Nehemiah 4:4-5

4:4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile! 4:5 Do not cover their iniquity, and do not wipe out their sin from before them. For they have bitterly offended ¹  the builders! ² 

Nehemiah 13:29

13:29 Please remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priesthood, ³  and the Levites.

Psalms 36:11-12

36:11 Do not let arrogant men overtake me,

or let evil men make me homeless! ⁴ 

36:12 I can see the evildoers! They have fallen! ⁵ 

They have been knocked down and are unable to get up! ⁶ 

Psalms 140:5-11

140:5 Proud men hide a snare for me;

evil men ⁷  spread a net by the path;

they set traps for me. (Selah)

140:6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”

O Lord, pay attention to my plea for mercy!

140:7 O sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, ⁸ 

you shield ⁹  my head in the day of battle.

140:8 O Lord, do not let the wicked have their way! ¹⁰ 

Do not allow their ¹¹  plan to succeed when they attack! ¹²  (Selah)

140:9 As for the heads of those who surround me –

may the harm done by ¹³  their lips overwhelm them!

140:10 May he rain down ¹⁴  fiery coals upon them!

May he throw them into the fire!

From bottomless pits they will not escape. ¹⁵ 

140:11 A slanderer ¹⁶  will not endure on ¹⁷  the earth;

calamity will hunt down a violent man and strike him down. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 11:20-23

11:20 So I said to the Lord, ¹⁹ 

“O Lord who rules over all, ²⁰  you are a just judge!

You examine people’s hearts and minds. ²¹ 

I want to see you pay them back for what they have done

because I trust you to vindicate my cause.” ²² 

11:21 Then the Lord told me about ²³  some men from Anathoth ²⁴  who were threatening to kill me. ²⁵  They had threatened, ²⁶  “Stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you!” ²⁷  11:22 So the Lord who rules over all ²⁸  said, “I will surely ²⁹  punish them! Their young men will be killed in battle. ³⁰  Their sons and daughters will die of starvation. 11:23 Not one of them will survive. ³¹  I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. ³²  A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ³³ 

Jeremiah 18:20-23

18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?

Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ³⁴ 

Just remember how I stood before you

pleading on their behalf ³⁵ 

to keep you from venting your anger on them. ³⁶ 

18:21 So let their children die of starvation.

Let them be cut down by the sword. ³⁷ 

Let their wives lose their husbands and children.

Let the older men die of disease ³⁸ 

and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

18:22 Let cries of terror be heard in their houses

when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them. ³⁹ 

For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me

and have hidden traps for me to step into.

18:23 But you, Lord, know

all their plots to kill me.

Do not pardon their crimes!

Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! ⁴⁰ 

Let them be brought down in defeat before you!

Deal with them while you are still angry! ⁴¹ 

Jeremiah 18:2

18:2 “Go down at once ⁴²  to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” ⁴³ 

Jeremiah 4:14-15

4:14 “Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil ⁴⁴ 

so that you may yet be delivered.

How long will you continue to harbor up

wicked schemes within you?

4:15 For messengers are coming, heralding disaster,

from the city of Dan and from the hills of Ephraim. ⁴⁵ 

Jeremiah 4:1

4:1 “If you, Israel, want to come back,” says the Lord,

“if you want to come back to me ⁴⁶ 

you must get those disgusting idols ⁴⁷  out of my sight

and must no longer go astray. ⁴⁸ 

Jeremiah 5:16

5:16 All of its soldiers are strong and mighty. ⁴⁹ 

Their arrows will send you to your grave. ⁵⁰ 

[4:5]  ¹ tn The Hiphil stem of כָּעַס (ka’as) may mean: (1) “to provoke to anger”; (2) “to bitterly offend”; or (3) “to grieve” (BDB 495 s.v. Hiph.; HALOT 491 s.v. כעס hif). The Hebrew lexicons suggest that “bitterly offend” is the most appropriate nuance here.

[4:5]  ² tn Heb “before the builders.” The preposition נֶגֶד (neged, “before”) here connotes “in the sight of” or “in the view of” (BDB 617 s.v. 1.a; HALOT 666 s.v. 1.a).

[13:29]  ³ tc One medieval Hebrew MS, the Lucianic Greek recension, and the Syriac Peshitta read the plural הַכֹּהֲנִים (hakkohanim, “the priests”) rather than the singular reading of the MT, הַכְּהֻנָּה (hakkÿhunnah, “the priesthood”).

[36:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “let not a foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the evil ones cause me to wander as a fugitive.”

[36:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “there the workers of wickedness have fallen.” The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here for dramatic effect, as the psalmist envisions the evildoers lying fallen at a spot that is vivid in his imagination (BDB 1027 s.v.).

[36:12]  ⁶ tn The psalmist uses perfect verbal forms in v. 12 to describe the demise of the wicked as if it has already taken place.

[140:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and ropes,” but many prefer to revocalize the noun as a participle (חֹבְלִים, khovÿlim) from the verb חָבַל (khaval, “act corruptly”).

[140:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “the strength of my deliverance.”

[140:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “cover.”

[140:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “do not grant the desires of the wicked.”

[140:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his.” The singular is used in a representative sense (see v. 1).

[140:8]  ¹² tn Heb “his plot do not promote, they rise up.” The translation understands the final verb as being an unmarked temporal clause. Another option is to revocalize the verb as a Hiphil and take the verb with the next verse, “those who surround me lift up [their] head,” which could refer to their proud attitude as they anticipate victory (see Ps 27:6).

