Revelation 6:16

6:16 They ¹  said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, ² 

Revelation 6:2

6:2 So ³  I looked, ⁴  and here came ⁵  a white horse! The ⁶  one who rode it ⁷  had a bow, and he was given a crown, ⁸  and as a conqueror ⁹  he rode out to conquer.

Revelation 1:9

1:9 I, John, your brother and the one who shares ¹⁰  with you in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance that ¹¹  are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus. ¹² 

Job 3:20-22

Longing for Death ¹³ 

3:20 “Why does God ¹⁴  give ¹⁵  light to one who is in misery, ¹⁶ 

and life to those ¹⁷  whose soul is bitter,

3:21 to ¹⁸  those who wait ¹⁹  for death that ²⁰  does not come,

and search for it ²¹ 

more than for hidden treasures,

3:22 who rejoice ²²  even to jubilation, ²³ 

and are exultant ²⁴  when ²⁵  they find the grave? ²⁶ 

Job 7:15-16

7:15 so that I ²⁷  would prefer ²⁸  strangling, ²⁹ 

and ³⁰  death ³¹  more ³²  than life. ³³ 

7:16 I loathe ³⁴  it; ³⁵  I do not want to live forever;

leave me alone, ³⁶  for my days are a vapor! ³⁷ 

Isaiah 2:19

2:19 They ³⁸  will go into caves in the rocky cliffs

and into holes in the ground, ³⁹ 

trying to escape the dreadful judgment of the Lord ⁴⁰ 

and his royal splendor,

when he rises up to terrify the earth. ⁴¹ 

Jeremiah 8:3

8:3 However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who survive may go, they will wish they had died rather than lived,” ⁴²  says the Lord who rules over all. ⁴³ 

Hosea 10:8

10:8 The high places of the “House ⁴⁴  of Wickedness” ⁴⁵  will be destroyed;

it is the place where Israel sins.

Thorns and thistles will grow up over its altars.

Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”

and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

John 4:8-9

4:8 (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies. ⁴⁶ ) ⁴⁷  4:9 So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you – a Jew ⁴⁸  – ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water ⁴⁹  to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common ⁵⁰  with Samaritans.) ⁵¹ 

Luke 23:30

23:30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ⁵²  ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ ⁵³ 

[6:16]  ¹ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:16]  ² tn It is difficult to say where this quotation ends. The translation ends it after “withstand it” at the end of v. 17, but it is possible that it should end here, after “Lamb” at the end of v. 16. If it ends after “Lamb,” v. 17 is a parenthetical explanation by the author.

[6:2]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of hearing the voice summon the first rider.

[6:2]  ⁴ tc The reading “and I looked” (καὶ εἶδον, kai eidon) or some slight variation (e.g., ἶδον, idon) has excellent ms support ({א A C P 1611}) and its omission seems to come through the mss that have already placed “and look” (καὶ ἴδε or καὶ βλέπε [kai ide or kai blepe]) after the verb “come” (ἔρχου, ercou) as mentioned in the text-critical note on 6:1. Thus, for these copyists it was redundant to add “and I looked” again.

[6:2]  ⁵ tn The phrase “and here came” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).

[6:2]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “the one sitting on it.”

[6:2]  ⁸ sn See the note on the word crown in Rev 3:11.

[6:2]  ⁹ tn The participle νικῶν (nikwn) has been translated as substantival, the subject of the verb ἐξῆλθεν (exhlqen). Otherwise, as an adverbial participle of manner, it is somewhat redundant: “he rode out conquering and to conquer.”

[1:9]  ¹⁰ tn The translation attempts to bring out the verbal idea in συγκοινωνός (sunkoinwno", “co-sharer”); John was suffering for his faith at the time he wrote this.

[1:9]  ¹¹ tn The prepositional phrase ἐν ᾿Ιησοῦ (en Ihsou) could be taken with ὑπομονῇ (Jupomonh) as the translation does or with the more distant συγκοινωνός (sunkoinwno"), in which case the translation would read “your brother and the one who shares with you in Jesus in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance.”

[1:9]  ¹² tn The phrase “about Jesus” has been translated as an objective genitive.

[3:20]  ¹³ sn Since he has survived birth, Job wonders why he could not have died a premature death. He wonders why God gives light and life to those who are in misery. His own condition throws gloom over life, and so he poses the question first generally, for many would prefer death to misery (20-22); then he comes to the individual, himself, who would prefer death (23). He closes his initial complaint with some depictions of his suffering that afflicts him and gives him no rest (24-26).

