Psalms 80:11-16

80:11 Its branches reached the Mediterranean Sea, ¹ 

and its shoots the Euphrates River. ² 

80:12 Why did you break down its walls, ³ 

so that all who pass by pluck its fruit? ⁴ 

80:13 The wild boars of the forest ruin it; ⁵ 

the insects ⁶  of the field feed on it.

80:14 O God, invincible warrior, ⁷  come back!

Look down from heaven and take notice!

Take care of this vine,

80:15 the root ⁸  your right hand planted,

the shoot you made to grow! ⁹ 

80:16 It is burned ¹⁰  and cut down.

They die because you are displeased with them. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 6:13

6:13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, ¹²  like one of the large sacred trees ¹³  or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. ¹⁴  That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.” ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ¹⁶  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ¹⁷ 

For these people lack understanding, ¹⁸ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Jeremiah 11:16

11:16 I, the Lord, once called ¹⁹  you a thriving olive tree,

one that produced beautiful fruit.

But I will set you ²⁰  on fire,

fire that will blaze with a mighty roar. ²¹ 

Then all your branches will be good for nothing. ²² 

Ezekiel 15:6-8

15:6 “Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Like the wood of the vine is among the trees of the forest which I have provided as fuel for the fire – so I will provide the residents of Jerusalem ²³  as fuel. ²⁴  15:7 I will set ²⁵  my face against them – although they have escaped from the fire, ²⁶  the fire will still consume them! Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them. 15:8 I will make ²⁷  the land desolate because they have acted unfaithfully, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Matthew 8:11-12

8:11 I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the banquet ²⁸  with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ²⁹  in the kingdom of heaven, 8:12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ³⁰ 

Matthew 21:43

21:43 For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people ³¹  who will produce its fruit.

John 15:6

15:6 If anyone does not remain ³²  in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, ³³  and are burned up. ³⁴ 

[80:11]  ¹ tn Heb “to [the] sea.” The “sea” refers here to the Mediterranean Sea.

[80:11]  ² tn Heb “to [the] river.” The “river” is the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia. Israel expanded both to the west and to the east.

[80:12]  ³ sn The protective walls of the metaphorical vineyard are in view here (see Isa 5:5).

[80:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “pluck it.”

[80:13]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb כִּרְסֵם (kirsem, “to eat away; to ruin”) occurs only here in the OT.

[80:13]  ⁶ tn The precise referent of the Hebrew word translated “insects,” which occurs only here and in Ps 50:11, is uncertain. Aramaic, Arabic, and Akkadian cognates refer to insects, such as locusts or crickets.

[80:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “O God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot, “hosts”; see Ps 89:9), but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot) in Pss 59:5 and 84:8 as well. See also vv. 4, 7 for a similar construction.

[80:15]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. HALOT 483 s.v. III כֵּן emends the form to כַּנָּהּ (kannah, “its shoot”).

[80:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “and upon a son you strengthened for yourself.” In this context, where the extended metaphor of the vine dominates, בֵּן (ben, “son”) probably refers to the shoots that grow from the vine. Cf. Gen 49:22.

[80:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “burned with fire.”

[80:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “because of the rebuke of your face they perish.”

[6:13]  ¹² tn Or “be burned” (NRSV); NIV “laid waste.”

[6:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “like a massive tree or like a big tree” (perhaps, “like a terebinth or like an oak”).

[6:13]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text has “which in the felling, a sacred pillar in them.” Some take מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) as “stump,” and translate, “which, when chopped down, have a stump remaining in them.” But elsewhere מַצֶּבֶת refers to a memorial pillar (2 Sam 18:18) and the word resembles מַצֶּבָה (matsevah, “sacred pillar”). בָּם (bam, “in them”) may be a corruption of בָּמָה (bamah, “high place”; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has במה). אֳשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) becomes a problem in this case, but one might emend the form to וּכְּאֲשֵׁרָה (ukÿ’asherah, “or like an Asherah pole”) and translate, “like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole.” Though the text is difficult, the references to sacred trees and a sacred pillar suggest that the destruction of a high place is in view, an apt metaphor for the judgment of idolatrous Judah.