[140:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “harm of their lips.” The genitive here indicates the source or agent of the harm.

[140:10]  ¹⁴ tn The verb form in the Kethib (consonantal Hebrew text) appears to be a Hiphil imperfect from the root מוּט (mut, “to sway”), but the Hiphil occurs only here and in Ps 55:3, where it is preferable to read יַמְטִירוּ (yamtiru, “they rain down”). In Ps 140:10 the form יַמְטֵר (yamter, “let him rain down”) should probably be read.

[140:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “into bottomless pits, they will not arise.” The translation assumes that the preposition -בְּ (bet) has the nuance “from” here. Another option is to connect the line with what precedes, take the final clause as an asyndetic relative clause, and translate, “into bottomless pits [from which] they cannot arise.” The Hebrew noun מַהֲמֹרָה (mahamorah, “bottomless pit”) occurs only here in the OT.

[140:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a man of a tongue.”

[140:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “be established in.”

[140:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for blows.” The Hebrew noun מַדְחֵפֹה (madkhefoh, “blow”) occurs only here in the OT.

[11:20]  ¹⁹ tn The words “So I said to the Lord” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show the shift in address.

[11:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[11:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “Lord of armies, just judge, tester of kidneys and heart.” The sentence has been broken up to avoid a long and complex English sentence. The translation is more in keeping with contemporary English style. In Hebrew thought the “kidneys” were thought of as the seat of the emotions and passions and the “heart” was viewed as the seat of intellect, conscience, and will. The “heart” and the “kidneys” are often used figuratively for the thoughts, emotions, motives, and drives that are thought to be seated in them.

[11:20]  ²² tn Heb “Let me see your retribution [i.e., see you exact retribution] from them because I reveal my cause [i.e., plea for justice] to you.”

[11:21]  ²³ tn Heb “Therefore thus says the Lord.” This phrase is anticipatory of the same phrase at the beginning of v. 22 and is introductory to what the Lord says about them. The translation seeks to show the connection of the “therefore” which is sometimes rather loose (cf. BDB 487 s.v. כֵּן 3.d[b]) with the actual response which is not given until v. 22.

[11:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the men of Anathoth.” However, this does not involve all of the people, only the conspirators. The literal might lead to confusion later since v. 21 mentions that there will not be any of them left alive. However, it is known from Ezra 2:23 that there were survivors.

[11:21]  ²⁵ tc The MT reads the 2nd person masculine singular suffix “your life,” but LXX reflects an alternative reading of the 1st person common singular suffix “my life.”

[11:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “who were seeking my life, saying…” The sentence is broken up in conformity with contemporary English style.

[11:21]  ²⁷ tn Heb “or you will die by our hand.”

[11:22]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[11:22]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Behold I will.” For the function of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.

[11:22]  ³⁰ tn Heb “will die by the sword.” Here “sword” stands contextually for “battle” while “starvation” stands for death by starvation during siege.

[11:23]  ³¹ tn Heb “There will be no survivors for/among them.”

[11:23]  ³² tn Heb “the men of Anathoth.” For the rationale for adding the qualification see the notes on v. 21.

[11:23]  ³³ tn Heb “I will bring disaster on…, the year of their punishment.”

[18:20]  ³⁴ tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.

[18:20]  ³⁵ tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.

[18:20]  ³⁶ tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”

[18:21]  ³⁷ tn Heb “be poured out to the hand [= power] of the sword.” For this same expression see Ezek 35:5; Ps 63:10 (63:11 HT). Comparison with those two passages show that it involved death by violent means, perhaps death in battle.

[18:21]  ³⁸ tn Heb “be slain by death.” The commentaries are generally agreed that this refers to death by disease or plague as in 15:2. Hence, the reference is to the deadly trio of sword, starvation, and disease which were often connected with war. See the notes on 15:2.

[18:22]  ³⁹ tn Heb “when you bring marauders in against them.” For the use of the noun translated here “bands of raiders to plunder them” see 1 Sam 30:3, 15, 23 and BDB 151 s.v. גְּדוּד 1.

[18:23]  ⁴⁰ sn Heb “Do not blot out their sins from before you.” For this anthropomorphic figure which looks at God’s actions as though connected with record books, i.e., a book of wrongdoings to be punished, and a book of life for those who are to live, see e.g., Exod 32:32, 33, Ps 51:1 (51:3 HT); 69:28 (69:29 HT).

[18:23]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “in the time of your anger.”

[18:2]  ⁴² tn Heb “Get up and go down.” The first verb is not literal but is idiomatic for the initiation of an action. See 13:4, 6 for other occurrences of this idiom.

[18:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “And I will cause you to hear my word there.”

[4:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”

[4:15]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “For a voice declaring from Dan and making heard disaster from the hills of Ephraim.”

[4:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “If you, Israel, want to turn [away from your shameful ways (those described in 3:23-25)]…then you must turn back to me.” Or perhaps, “Israel, you must turn back…Yes, you must turn back to me.”

[4:1]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “disgusting things.”

[4:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Or possibly, “If you get those disgusting idols out of my sight, you will not need to flee.” This is less probable because the normal meaning of the last verb is “to wander,” “ to stray.”

[5:16]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “All of them are mighty warriors.”

[5:16]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “his quiver [is] an open grave.” The order of the lines has been reversed to make the transition from “nation” to “their arrows” easier.