[3:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:20]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is the simple imperfect, expressing the progressive imperfect nuance. But there is no formal subject to the verb, prompting some translations to make it passive in view of the indefinite subject (so, e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV). Such a passive could be taken as a so-called “divine passive” by which God is the implied agent. Job clearly means God here, but he stops short of naming him (see also the note on “God” earlier in this verse).

[3:20]  ¹⁶ sn In v. 10 the word was used to describe the labor and sorrow that comes from it; here the one in such misery is called the עָמֵל (’amel, “laborer, sufferer”).

[3:20]  ¹⁷ tn The second colon now refers to people in general because of the plural construct מָרֵי נָפֶשׁ (mare nafesh, “those bitter of soul/life”). One may recall the use of מָרָה (marah, “bitter”) by Naomi to describe her pained experience as a poor widow in Ruth 1:20, or the use of the word to describe the bitter oppression inflicted on Israel by the Egyptians (Exod 1:14). Those who are “bitter of soul” are those whose life is overwhelmed with painful experiences and suffering.

[3:21]  ¹⁸ tn The verse simply begins with the participle in apposition to the expressions in the previous verse describing those who are bitter. The preposition is added from the context.

[3:21]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is the Piel participle of חָכָה (khakhah, “to wait for” someone; Yahweh is the object in Isa 8:17; 64:3; Ps 33:20). Here death is the supreme hope of the miserable and the suffering.

[3:21]  ²⁰ tn The verse simply has the form אֵין (’en, “there is not”) with a pronominal suffix and a conjunction – “and there is not it” or “and it is not.” The LXX and the Vulgate add a verb to explain this form: “and obtain it not.”

[3:21]  ²¹ tn The parallel verb is now a preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive; it therefore has the nuance of a characteristic perfect or gnomic perfect – the English present tense.

[3:22]  ²² tn Here too the form is the participle in apposition “to him who is in misery” in v. 20. It continues the description of those who are destitute and would be delighted to die.

[3:22]  ²³ tn The Syriac has “and gather themselves together,” possibly reading גִּיל (gil, “rejoicing”) as גַּל (gal, “heap”). Some have tried to emend the text to make the word mean “heap” or “mound,” as in a funerary mound. While one could argue for a heap of stones as a funerary mound, the passage has already spoken of digging a grave, which would be quite different. And while such a change would make a neater parallelism in the verse, there is no reason to force such; the idea of “jubilation” fits the tenor of the whole verse easily enough and there is no reason to change it. A similar expression is found in Hos 9:1, which says, “rejoice not, O Israel, with jubilation.” Here the idea then is that these sufferers would rejoice “to the point of jubilation” at death.

[3:22]  ²⁴ tn This sentence also parallels an imperfect verb with the substantival participle of the first colon. It is translated as an English present tense.

[3:22]  ²⁵ tn The particle could be “when” or “because” in this verse.

[3:22]  ²⁶ sn The expression “when they find a grave” means when they finally die. The verse describes the relief and rest that the sufferer will obtain when the long-awaited death is reached.

[7:15]  ²⁷ tn The word נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is often translated “soul.” But since Hebrew thought does not make such a distinction between body and soul, it is usually better to translate it with “person.” When a suffix is added to the word, then that pronoun would serve as the better translation, as here with “my soul” = “I” (meaning with every fiber of my being).

[7:15]  ²⁸ tn The verb בָּחַר (bakhar, “choose”) followed by the preposition בּ (bet) can have the sense of “prefer.”

[7:15]  ²⁹ tn The meaning of the term מַחֲנָק (makhanaq, “strangling”), a hapax legomenon, is clear enough; the verb חָנַק (khanaq) in the Piel means “to strangle” (Nah 2:13), and in the Niphal “to strangle oneself” (2 Sam 17:23). This word has tempted some commentators to take נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) in a very restricted sense of “throat.”

[7:15]  ³⁰ tn The conjunction “and” is supplied in the translation. “Death” could also be taken in apposition to “strangling,” providing the outcome of the strangling.

[7:15]  ³¹ tn This is one of the few words recognizable in the LXX: “You will separate life from my spirit, and yet keep my bones from death.”

[7:15]  ³² tn The comparative min (מִן) after the verb “choose” will here have the idea of preferring something before another (see GKC 429-30 §133.b).

[7:15]  ³³ tn The word מֵעַצְמוֹתָי (me’atsmotay) means “more than my bones” (= life or being). The line is poetic; “bones” is often used in scripture metonymically for the whole living person, so there is no need here for conjectural emendation. Nevertheless, there have been several suggestions made. The simplest and most appealing for those who desire a change is the repointing to מֵעַצְּבוֹתָי (me’atsÿvotay, “my sufferings,” adopted by NAB, JB, Moffatt, Driver-Gray, E. Dhorme, H. H. Rowley, and others). Driver obtains this idea by positing a new word based on Arabic without changing the letters; it means “great” – but he has to supply the word “sufferings.”

