Yeremia 16:16-17

16:16 But for now I, the Lord, say: ¹  “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks. ²  16:17 For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it. ³ 

Amos 9:1-3

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ⁴  standing by the altar ⁵  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ⁶  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ⁷ 

and I will kill the survivors ⁸  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ⁹ 

no one will be able to escape. ¹⁰ 

9:2 Even if they could dig down into the netherworld, ¹¹ 

my hand would pull them up from there.

Even if they could climb up to heaven,

I would drag them down from there.

9:3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel,

I would hunt them down and take them from there.

Even if they tried to hide from me ¹²  at the bottom of the sea,

from there ¹³  I would command the Sea Serpent ¹⁴  to bite them.

Obaja 1:6

1:6 How the people of Esau ¹⁵  will be thoroughly plundered! ¹⁶ 

Their ¹⁷  hidden valuables will be ransacked! ¹⁸ 

[16:16]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” The Lord has been speaking; the first person has been utilized in translation to avoid a shift which might create confusion.

[16:16]  ² tn Heb “Behold I am about to send for many fishermen and they will catch them. And after that I will send for many hunters and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the cracks in the rocks.”

[16:16]  sn The picture of rounding up the population for destruction and exile is also seen in Amos 4:2 and Hab 1:14-17.

[16:17]  ³ tn Heb “For my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from before me. And their sin is not hidden away from before my eyes.”

[9:1]  ⁴ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ⁵ sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ⁶ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”

[9:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.

[9:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”

[9:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “into Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), that is, the land of the dead localized in Hebrew thought in the earth’s core or the grave. Cf. KJV “hell”; NCV, NLT “the place of the dead”; NIV “the depths of the grave.”

[9:3]  ¹² tn Heb “from before my eyes.”

[9:3]  ¹³ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:3]  ¹⁴ sn If the article indicates a definite serpent, then the mythological Sea Serpent, symbolic of the world’s chaotic forces, is probably in view. See Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 (where it is also called Leviathan). Elsewhere in the OT this serpent is depicted as opposing the Lord, but this text implies that even this powerful enemy of God is ultimately subject to his sovereign will.

[1:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Esau.” The name Esau here is a synecdoche of part for whole referring to the Edomites. Cf. “Jacob” in v. 10, where the meaning is “Israelites.”

[1:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “How Esau will be searched!”; NAB “How they search Esau.” The Hebrew verb חָפַשׂ (khafas, “to search out”) is used metonymically here for plundering the hidden valuables of a conquered people (e.g., 1 Kgs 20:6).

[1:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); this is singular agreeing with “Esau” in the previous line.

[1:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “searched out” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “pillaged”; TEV “looted”; NLT “found and taken.” This pictures the violent action of conquering warriors ransacking the city in order to loot and plunder its valuables.