Psalms 68:5

68:5 He is a father to the fatherless

and an advocate for widows. ¹ 

God rules from his holy palace. ² 

Psalms 78:65

78:65 But then the Lord awoke from his sleep; ³ 

he was like a warrior in a drunken rage. ⁴ 

Isaiah 26:20-21

26:20 Go, my people! Enter your inner rooms!

Close your doors behind you!

Hide for a little while,

until his angry judgment is over! ⁵ 

26:21 For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ⁶ 

to punish the sin of those who live on the earth.

The earth will display the blood shed on it;

it will no longer cover up its slain. ⁷ 

Isaiah 42:13-15

42:13 The Lord emerges like a hero,

like a warrior he inspires himself for battle; ⁸ 

he shouts, yes, he yells,

he shows his enemies his power. ⁹ 

42:14 “I have been inactive ¹⁰  for a long time;

I kept quiet and held back.

Like a woman in labor I groan;

I pant and gasp. ¹¹ 

42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; ¹² 

I will dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn streams into islands, ¹³ 

and dry up pools of water. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 51:9

51:9 Wake up! Wake up!

Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ¹⁵ 

Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity!

Did you not smash ¹⁶  the Proud One? ¹⁷ 

Did you not ¹⁸  wound the sea monster? ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 57:5

57:5 you who practice ritual sex ²⁰  under the oaks and every green tree,

who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. ²¹ 

Zephaniah 3:8

3:8 Therefore you must wait patiently ²²  for me,” says the Lord,

“for the day when I attack and take plunder. ²³ 

I have decided ²⁴  to gather nations together

and assemble kingdoms,

so I can pour out my fury on them –

all my raging anger.

For ²⁵  the whole earth will be consumed

by my fiery anger.

[68:5]  ¹ sn God is depicted here as a just ruler. In the ancient Near Eastern world a king was responsible for promoting justice, including caring for the weak and vulnerable, epitomized by the fatherless and widows.

[68:5]  ² tn Heb “God [is] in his holy dwelling place.” He occupies his throne and carries out his royal responsibilities.

[78:65]  ³ tn Heb “and the master awoke like one sleeping.” The Lord’s apparent inactivity during the time of judgment is compared to sleep.

[78:65]  ⁴ tn Heb “like a warrior overcome with wine.” The Hebrew verb רוּן (run, “overcome”) occurs only here in the OT. The phrase “overcome with wine” could picture a drunken warrior controlled by his emotions and passions (as in the present translation), or it could refer to a warrior who awakes from a drunken stupor.

[26:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “until anger passes by.”

[26:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “out of his place” (so KJV, ASV).

[26:21]  ⁷ sn This implies that rampant bloodshed is one of the reasons for divine judgment. See the note at 24:5.

[42:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “like a man of war he stirs up zeal” (NIV similar).

[42:13]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps, “he triumphs over his enemies” (cf. NIV); NLT “will crush all his enemies.”

[42:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “silent” (so NASB, NIV, TEV, NLT); CEV “have held my temper.”

[42:14]  ¹¹ sn The imagery depicts the Lord as a warrior who is eager to fight and can no longer hold himself back from the attack.

[42:15]  ¹² tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”

[42:15]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).

[42:15]  ¹⁴ sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.

[51:9]  ¹⁵ tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.

[51:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Are you not the one who smashed?” The feminine singular forms agree grammatically with the feminine noun “arm.” The Hebrew text has ַהמַּחְצֶבֶת (hammakhtsevet), from the verbal root חָצַב (khatsav, “hew, chop”). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has, probably correctly, המחצת, from the verbal root מָחַץ (makhats, “smash”) which is used in Job 26:12 to describe God’s victory over “the Proud One.”

[51:9]  ¹⁷ tn This title (רַהַב, rahav, “proud one”) is sometimes translated as a proper name: “Rahab” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). It is used here of a symbolic sea monster, known elsewhere in the Bible and in Ugaritic myth as Leviathan. This sea creature symbolizes the forces of chaos that seek to destroy the created order. In the Bible “the Proud One” opposes God’s creative work, but is defeated (see Job 26:12; Ps 89:10). Here the title refers to Pharaoh’s Egyptian army that opposed Israel at the Red Sea (see v. 10, and note also Isa 30:7 and Ps 87:4, where the title is used of Egypt).

[51:9]  ¹⁸ tn The words “did you not” are understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line). The rhetorical questions here and in v. 10 expect the answer, “Yes, you certainly did!”

[51:9]  ¹⁹ tn Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannin) is another name for the symbolic sea monster. See the note at 27:1. In this context the sea creature represents Egypt. See the note on the title “Proud One” earlier in this verse.

[57:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “inflame yourselves”; NRSV “burn with lust.” This verse alludes to the practice of ritual sex that accompanied pagan fertility rites.

[57:5]  ²¹ sn This apparently alludes to the practice of child sacrifice (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[3:8]  ²² tn The second person verb form (“you must wait patiently”) is masculine plural, indicating that a group is being addressed. Perhaps the humble individuals addressed earlier (see 2:3) are in view. Because of Jerusalem’s sin, they must patiently wait for judgment to pass before their vindication arrives.

[3:8]  ²³ tn Heb “when I arise for plunder.” The present translation takes עַד (’ad) as “plunder.” Some, following the LXX, repoint the term עֵד (’ed) and translate, “as a witness” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV). In this case the Lord uses a legal metaphor to picture himself as testifying against his enemies. Adele Berlin takes לְעַד (lÿ’ad) in a temporal sense (“forever”) and translates “once and for all” (Zephaniah [AB 25A], 133).

[3:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “for my decision is.”

[3:8]  ²⁵ tn Or “certainly.”