2 Raja-raja 24:1-2

24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, ¹  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. ²  Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. ³  24:2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 24:5-6

24:5 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. ⁵  24:6 He passed away ⁶  and his son Jehoiachin replaced him as king.

2 Raja-raja 24:13-20

24:13 Nebuchadnezzar ⁷  took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned. 24:14 He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land. 24:15 He deported Jehoiachin from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the king’s mother and wives, his eunuchs, and the high-ranking officials of the land. ⁸  24:16 The king of Babylon deported to Babylon all the soldiers (there were 7,000), as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers. This included all the best warriors. ⁹  24:17 The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s ¹⁰  uncle, king in Jehoiachin’s place. He renamed him Zedekiah.

Zedekiah’s Reign over Judah

24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹¹  His mother ¹²  was Hamutal, ¹³  the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 24:19 He did evil in the sight of ¹⁴  the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done. ¹⁵ 

24:20 What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger; he finally threw them out of his presence. ¹⁶  Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Yehezkiel 19:5-9

19:5 “‘When she realized that she waited in vain, her hope was lost.

She took another of her cubs ¹⁷  and made him a young lion.

19:6 He walked about among the lions; he became a young lion.

He learned to tear prey; he devoured people.

19:7 He broke down ¹⁸  their strongholds ¹⁹  and devastated their cities.

The land and everything in it was frightened at the sound of his roaring.

19:8 The nations – the surrounding regions – attacked him.

They threw their net over him; he was caught in their pit.

19:9 They put him in a collar with hooks; ²⁰ 

they brought him to the king of Babylon;

they brought him to prison ²¹ 

so that his voice would not be heard

any longer on the mountains of Israel.

Daniel 1:1-2

Daniel Finds Favor in Babylon

1:1 In the third ²²  year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar ²³  of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem ²⁴  and laid it under siege. ²⁵  1:2 Now the Lord ²⁶  delivered ²⁷  King Jehoiakim of Judah into his power, ²⁸  along with some of the vessels ²⁹  of the temple of God. ³⁰  He brought them to the land of Babylonia ³¹  to the temple of his god ³²  and put ³³  the vessels in the treasury of his god.

Habakuk 1:5-10

The Lord Reveals Some Startling News

1:5 “Look at the nations and pay attention! ³⁴ 

You will be shocked and amazed! ³⁵ 

For I will do something in your lifetime ³⁶ 

that you will not believe even though you are forewarned. ³⁷ 

1:6 Look, I am about to empower ³⁸  the Babylonians,

that ruthless ³⁹  and greedy ⁴⁰  nation.

They sweep across the surface ⁴¹  of the earth,

seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.

1:7 They are frightening and terrifying;

they decide for themselves what is right. ⁴² 

1:8 Their horses are faster than leopards

and more alert ⁴³  than wolves in the desert. ⁴⁴ 

Their horses ⁴⁵  gallop, ⁴⁶ 

their horses come a great distance;

like a vulture ⁴⁷  they swoop down quickly to devour their prey. ⁴⁸ 

1:9 All of them intend ⁴⁹  to do violence;

every face is determined. ⁵⁰ 

They take prisoners as easily as one scoops up sand. ⁵¹ 

1:10 They mock kings

and laugh at rulers.

They laugh at every fortified city;

they build siege ramps ⁵²  and capture them.

[24:1]  ¹ tn Heb “In his days.”

[24:1]  ² tn Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 306.

[24:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”

[24:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”

[24:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoiakim, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”

[24:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

[24:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king and the wives of the king and his eunuchs and the mighty of the land he led into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”

[24:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “the entire [group], mighty men, doers of war.”

[24:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his.”

[24:18]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[24:18]  ¹² tn Heb “the name of his mother.”

[24:18]  ¹³ tc Some textual witnesses support the consonantal text (Kethib) in reading “Hamital.”

[24:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[24:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “according to all which Jehoiakim had done.”

[24:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Surely [or, ‘for’] because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah until he threw them out from upon his face.”

[19:5]  ¹⁷ sn The identity of this second lion is unclear; the referent is probably Jehoiakim or Zedekiah. If the lioness is Hamutal, then Zedekiah is the lion described here.

[19:7]  ¹⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads “knew,” but is apparently the result of a ר-ד (dalet-resh) confusion. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:284. However, Allen retains the reading “widows” as the object of the verb, which he understands in the sense of “do harm to,” and translates the line: “He did harm to women by making them widows” (p. 282). The line also appears to be lacking a beat for the meter of the poem.

[19:7]  ¹⁹ tc The Hebrew text reads “widows” instead of “strongholds,” apparently due to a confusion of ר (resh) and ל (lamed). L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284) favors the traditional text, understanding “widows” in the sense of “women made widows.” D. I. Block, (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:602) also defends the Hebrew text, arguing that the image is that of a dominant male lion who takes over the pride and by copulating with the females lays claim to his predecessor’s “widows.”

[19:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “They put him in a neck stock with hooks.” The noun סּוּגַר (sugar), translated “collar,” occurs only here in the Bible. L. C. Allen and D. I. Block point out a Babylonian cognate that refers to a device for transporting prisoners of war that held them by their necks (D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:597, n. 35; L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284). Based on the Hebrew root, the traditional rendering had been “cage” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[19:9]  ²¹ tc The term in the MT occurs only here and in Eccl 9:12 where it refers to a net for catching fish. The LXX translates this as “prison,” which assumes a confusion of dalet and resh took place in the MT.