[7:16]  ³⁴ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 107-8) thinks the idea of loathing or despising is problematic since there is no immediate object. He notes that the verb מָאַס (ma’as, “loathe”) is parallel to מָסַס (masas, “melt”) in the sense of “flow, drip” (Job 42:6). This would give the idea “I am fading away” or “I grow weaker,” or as Dhorme chooses, “I am pining away.”

[7:16]  ³⁵ tn There is no object for the verb in the text. But the most likely object would be “my life” from the last verse, especially since in this verse Job will talk about not living forever. Some have thought the object should be “death,” meaning that Job despised death more than the pains. But that is a forced meaning; besides, as H. H. Rowley points out, the word here means to despise something, to reject it. Job wanted death.

[7:16]  ³⁶ tn Heb “cease from me.” This construction means essentially “leave me in peace.”

[7:16]  ³⁷ tn This word הֶבֶל (hevel) is difficult to translate. It means “breath; puff of air; vapor” and then figuratively, “vanity.” Job is saying that his life is but a breath – it is brief and fleeting. Compare Ps 144:4 for a similar idea.

[2:19]  ³⁸ tn The identity of the grammatical subject is unclear. The “idols” could be the subject; they will “go” into the caves and holes when the idolaters throw them there in their haste to escape God’s judgment (see vv. 20-21). The picture of the idols, which represent the foreign deities worshiped by the people, fleeing from the Lord would be highly polemical and fit the overall mood of the chapter. However it seems more likely that the idolaters themselves are the subject, for v. 10 uses similar language in sarcastically urging them to run from judgment.

[2:19]  ³⁹ tn Heb “dust”; ASV “into the holes of the earth.”

[2:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “from the dread of the Lord,” that is, from the dread that he produces in the objects of his judgment.” The words “trying to escape” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[2:19]  ⁴¹ tn Or “land.” It is not certain if these verses are describing the judgment of Judah (see vv. 6-9) or a more universal judgment on all proud men.

[8:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “Death will be chosen rather than life by the remnant who are left from this wicked family in all the places where I have banished them.” The sentence is broken up and restructured to avoid possible confusion because of the complexity of the English to some modern readers. There appears to be an extra “those who are left” that was inadvertently copied from the preceding line. It is missing from one Hebrew ms and from the Greek and Syriac versions and is probably not a part of the original text.

[8:3]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[10:8]  ⁴⁴ tn Alternately, “Aven” (KJV, NAB, NRSV, NLT) for the city name “Beth Aven.” The term “Beth” (house) does not appear in the Hebrew text here, but is implied (e.g., Hos 4:15). It is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[10:8]  ⁴⁵ tc The MT reads בָּמוֹת אָוֶן (bamot ’aven, “high places of Aven”); however, several Hebrew mss read בָּמוֹת בֵּית אָוֶן (bamot bet ’aven, “high places of Beth Aven”). In Hos 4:15 the name בֵּית אָוֶן (“Beth Aven”; Heb “house of wickedness”) is a wordplay on “Bethel” (Heb “house of God”). It is possible that בָּמוֹת בֵּית אָוֶן (“high places of Beth Aven”) was original: בֵּית (bet, “house”) dropped out as an unintentional scribal error by haplography due to presence of the consonants בת in the preceding word במות (bamot, “high places”).

[4:8]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “buy food.”

[4:8]  ⁴⁷ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author, indicating why Jesus asked the woman for a drink (for presumably his disciples also took the water bucket with them).

[4:9]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “a Judean.” Here BDAG 478 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαίος 2.a states, “Judean (with respect to birth, nationality, or cult).” The same term occurs in the plural later in this verse. In one sense “Judean” would work very well in the translation here, since the contrast is between residents of the two geographical regions. However, since in the context of this chapter the discussion soon becomes a religious rather than a territorial one (cf. vv. 19-26), the translation “Jew” has been retained here and in v. 22.

[4:9]  ⁴⁹ tn “Water” is supplied as the understood direct object of the infinitive πεῖν (pein).

[4:9]  ⁵⁰ tn D. Daube (“Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: the Meaning of συγχράομαι [Jn 4:7ff],” JBL 69 [1950]: 137-47) suggests this meaning.

[4:9]  ⁵¹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[23:30]  ⁵² sn The figure of crying out to the mountains ‘Fall on us!’ (appealing to creation itself to hide them from God’s wrath), means that a time will come when people will feel they are better off dead (Hos 10:8).

[23:30]  ⁵³ sn An allusion to Hos 10:8 (cf. Rev 6:16).