Zephaniah 2:7

2:7 Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah ¹  will take possession of it. ² 

By the sea ³  they ⁴  will graze,

in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening,

for the Lord their God will intervene for them ⁵  and restore their prosperity. ⁶ 

Isaiah 6:13

6:13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, ⁷  like one of the large sacred trees ⁸  or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. ⁹  That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.” ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 10:20-22

10:20 At that time ¹¹  those left in Israel, those who remain of the family ¹²  of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. ¹³  Instead they will truly ¹⁴  rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵  10:21 A remnant will come back, a remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. ¹⁶  10:22 For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as ¹⁷  the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back. ¹⁸  Destruction has been decreed; ¹⁹  just punishment ²⁰  is about to engulf you. ²¹ 

Micah 4:7

4:7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation, ²² 

and those far off ²³  into a mighty nation.

The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,

from that day forward and forevermore.” ²⁴ 

Romans 11:4-7

11:4 But what was the divine response ²⁵  to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people ²⁶  who have not bent the knee to Baal.” ²⁷ 

11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 11:7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The ²⁸  rest were hardened,

[2:7]  ¹ tn Heb “the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ² tn Or “the coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ³ tc Heb “on them,” but the antecedent of the masculine pronoun is unclear. It may refer back to the “pasture lands,” though that noun is feminine. It is preferable to emend the text from עֲלֵיהֶם (’alehem) to עַל־הַיָּם (’al-hayyam, “by the sea”) an emendation that assumes a misdivision and transposition of letters in the MT (cf. NEB “They shall pasture their flocks by the sea”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 192.

[2:7]  ⁴ tn The referent of the pronominal subject (“they”) is unclear. It may refer (1) to the shepherds (in which case the first verb should be translated, “pasture their sheep,” cf. NEB), or (2) to the Judahites occupying the area, who are being compared to sheep (cf. NIV, “there they will find pasture”).

[2:7]  ⁵ tn Or “will care for them.”

[2:7]  ⁶ tn Traditionally, “restore their captivity,” i.e., bring back their captives, but it is more likely the expression means “restore their fortunes” in a more general sense (cf. NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[6:13]  ⁷ tn Or “be burned” (NRSV); NIV “laid waste.”

[6:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “like a massive tree or like a big tree” (perhaps, “like a terebinth or like an oak”).

[6:13]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[10:20]  ¹¹ tn Or “in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:20]  ¹² tn Heb “house” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[10:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “on one who strikes him down.” This individual is the king (“foreign leader”) of the oppressing nation (which NLT specifies as “the Assyrians”).

[10:20]  ¹⁴ tn Or “sincerely”; KJV, ASV, NAB, NRSV “in truth.”

[10:20]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[10:21]  ¹⁶ tn The referent of אֵל גִּבּוֹר (’el gibbor, “mighty God”) is uncertain. The title appears only here and in 9:6, where it is one of the royal titles of the coming ideal Davidic king. (Similar titles appear in Deut 10:17 and Neh 9:32 [“the great, mighty, and awesome God”] and in Jer 32:18 [“the great and mighty God”]. Both titles refer to God.) Though Hos 3:5 pictures Israel someday seeking “David their king,” and provides some support for a messianic interpretation of Isa 10:21, the Davidic king is not mentioned in the immediate context of Isa 10:21 (see Isa 11, however). The preceding verse mentions Israel relying on the Lord, so it is likely that the title refers to God here.

[10:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “are like.”

[10:22]  ¹⁸ sn The twofold appearance of the statement “a remnant will come back” (שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב, she’ar yashuv) in vv. 21-22 echoes and probably plays off the name of Isaiah’s son Shear-jashub (see 7:3). In its original context the name was meant to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), but here it has taken on new dimensions. In light of Ahaz’s failure and the judgment it brings down on the land, the name Shear-jashub now foreshadows the destiny of the nation. According to vv. 21-22, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that a remnant of God’s people will return; the bad news is that only a remnant will be preserved and come back. Like the name Immanuel, this name foreshadows both judgment (see the notes at 7:25 and 8:8) and ultimate restoration (see the note at 8:10).

[10:22]  ¹⁹ tn Or “predetermined”; cf. ASV, NASB “is determined”; TEV “is in store.”

[10:22]  ²⁰ tn צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) often means “righteousness,” but here it refers to God’s just judgment.

[10:22]  ²¹ tn Or “is about to overflow.”

[4:7]  ²² tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”

[4:7]  ²³ tn The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (hala’, “to be far off”; see BDB 229 s.v.), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannil’ah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (la’ah).

[4:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “from now until forever.”

[11:4]  ²⁵ tn Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”

[11:4]  ²⁶ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.

[11:4]  ²⁷ sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.

[11:7]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.