[1:1]  ²² sn The third year of the reign of Jehoiakim would be ca. 605 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been a teenager. The reference to Jehoiakim’s third year poses a serious crux interpretum, since elsewhere these events are linked to his fourth year (Jer 25:1; cf. 2 Kgs 24:1; 2 Chr 36:5-8). Apparently Daniel is following an accession year chronology, whereby the first partial year of a king’s reign was reckoned as the accession year rather than as the first year of his reign. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is following a nonaccession year chronology, whereby the accession year is reckoned as the first year of the king’s reign. In that case, the conflict is only superficial. Most modern scholars, however, have concluded that Daniel is historically inaccurate here.

[1:1]  ²³ sn King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon from ca. 605-562 B.C.

[1:1]  ²⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:1]  ²⁵ sn This attack culminated in the first of three major deportations of Jews to Babylon. The second one occurred in 597 B.C. and included among many other Jewish captives the prophet Ezekiel. The third deportation occurred in 586 B.C., at which time the temple and the city of Jerusalem were thoroughly destroyed.

[1:2]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[1:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “gave.”

[1:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “hand,” which is often used idiomatically for one’s power and authority. See BDB 390 s.v. יָד 2.

[1:2]  ²⁹ tn Or “utensils”; or “articles.”

[1:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “house of God.”

[1:2]  ³¹ sn The land of Babylonia (Heb “the land of Shinar”) is another name for Sumer and Akkad, where Babylon was located (cf. Gen 10:10; 11:2; 14:1, 9; Josh 7:21; Isa 11:11; Zech 5:11).

[1:2]  ³² tn Or “gods” (NCV, NRSV, TEV; also later in this verse). The Hebrew term can be used as a numerical plural for many gods or as a plural of majesty for one particular god. Since Nebuchadnezzar was a polytheist, it is not clear if the reference here is to many gods or one particular deity. The plural of majesty, while normally used for Israel’s God, is occasionally used of foreign gods (cf. BDB 43 s.v. אֱלֹהִים 1, 2). See Judg 11:24 (of the Moabite god Chemosh); 1 Sam 5:7 (of the Philistine god Dagon); 1 Kgs 11:33 (of the Canaanite goddess Astarte, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Milcom); 2 Kgs 19:37 (of the Assyrian god Nisroch). Since gods normally had their own individual temples, Dan 1:2 probably refers to a particular deity, perhaps Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon, or Marduk’s son Nabu, after whom Nebuchadnezzar was named. The name Nebuchadnezzar means “Nabu has protected the son who will inherit” (HALOT 660 s.v. נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּר). For a discussion of how temples functioned in Babylonian religion see H. Ringgren, Religions of the Ancient Near East, 77-81.

[1:2]  ³³ tn Heb “brought.” Though the Hebrew verb “brought” is repeated in this verse, the translation uses “brought…put” for stylistic variation.

[1:5]  ³⁴ tn Or “look among the nations and observe.” The imperatival forms in v. 5 are plural, indicating that the Lord’s message is for the whole nation, not just the prophet.

[1:5]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew text combines the Hitpael and Qal imperatival forms of the verb תָּמַה (tamah, “be amazed”). A literal translation might read, “Shock yourselves and be shocked!” The repetition of sounds draws attention to the statement. The imperatives here have the force of an emphatic assertion. On this use of the imperative in Hebrew, see GKC 324 §110.c and IBHS 572-73 §34.4c.

[1:5]  ³⁶ tc Heb “for a work working in your days.” Following the LXX reading, some supply a first person singular pronoun with the participle פֹּעֵל (po’el). Ellipsis of a first singular pronoun before participles is relatively rare (see GKC 360 §116.s); perhaps an original אֲנֹכִי (’anoki; or אֲנִי, ’aniy) followed the initial כִּי (ki) and was omitted by homoioteleuton.

[1:5]  ³⁷ tn Heb “you will not believe when it is told.” In this context the force of כִּי (ki) may be “when,” “if,” or “even though.”

[1:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).

[1:6]  ³⁹ tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”

[1:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “hasty, quick.” Some translate here “impetuous” (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “rash,” but in this context greed may very well be the idea. The Babylonians move quickly and recklessly ahead in their greedy quest to expand their empire.

[1:6]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the open spaces.”

[1:7]  ⁴² tn Heb “from him his justice, even his lifting up, goes out.” In this context שְׂאֵת (sÿ’et) probably has the nuance “authority.” See R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 150.

[1:8]  ⁴³ tn Heb “sharper,” in the sense of “keener” or “more alert.” Some translate “quicker” on the basis of the parallelism with the first line (see HALOT 291 s.v. חדד).

[1:8]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The present translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). On this phrase see also Zeph 3:3.

[1:8]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “horsemen,” “cavalry.”

[1:8]  ⁴⁶ tn The precise nuance of the rare verb פָּוַשׁ (parash) is unclear here. Elsewhere it is used of animals jumping or leaping (see Jer 50:11; Mal 4:2).

[1:8]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “eagle” (so NASB, NRSV). The term can refer to either eagles or vultures, but in this context of gruesome destruction and death “vulture” is preferred.

[1:8]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “they fly like a vulture/an eagle quickly to devour.” The direct object “their prey” is not included in the Hebrew text but is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “come.”

[1:9]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “The totality of their faces is to the east” (or “is forward”). The precise meaning of the Hebrew term מְגַמַּת (megammat) is unclear. For a discussion of options see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 93. NEB has “a sea of faces rolls on”; NIV “their hordes advance like a desert wind”; NRSV “with faces pressing forward.”

[1:9]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and he gathers like sand, prisoners.”

[1:10]  ⁵² tn Heb “they heap up dirt.” This is a reference to the piling up of earthen ramps in the process of laying siege to a fortified city.