Discovery BoxPsalms 73:17-19
Context73:17 Then I entered the precincts of God’s temple, 1
and understood the destiny of the wicked. 2
73:18 Surely 3 you put them in slippery places;
you bring them down 4 to ruin.
73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!
Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! 5
Proverbs 4:19
Context4:19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; 6
they do not know what causes them to stumble. 7
Isaiah 8:15
Context8:15 Many will stumble over the stone and the rock, 8
and will fall and be seriously injured,
and will be ensnared and captured.”
Jeremiah 6:21
Context6:21 So, this is what the Lord says:
‘I will assuredly 9 make these people stumble to their doom. 10
Parents and children will stumble and fall to their destruction. 11
Friends and neighbors will die.’
Jeremiah 13:16
Context13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. 12
Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. 13
Do it before you stumble 14 into distress
like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. 15
Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for
into the darkness and gloom of exile. 16
Jeremiah 13:1
Context13:1 The Lord said to me, “Go and buy some linen shorts 17 and put them on. 18 Do not put them in water.” 19
Jeremiah 2:8
Context2:8 Your priests 20 did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ 21
Those responsible for teaching my law 22 did not really know me. 23
Your rulers rebelled against me.
Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. 24
They all worshiped idols that could not help them. 25
[73:17] 1 tn The plural of the term מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash) probably refers to the temple precincts (see Ps 68:35; Jer 51:51).
[73:17] 2 tn Heb “I discerned their end.” At the temple the psalmist perhaps received an oracle of deliverance announcing his vindication and the demise of the wicked (see Ps 12) or heard songs of confidence (for example, Ps 11), wisdom psalms (for example, Pss 1, 37), and hymns (for example, Ps 112) that describe the eventual downfall of the proud and wealthy.
[73:18] 3 tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.
[73:18] 4 tn Heb “cause them to fall.”
[73:19] 5 tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”
[4:19] 6 sn The simile describes ignorance or spiritual blindness, sinfulness, calamity, despair.
[4:19] 7 tn Heb “in what they stumble.”
[8:15] 8 tn Heb “over them” (so NASB); NCV “over this rock.”
[6:21] 9 tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle rendered “behold” joined to the first person pronoun.
[6:21] 10 tn Heb “I will put stumbling blocks in front of these people.” In this context the stumbling blocks are the invading armies.
[6:21] 11 tn The words “and fall to their destruction” are implicit in the metaphor and are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[13:16] 12 tn Heb “Give glory/respect to the
[13:16] 13 tn The words “of disaster” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to explain the significance of the metaphor to readers who may not be acquainted with the metaphorical use of light and darkness for salvation and joy and distress and sorrow respectively.
[13:16] 14 tn Heb “your feet stumble.”
[13:16] 15 tn Heb “you stumble on the mountains at twilight.” The added words are again supplied in the translation to help explain the metaphor to the uninitiated reader.
[13:16] 16 tn Heb “and while you hope for light he will turn it into deep darkness and make [it] into gloom.” The meaning of the metaphor is again explained through the addition of the “of” phrases for readers who are unacquainted with the metaphorical use of these terms.
[13:1] 17 tn The term here (אֵזוֹר, ’ezor) has been rendered in various ways: “girdle” (KJV, ASV), “waistband” (NASB), “waistcloth” (RSV), “sash” (NKJV), “belt” (NIV, NCV, NLT), and “loincloth” (NAB, NRSV, NJPS, REB). The latter is more accurate according to J. M. Myers, “Dress and Ornaments,” IDB 1:870, and W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:399. It was a short, skirt-like garment reaching from the waist to the knees and worn next to the body (cf. v. 9). The modern equivalent is “shorts” as in TEV/GNB, CEV.
[13:1] 18 tn Heb “upon your loins.” The “loins” were the midriff of the body from the waist to the knees. For a further discussion including the figurative uses see, IDB, “Loins,” 3:149.
[13:1] 19 tn Or “Do not ever put them in water,” i.e., “Do not even wash them.”
[2:8] 20 tn Heb “The priests…the ones who grasp my law…the shepherds…the prophets…they…”
[2:8] 21 sn See the study note on 2:6.
[2:8] 22 tn Heb “those who handle my law.”
[2:8] 23 tn Or “were not committed to me.” The Hebrew verb rendered “know” refers to more than mere intellectual knowledge. It carries also the ideas of emotional and volitional commitment as well intimacy. See for example its use in contexts like Hos 4:1; 6:6.
[2:8] 25 tn Heb “and they followed after those things [the word is plural] which do not profit.” The poetic structure of the verse, four lines in which a distinct subject appears at the beginning followed by a fifth line beginning with a prepositional phrase and no distinct subject, argues that this line is climactic and refers to all four classes enumerated in the preceding lines. See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:88-89. There may be a play or pun in the Hebrew text on the name for the god Baal (בַּעַל, ba’al) and the verb “cannot help you” (Heb “do not profit”) which is spelled יַעַל (ya’al).
