Zephaniah 3:8

3:8 Therefore you must wait patiently ¹  for me,” says the Lord,

“for the day when I attack and take plunder. ² 

I have decided ³  to gather nations together

and assemble kingdoms,

so I can pour out my fury on them –

all my raging anger.

For ⁴  the whole earth will be consumed

by my fiery anger.

Deuteronomy 32:21-25

32:21 They have made me jealous ⁵  with false gods, ⁶ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ⁷ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ⁸ 

with a nation slow to learn ⁹  I will enrage them.

32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,

and it burns to lowest Sheol; ¹⁰ 

it consumes the earth and its produce,

and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

32:23 I will increase their ¹¹  disasters,

I will use up my arrows on them.

32:24 They will be starved by famine,

eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; ¹² 

I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,

along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.

32:25 The sword will make people childless outside,

and terror will do so inside;

they will destroy ¹³  both the young man and the virgin,

the infant and the gray-haired man.

Deuteronomy 32:1

Invocation of Witnesses

32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Deuteronomy 14:22

The Offering of Tribute

14:22 You must be certain to tithe ¹⁴  all the produce of your seed that comes from the field year after year.

Psalms 78:58

78:58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, ¹⁵ 

and made him jealous with their idols.

Psalms 79:5

79:5 How long will this go on, O Lord? ¹⁶ 

Will you stay angry forever?

How long will your rage ¹⁷  burn like fire?

Ezekiel 8:3-5

8:3 He stretched out the form ¹⁸  of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then a wind ¹⁹  lifted me up between the earth and sky and brought me to Jerusalem ²⁰  by means of divine visions, to the door of the inner gate which faces north where the statue ²¹  which provokes to jealousy was located. 8:4 Then I perceived that the glory of the God of Israel was there, as in the vision I had seen earlier in the valley.

8:5 He said to me, “Son of man, look up toward ²²  the north.” So I looked up toward the north, and I noticed to the north of the altar gate was this statue of jealousy at the entrance.

Ezekiel 16:38

16:38 I will punish you as an adulteress and murderer deserves. ²³  I will avenge your bloody deeds with furious rage. ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 36:5-6

36:5 therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely I have spoken in the fire of my zeal against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who with great joy and utter contempt have made my land their property and prey, because of its pasture.’

36:6 “Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I have spoken in my zeal and in my anger, because you have endured the insults of the nations.

Ezekiel 36:1

Blessings on the Mountains of Israel

36:1 “As for you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord!

Colossians 1:22

1:22 but now he has reconciled you ²⁵  by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

[3:8]  ¹ tn The second person verb form (“you must wait patiently”) is masculine plural, indicating that a group is being addressed. Perhaps the humble individuals addressed earlier (see 2:3) are in view. Because of Jerusalem’s sin, they must patiently wait for judgment to pass before their vindication arrives.

[3:8]  ² tn Heb “when I arise for plunder.” The present translation takes עַד (’ad) as “plunder.” Some, following the LXX, repoint the term עֵד (’ed) and translate, “as a witness” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV). In this case the Lord uses a legal metaphor to picture himself as testifying against his enemies. Adele Berlin takes לְעַד (lÿ’ad) in a temporal sense (“forever”) and translates “once and for all” (Zephaniah [AB 25A], 133).

[3:8]  ³ tn Heb “for my decision is.”

[3:8]  ⁴ tn Or “certainly.”

[32:21]  ⁵ sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.

[32:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).

[32:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).

[32:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”

[32:22]  ¹⁰ tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”

[32:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “upon them.”

[32:24]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).

[32:25]  ¹³ tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.

[14:22]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “be certain.”

[78:58]  ¹⁵ tn Traditionally, “high places.”

[79:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “How long, O Lord?”

[79:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “jealous anger.”

[8:3]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term is normally used as an architectural term in describing the pattern of the tabernacle or temple or a representation of it (see Exod 25:8; 1 Chr 28:11).

[8:3]  ¹⁹ tn Or “spirit.” See note on “wind” in 2:2.

[8:3]  ²⁰ map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:3]  ²¹ tn Or “image.”

[8:5]  ²² tn Heb “lift your eyes (to) the way of.”

[16:38]  ²³ tn Heb “and I will judge you (with) the judgments of adulteresses and of those who shed blood.”

[16:38]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and I will give you the blood of rage and zeal.”

[1:22]  ²⁵ tc Some of the better representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts have a passive verb here instead of the active ἀποκατήλλαξεν (apokathllaxen, “he has reconciled”): ἀποκατηλλάγητε (apokathllaghte) in (Ì⁴⁶) B, ἀποκατήλλακται [sic] (apokathllaktai) in 33, and ἀποκαταλλαγέντες (apokatallagente") in D* F G. Yet the active verb is strongly supported by א A C D² Ψ 048 075 [0278] 1739 1881 Ï lat sy. Internally, the passive creates an anacoluthon in that it looks back to the accusative ὑμᾶς (Juma", “you”) of v. 21 and leaves the following παραστῆσαι (parasthsai) dangling (“you were reconciled…to present you”). The passive reading is certainly the harder reading. As such, it may well explain the rise of the other readings. At the same time, it is possible that the passive was produced by scribes who wanted some symmetry between the ποτε (pote, “at one time”) of v. 21 and the νυνὶ δέ (nuni de, “but now”) of v. 22: Since a passive periphrastic participle is used in v. 21, there may have a temptation to produce a corresponding passive form in v. 22, handling the ὑμᾶς of v. 21 by way of constructio ad sensum. Since παραστῆσαι occurs ten words later, it may not have been considered in this scribal modification. Further, the Western reading (ἀποκαταλλαγέντες) hardly seems to have arisen from ἀποκατηλλάγητε (contra TCGNT 555). As difficult as this decision is, the preferred reading is the active form because it is superior externally and seems to explain the rise of all forms of the passive readings.