Psalms 109:16

109:16 For he never bothered to show kindness; ¹ 

he harassed the oppressed and needy,

and killed the disheartened. ² 

Psalms 109:2

109:2 For they say cruel and deceptive things to me;

they lie to me. ³ 

Psalms 28:9

28:9 Deliver your people!

Empower ⁴  the nation that belongs to you! ⁵ 

Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms ⁶  at all times! ⁷ 

Job 19:21-22

19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,

for the hand of God has struck me.

19:22 Why do you pursue me like God does? ⁸ 

Will you never be satiated with my flesh? ⁹ 

Zechariah 1:15

1:15 But I am greatly displeased with the nations that take my grace for granted. ¹⁰  I was a little displeased with them, but they have only made things worse for themselves.

Zechariah 1:1

Introduction

1:1 In the eighth month of Darius’ ¹¹  second year, ¹²  the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, ¹³  son of Berechiah son of Iddo, as follows:

Zechariah 2:1

Vision Three: The Surveyor

2:1 (2:5) I looked again, and there was a man with a measuring line in his hand.

[109:16]  ¹ tn Heb “he did not remember to do loyal love.”

[109:16]  ² tn Heb “and he chased an oppressed and needy man, and one timid of heart to put [him] to death.”

[109:2]  ³ tn Heb “for a mouth of evil and a mouth of deceit against me they open, they speak with me [with] a tongue of falsehood.”

[28:9]  ⁴ tn Or “bless.”

[28:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.

[28:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”

[28:9]  ⁷ tn Or “forever.”

[19:22]  ⁸ sn Strahan comments, “The whole tragedy of the book is packed into these extraordinary words.”

[19:22]  ⁹ sn The idiom of eating the pieces of someone means “slander” in Aramaic (see Dan 3:8), Arabic and Akkadian.

[1:15]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the nations that are at ease” (so ASV, NRSV). The Hebrew word in question is שַׁאֲנָן (sha’anan) which has the idea of a careless, even arrogant attitude (see BDB 983 s.v. שַׁאֲנָן); cf. NAB “the complacent nations.” Here it suggests that the nations take for granted that God will never punish them just because he hasn't already done so. Thus they presume on the grace and patience of the Lord. The translation attempts to bring out this nuance rather than the more neutral renderings of TEV “nations that enjoy quiet and peace” or NLT “enjoy peace and security.”

[1:1]  ¹¹ sn Darius is Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia from 522-486 b.c.

[1:1]  ¹² sn The eighth month of Darius’ second year was late October – late November, 520 b.c., by the modern (Julian) calendar. This is two months later than the date of Haggai’s first message to the same community (cf. Hag 1:1).

[1:1]  ¹³ sn Both Ezra (5:1; 6:14) and Nehemiah (12:16) speak of Zechariah as a son of Iddo only. A probable explanation is that Zechariah’s actual father Berechiah had died and the prophet was raised by his grandfather Iddo. The “Zechariah son of Barachiah” of whom Jesus spoke (Matt 23:35; Luke 11:51) was probably the martyred prophet by that name who may have been a grandson of the priest Jehoiada (2 Chr 24:20-22).