Yesaya 2:13-15

2:13 for all the cedars of Lebanon,

that are so high and mighty,

for all the oaks of Bashan; ¹ 

2:14 for all the tall mountains,

for all the high hills, ² 

2:15 for every high tower,

for every fortified wall,

Yesaya 2:2

2:2 In the future ³ 

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure ⁴ 

as the most important of mountains,

and will be the most prominent of hills. ⁵ 

All the nations will stream to it,

Kisah Para Rasul 24:14-16

24:14 But I confess this to you, that I worship ⁶  the God of our ancestors ⁷  according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law ⁸  and that is written in the prophets. 24:15 I have ⁹  a hope in God (a hope ¹⁰  that ¹¹  these men ¹²  themselves accept too) that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. ¹³  24:16 This is the reason ¹⁴  I do my best to always ¹⁵  have a clear ¹⁶  conscience toward God and toward people. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 74:9

74:9 We do not see any signs of God’s presence; ¹⁸ 

there are no longer any prophets ¹⁹ 

and we have no one to tell us how long this will last. ²⁰ 

Ratapan 5:12-14

5:12 Princes were hung by their hands;

elders were mistreated. ²¹ 

5:13 The young men perform menial labor; ²² 

boys stagger from their labor. ²³ 

5:14 The elders are gone from the city gate;

the young men have stopped playing their music.

Amos 2:3

2:3 I will remove ²⁴  Moab’s leader; ²⁵ 

I will kill all Moab’s ²⁶  officials ²⁷  with him.”

The Lord has spoken!

[2:13]  ¹ sn The cedars of Lebanon and oaks of Bashan were well-known for their size and prominence. They make apt symbols here for powerful men who think of themselves as prominent and secure.

[2:14]  ² sn The high mountains and hills symbolize the apparent security of proud men, as do the high tower and fortified wall of v. 15.

[2:2]  ³ tn Heb “in the end of the days.” This phrase may refer generally to the future, or more technically to the final period of history. See BDB 31 s.v. ַאחֲרִית. The verse begins with a verb that functions as a “discourse particle” and is not translated. In numerous places throughout the OT, the “to be” verb with a prefixed conjunction (וְהָיָה [vÿhayah] and וַיְהִי [vayÿhi]) occurs in this fashion to introduce a circumstantial clause and does not require translation.

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Or “be established” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “as the chief of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills.” The image of Mount Zion being elevated above other mountains and hills pictures the prominence it will attain in the future.

[24:14]  ⁶ tn Or “serve.”

[24:14]  ⁷ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[24:14]  ⁸ sn That is, the law of Moses. Paul was claiming that he legitimately worshiped the God of Israel. He was arguing that this amounted to a religious dispute rather than a political one, so that the Roman authorities need not concern themselves with it.

[24:15]  ⁹ tn Grk “having.” The participle ἔχων (ecwn) has been translated as a finite verb and a new sentence begun at this point in the translation because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence.

[24:15]  ¹⁰ sn This mention of Paul’s hope sets up his appeal to the resurrection of the dead. At this point Paul was ignoring the internal Jewish dispute between the Pharisees (to which he had belonged) and the Sadducees (who denied there would be a resurrection of the dead).

[24:15]  ¹¹ tn Grk “a hope in God (which these [men] themselves accept too).” Because the antecedent of the relative pronoun “which” is somewhat unclear in English, the words “a hope” have been repeated at the beginning of the parenthesis for clarity.

[24:15]  ¹² tn Grk “that they”; the referent (these men, Paul’s accusers) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:15]  ¹³ tn Or “the unjust.”

[24:15]  sn This is the only mention of the resurrection of the unrighteous in Acts. The idea parallels the idea of Jesus as the judge of both the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 17:31).

[24:16]  ¹⁴ tn BDAG 329 s.v. ἐν 9.a, “ἐν τούτῳ πιστεύομεν this is the reason why we believe Jn 16:30; cp. Ac 24:16.”

[24:16]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 224 s.v. διά 2.a, “διὰ παντός…always, continually, constantly…Ac 2:25 (Ps 15:8); 10:2; 24:16.” However, the positioning of the adverb “always” in the English translation is difficult; the position used is one of the least awkward.

[24:16]  ¹⁶ tn BDAG 125 s.v. ἀπρόσκοπος 1 has “ἀ. συνείδησις a clear conscience Ac 24:16.”

[24:16]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “men,” but this is a generic use (Paul does not have only males in view).

[74:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3).

[74:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “there is not still a prophet.”

[74:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”

[5:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “elders were shown no respect.” The phrase “shown no respect” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression of understatement: to show no respect to elders = to terribly mistreat elders.

[5:13]  ²² tn The text is difficult. Word by word the MT has “young men hand mill(?) they take up” Perhaps it means “they take [our] young men for mill grinding,” or perhaps it means “the young men take up [the labor of] mill grinding.” This expression is an example of synecdoche where the mill stands for the labor at the mill and then that labor stands for performing menial physical labor as servants. The surface reading, “young men carry hand mills,” does not portray any great adversity for them. The Vulgate translates as an abusive sexual metaphor (see D. R. Hillers, Lamentations [AB], 99), but this gives no known parallel to the second part of the verse.

[5:13]  ²³ tc Heb “boys trip over wood.” This phrase makes little sense. The translation adopts D. R. Hillers’ suggestion (Lamentations [AB], 99) of בְּעֶצֶב כָּשָׁלוּ (bÿ’etsev kashalu). Due to letter confusion and haplography the final ב (bet) of בְּעֶצֶב (bÿ’etsev) which looks like the כ (kaf) beginning the next word, was dropped. This verb can have an abstract noun after the preposition ב (bet) meaning “from, due to” rather than “over.”

[2:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “cut off” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “root out”; NCV “bring to an end.”

[2:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the leader [traditionally, “judge”] from her midst.”

[2:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:3]  ²⁷ tn Or “princes” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NLT); TEV, CEV “leaders.”