Zephaniah 3:15

3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ¹ 

he has turned back your enemy.

Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!

You no longer need to fear disaster.

Zephaniah 3:17

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ² 

he renews you by his love; ³ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 23:14

23:14 For the Lord your God walks about in the middle of your camp to deliver you and defeat ⁵  your enemies for you. Therefore your camp should be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent ⁶  among you and turn away from you.

Isaiah 12:6

12:6 Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion,

for the Holy One of Israel ⁷  acts mightily ⁸  among you!”

Ezekiel 48:35

48:35 The circumference of the city will be six miles. ⁹  The name of the city from that day forward will be: ‘The Lord Is There.’” ¹⁰ 

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ¹¹  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ¹² 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ¹³  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ¹⁴ 

Disaster will not overtake ¹⁵  us!”

Zechariah 2:5

2:5 But I (the Lord says) will be a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem ¹⁶  and the source of glory in her midst.’”

[3:15]  ¹ tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.

[3:17]  ² tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ³ tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).

[3:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”

[23:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “give [over] your enemies.”

[23:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “nakedness of a thing”; NLT “any shameful thing.” The expression עֶרְוַת דָּבָר (’ervat davar) refers specifically to sexual organs and, by extension, to any function associated with them. There are some aspects of human life that are so personal and private that they ought not be publicly paraded. Cultically speaking, even God is offended by such impropriety (cf. Gen 9:22-23; Lev 18:6-12, 16-19; 20:11, 17-21). See B. Seevers, NIDOTTE 3:528-30.

[12:6]  ⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[12:6]  ⁸ tn Or “is great” (TEV). However, the context emphasizes his mighty acts of deliverance (cf. NCV), not some general or vague character quality.

[48:35]  ⁹ tn Heb “eighteen thousand cubits” (i.e., 9.45 kilometers).

[48:35]  ¹⁰ sn See Rev 21:12-21.

[3:11]  ¹¹ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ¹² tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[2:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.