[6:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a holy offspring [is] its sacred pillar.” If מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) is taken as “stump,” one can see in this statement a brief glimpse of hope. The tree (the nation) is chopped down, but the stump (a righteous remnant) remains from which God can restore the nation. However, if מַצֶּבֶת is taken as “sacred pillar” (מַצֶּבָה, matsevah; see the previous note), it is much more difficult to take the final statement in a positive sense. In this case “holy offspring” alludes to God’s ideal for his covenant people, the offspring of the patriarchs. Ironically that “holy” nation is more like a “sacred pillar” and it will be thrown down like a sacred pillar from a high place and its land destroyed like the sacred trees located at such shrines. Understood in this way, the ironic statement is entirely negative in tone, just like the rest of the preceding announcement of judgment. It also reminds the people of their failure; they did not oppose pagan religion, instead they embraced it. Now they will be destroyed in the same way they should have destroyed paganism.

[27:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[11:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “The Lord once called you….” This is another example of the rapid shift in person that is common to Hebrew style which is not common in English and could lead to confusion for some readers. Here and in the verses that follow the person has been shifted to first person for consistency in English.

[11:16]  ²⁰ tn The verb form used here is another example of a verb expressing that the action is as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect).

[11:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “At the sound of a mighty roar he will set fire to it.” For the shift from third person “he” to the first person “I” see the preceding note. The Hebrew use of the pronouns in vv. 16-17 for the olive tree and the people that it represents is likely to cause confusion if retained. In v. 16 the people are “you” and the olive tree is “it.” The people are again “you” in v. 17 but part of the metaphor is carried over, i.e., “he ‘planted’ you.” It creates less confusion in the flow of the passage if the metaphorical identification is carried out throughout by addressing the people/plant as “you.”

[11:16]  ²² tn The verb here has most commonly been derived from a root meaning “to be broken” (cf. BDB 949 s.v. II רָעַע) which fits poorly with the metaphor of setting the plant on fire. Another common option is to emend it to a verb meaning “to be burned up” (בָּעַר, ba’ar). However, it is better to follow the lead of the Greek version which translates “be good for nothing” (ἠχρειώθησαν, hcreiwqhsan) and derive the verb from רָעַע (ra’a’) meaning “be bad/evil” (cf. BDB 949 and compare the nuance of the adjective from this verb in BDB 948 s.v. רַע 5).

[15:6]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[15:6]  ²⁴ tn The words “as fuel” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[15:7]  ²⁵ tn The word translated “set” is the same Hebrew word translated as “provide” in the previous verse.

[15:7]  ²⁶ sn This escape refers to the exile of Ezekiel and others in 597 b.c. (Ezek 1:2; 2 Kgs 24:10-16).

[15:8]  ²⁷ tn The word translated “make” is the same Hebrew word translated as “provide” in v. 6.

[8:11]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and recline at table,” as 1st century middle eastern meals were not eaten while sitting at a table, but while reclining on one’s side on the floor with the head closest to the low table and the feet farthest away. The word “banquet” has been supplied to clarify for the modern reader the festive nature of the imagery. The banquet imagery is a way to describe the fellowship and celebration of being among the people of God at the end.

[8:11]  ²⁹ tn Grk “and Isaac and Jacob,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[8:12]  ³⁰ sn Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a figure for remorse and trauma, which occurs here because of exclusion from God’s promise.

[21:43]  ³¹ tn Or “to a nation” (so KJV, NASB, NLT).

[15:6]  ³² tn Or “reside.”

[15:6]  ³³ sn Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire. The author does not tell who it is who does the gathering and throwing into the fire. Although some claim that realized eschatology is so prevalent in the Fourth Gospel that no references to final eschatology appear at all, the fate of these branches seems to point to the opposite. The imagery is almost certainly that of eschatological judgment, and recalls some of the OT vine imagery which involves divine rejection and judgment of disobedient Israel (Ezek 15:4-6, 19:12).

[15:6]  ³⁴ tn Grk “they gather them up and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”