Zechariah 2:4

2:4 and said to him, “Hurry, speak to this young man ¹  as follows: ‘Jerusalem will no longer be enclosed by walls ²  because of the multitude of people and animals there.

Psalms 128:3-4

128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ³ 

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ⁴  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

128:4 Yes indeed, the man who fears the Lord

will be blessed in this way. ⁵ 

Psalms 144:12-15

144:12 Then ⁶  our sons will be like plants,

that quickly grow to full size. ⁷ 

Our daughters will be like corner pillars, ⁸ 

carved like those in a palace. ⁹ 

144:13 Our storehouses ¹⁰  will be full,

providing all kinds of food. ¹¹ 

Our sheep will multiply by the thousands

and fill ¹²  our pastures. ¹³ 

144:14 Our cattle will be weighted down with produce. ¹⁴ 

No one will break through our walls,

no one will be taken captive,

and there will be no terrified cries in our city squares. ¹⁵ 

144:15 How blessed are the people who experience these things! ¹⁶ 

How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!

Jeremiah 30:19-20

30:19 Out of those places you will hear songs of thanksgiving ¹⁷ 

and the sounds of laughter and merriment.

I will increase their number and they will not dwindle away. ¹⁸ 

I will bring them honor and they will no longer be despised.

30:20 The descendants of Jacob will enjoy their former privileges.

Their community will be reestablished in my favor ¹⁹ 

and I will punish all who try to oppress them.

Jeremiah 31:27

Israel and Judah Will Be Repopulated

31:27 “Indeed, a time is coming,” ²⁰  says the Lord, ²¹  “when I will cause people and animals to sprout up in the lands of Israel and Judah. ²² 

Jeremiah 33:11

33:11 Once again there will be sounds ²³  of joy and gladness and the glad celebrations of brides and grooms. ²⁴  Once again people will bring their thank offerings to the temple of the Lord and will say, “Give thanks to the Lord who rules over all. For the Lord is good and his unfailing love lasts forever.” ²⁵  For I, the Lord, affirm ²⁶  that I will restore the land to what it was ²⁷  in days of old.’ ²⁸ 

Lamentations 2:19

ק (Qof)

2:19 Get up! Cry out in the night ²⁹ 

when the night watches start! ³⁰ 

Pour out your heart ³¹  like water

before the face of the Lord! ³² 

Lift up your hands ³³  to him

for your children’s lives; ³⁴ 

they are fainting ³⁵ 

at every street corner. ³⁶ 

Matthew 11:16-17

11:16 “To ³⁷  what should I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to one another, ³⁸ 

11:17 ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; ³⁹ 

we wailed in mourning, ⁴⁰  yet you did not weep.’

[2:4]  ¹ sn That is, to Zechariah.

[2:4]  ² tn Heb “Jerusalem will dwell as open regions (פְּרָזוֹת, pÿrazot)”; cf. NAB “in open country”; CEV “won’t have any boundaries.” The population will be so large as to spill beyond the ancient and normal enclosures. The people need not fear, however, for the Lord will be an invisible but strong wall (v. 5).

[128:3]  ³ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

[128:3]  ⁴ tn One could translate “sons” (see Ps 127:3 and the note on the word “sons” there), but here the term seems to refer more generally to children of both genders.

[128:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “look, indeed thus will the man, the fearer of the Lord, be blessed.”

[144:12]  ⁶ tn Some consider אֲשֶׁר (’asher) problematic, but here it probably indicates the anticipated consequence of the preceding request. (For other examples of אֲשֶׁר indicating purpose/result, see BDB 83 s.v. and HALOT 99 s.v.) If the psalmist – who appears to be a Davidic king preparing to fight a battle (see vv. 10-11) – is victorious, the whole nation will be spared invasion and defeat (see v. 14) and can flourish. Some prefer to emend the form to אַשְׁרֵי (“how blessed [are our sons]”). A suffixed noun sometimes follows אַשְׁרֵי (’ashrey; see 1 Kgs 10:8; Prov 20:7), but the presence of a comparative element (see “like plants”) after the suffixed noun makes the proposed reading too awkward syntactically.

[144:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “grown up in their youth.” The translation assumes that “grown up” modifies “plants” (just as “carved” modifies “corner pillars” in the second half of the verse). Another option is to take “grown up” as a predicate in relation to “our sons,” in which case one might translate, “they will be strapping youths.”

[144:12]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here and in Zech 9:15, where it refers to the corners of an altar.

[144:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “carved [in] the pattern of a palace.”

[144:13]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here.

[144:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from kind to kind.” Some prefer to emend the text to מָזוֹן עַל מָזוֹן (mazon ’al mazon, “food upon food”).

[144:13]  ¹² tn Heb “they are innumerable.”

[144:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “in outside places.” Here the term refers to pastures and fields (see Job 5:10; Prov 8:26).

