time of the end the king of the south will attack 26 him. Then the king of the north will storm against him 27 with chariots, horsemen, and a large armada of ships. 28 He 29 will invade lands, passing through them like an overflowing river. 30
[3:2] 1 tn Heb “the sound of a whip.”
[3:2] 2 tn Heb “the shaking of a chariot wheel.”
[3:2] 4 tn Albright argues that the term דֹּהֵר (doher) should be translated as “chariot driver” (W. F. Albright, “The Song of Deborah in Light of Archaeology,” BASOR 62 [1936]: 30). More recent research indicates that this term denotes “to dash” (HALOT 215 s.v.) or “to gallop, neigh” (DCH 2:417 s.v. דהר I). It is used as a synonym for רָקַד (raqad, “to skip”). This Hebrew verb is related to Egyptian thr (“to travel by chariot”) and Arabic dahara VII (“to hurry”). The related noun דַּהֲרָה (daharah) means “dashing, galloping” (Judg 5:22; HALOT 215 s.v.; DCH 2:417 s.v. דַּהֲרָה I).
[3:2] 6 tn The Piel participle מְרַקֵּדָה (mÿraqqedah, “jolting”) is from רַקַד (raqad); this verb means “to dance, to leap” (of children, Job 21:11), “to skip about, to dance” (Eccl 3:4), and “to leap” (of chariots, Joel 2:5). In related Semitic languages (Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Arabic) the root raqad means “to dance, to skip about.” Here, the verb is used as a figurative expression (hypocatastasis) to describe the jostling of the madly rushing war-chariots.
[3:3] 7 tn Heb “a horseman.” Although the Hebrew term פָּרָס (paras, alternately spelled פָּרָשׂ [paras] here) could denote “horse” (1 Sam 8:11; Joel 2:4; Hab 1:8; Jer 46:4), the Hiphil participle מַעֲלֶה (ma’aleh, “cause to charge”) – the subject of which is פָּרָס – suggests that פָּרָס refers here to “horsemen” charging their horses (2 Sam 1:6; 1 Kgs 20:20; Jer 4:29; 46:4).
[3:3] 8 tn The term מַעֲלֶה (ma’aleh; the Hiphil participle “cause to charge”) refers to charioteers bringing war-horses up to a charge or attack (e.g., Jer 46:9; 51:27). On the other hand, the KJV translates this as “lifteth up [both the bright sword and the glittering sword],” while RV renders it as “mounts [his horse (or chariot)].”
[3:3] 10 tn Heb “flash of a sword.” Alternately, “swords flash.” Although לַהַב (lahav) can mean “blade” (Judg 3:22; 1 Sam 17:7), it means “flash [of the sword]” here (e.g., Hab 3:11; see HALOT 520 s.v.) as suggested by its parallelism with וּבְרַק (uvÿraq, “flashing, gleaming point [of the spear]”); cf. Job 20:25; Deut 32:41; Hab 3:11; Ezek 21:15.
[3:3] 12 tn Heb “and flash of a spear.” Alternately, “spears glimmer” (HALOT 162 s.v. בָּרָק).
[3:3] 14 tc The MT reads לַגְּוִיָּה (laggÿviyyah, “to the dead bodies”). The LXX reflects לְגוֹיָה (lÿgoyah, “to her nations”) which arose due to confusion between the consonant ו (vav) and the vowel וֹ (holem-vav) in an unpointed text.
[37:24] 16 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
[37:24] 17 tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”
[66:15] 18 sn Chariots are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way that they kick up dust.
[66:15] 19 tn Heb “to cause to return with the rage of his anger, and his battle cry [or “rebuke”] with flames of fire.”
[4:13] 20 tn Heb “he is coming up like clouds.” The words “The enemy” are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and the word “gathering” is supplied to try to convey the significance of the simile, i.e., that of quantity and of an approaching storm.
[4:13] 21 tn Heb “his chariots [are] like a whirlwind.” The words “roar” and “sound” are supplied in the translation to clarify the significance of the simile.
[4:13] 22 tn The words “I cry out” are not in the text, but the words that follow are obviously not the
[4:13] 23 tn Heb “Woe to us!” The words “woe to” are common in funeral laments and at the beginning of oracles of judgment. In many contexts they carry the connotation of hopelessness or apprehensiveness of inevitable doom.
[26:10] 24 tn Heb “From the abundance of his horses he will cover you (with) their dust.”
[26:10] 25 tn Heb “like those who enter a breached city.”
[11:40] 26 tn Heb “engage in thrusting.”
[11:40] 27 tn The referent of the pronoun is most likely the king of the south, in which case the text describes the king of the north countering the attack of the king of the south.
[11:40] 28 tn Heb “many ships.”
[11:40] 29 tn This most likely refers to the king of the north who, in response to the aggression of the king of the south, launches an invasion of the southern regions.