[144:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “weighted down.” This probably refers (1) to the cattle having the produce from the harvest placed on their backs to be transported to the storehouses (see BDB 687 s.v. סָבַל). Other options are (2) to take this as reference to the cattle being pregnant (see HALOT 741 s.v. סבל pu) or (3) to their being well-fed or fattened (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 288).

[144:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “there [will be] no breach, and there [will be] no going out, and there [will be] no crying out in our broad places.”

[144:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[O] the happiness of the people who [it is] such to them.”

[30:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Out of them will come thanksgiving and a sound of those who are playful.”

[30:19]  ¹⁸ sn Compare Jer 29:6.

[30:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his children will be as in former times and his congregation/community will be established before me.” “His children” refers to “Jacob” who has been referred to in v. 18 in the phrase “I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob.” “His children” are thus the restored exiles. Some commentaries see the reference here to the restoration of numbers in accordance with the previous verse. However, the last line of this verse and the reference to the ruler in the following verse suggests rather restoration of the religious and political institutions to their former state. For the use of the word translated “community” (עֵדָה, ’edah) to refer to a political congregation as well as its normal use to refer to a religious one see 1 Kgs 12:20. For the idea of “in my favor” (i.e., under the eye and regard of) for the Hebrew phrase used here (לְפָנַי, lÿfanay) see BDB 817 s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a(b).

[31:27]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Behold days are coming!” The particle “Behold” is probably used here to emphasize the reality of a fact. See the translator’s note on 1:6.

[31:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:27]  ²² tn Heb “Behold, the days are coming and [= when] I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of people and of animals.” For the significance of the metaphor see the study note.

[33:11]  ²³ tn Heb “33:10 Thus says the Lord, ‘There will again be heard in this place of which you are saying [masc. pl.], “It is a ruin without people and without animals,” [that is] in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem which are desolate without people and without inhabitants and without animals 33:11 the sound of….” The long run-on sentence in Hebrew has been broken down to better conform with contemporary English style.

[33:11]  ²⁴ sn What is predicted here is a reversal of the decimation caused by the Babylonian conquest that had been threatened in 7:34; 16:9; 25:10.

[33:11]  ²⁵ sn This is a common hymnic introduction to both individual songs of thanksgiving (e.g., Ps 118:1) and communal songs of thanksgiving (e.g., Ps 136 where it is a liturgical refrain accompanying a recital of Israel’s early history and of the Lord’s continuing providence).

[33:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[33:11]  ²⁷ tn Or “I will restore the fortunes of the land.”

[33:11]  ²⁸ tn This phrase simply means “as formerly” (BDB 911 s.v. רִאשׁוֹן 3.a). The reference to the “as formerly” must be established from the context. See the usage in Judg 20:32; 1 Kgs 13:6; Isa 1:26.

[2:19]  ²⁹ tc The Kethib is written בַּלַּיִל (ballayil) a defective spelling for בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “night”). The Qere reads בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “night”), which is preserved in numerous medieval Hebrew mss.

[2:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “at the head of the watches.”

[2:19]  ³¹ tn The noun לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) functions here as a metonymy of association for the thoughts and emotions in the heart. The Hebrew לֵבָב (levav) includes the mind so that in some cases the translation “heart” implies an inappropriate division between the cognitive and affective. This context is certainly emotionally loaded, but as part of a series of admonitions to address God in prayer, these emotions are inextricably bound with the thoughts of the mind. The singular “heart” is retained in the translation to be consistent with the personification of Jerusalem (cf. v. 18).

[2:19]  ³² tc The MT reads אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “the Lord”) here rather than יהוה (YHWH, “the Lord”). See the tc note at 1:14.

[2:19]  ³³ sn Lifting up the palms or hands is a metaphor for prayer.

[2:19]  ³⁴ tn Heb “on account of the life of your children.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) refers to the “life” of their dying children (e.g., Lam 2:12). The singular noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “life”) is used as a collective, as the plural genitive noun that follows makes clear: “your children.”

[2:19]  ³⁵ tc The BHS editors and many commentators suggest that the fourth bicola in 2:19 is a late addition and should be deleted. Apart from the four sets of bicola in 1:7 and 2:19, every stanza in chapters 1-4 consists of three sets of bicola.

[2:19]  ³⁶ tn Heb “at the head of every street.”

[11:16]  ³⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[11:16]  ³⁸ tn Grk “who call out to one another, saying.” The participle λέγουσιν (legousin) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[11:17]  ³⁹ sn ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance…’ The children of this generation were making the complaint (see vv. 18-19) that others were not playing the game according to the way they played the music. John and Jesus did not follow “their tune.” Jesus’ complaint was that this generation wanted things their way, not God’s.

[11:17]  ⁴⁰ tn The verb ἐθρηνήσαμεν (eqrhnhsamen) refers to the loud wailing and lamenting used to mourn the dead in public in 1st century Jewish culture.