2 Raja-raja 19:4

19:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ¹  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ²  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ³ 

Ezra 9:8

9:8 “But now briefly ⁴  we have received mercy from the Lord our God, in that he has left us a remnant and has given us a secure position ⁵  in his holy place. Thus our God has enlightened our eyes ⁶  and has given us a little relief in our time of servitude.

Nehemia 1:2

1:2 Hanani, who was one of my relatives, ⁷  along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, ⁸  and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. ⁹ 

Yesaya 1:9

1:9 If the Lord who commands armies ¹⁰  had not left us a few survivors,

we would have quickly become like Sodom, ¹¹ 

we would have become like Gomorrah.

Yesaya 10:21

10:21 A remnant will come back, a remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. ¹² 

Yeremia 6:9

6:9 This is what the Lord who rules over all ¹³  said to me: ¹⁴ 

“Those who remain in Israel will be

like the grapes thoroughly gleaned ¹⁵  from a vine.

So go over them again, as though you were a grape harvester

passing your hand over the branches one last time.” ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 40:15

40:15 Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke privately to Gedaliah there at Mizpah, “Let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah before anyone knows about it. Otherwise he will kill you ¹⁷  and all the Judeans who have rallied around you will be scattered. Then what remains of Judah will disappear.”

Yeremia 42:2

42:2 They said to him, “Please grant our request ¹⁸  and pray to the Lord your God for all those of us who are still left alive here. ¹⁹  For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before. ²⁰ 

Yeremia 44:7

44:7 “So now the Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ²¹  asks, ‘Why will you do such great harm to yourselves? Why should every man, woman, child, and baby of yours be destroyed from the midst of Judah? Why should you leave yourselves without a remnant?

Yeremia 44:28

44:28 Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed! ²²  Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true, ²³  mine or theirs.’

Yeremia 50:20

50:20 When that time comes,

no guilt will be found in Israel.

No sin will be found in Judah. ²⁴ 

For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive. ²⁵ 

I, the Lord, affirm it!’” ²⁶ 

Mikha 2:12

The Lord Will Restore His People

2:12 I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. ²⁷ 

I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, ²⁸ 

like a flock in the middle of a pasture; ²⁹ 

they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise. ³⁰ 

[19:4]  ¹ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

[19:4]  ² tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

[19:4]  ³ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

[9:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to a little moment.”

[9:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “a peg” or “tent peg.” The imagery behind this word is drawn from the experience of nomads who put down pegs as they pitched their tents and made camp after times of travel.

[9:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “to cause our eyes to shine.” The expression is a figure of speech for “to revive.” See DCH 1:160 s.v. אור Hi.7.

[1:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “brothers.”

[1:2]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text does not include the words “to me”; these words were supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:2]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:9]  ¹⁰ tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts.” The title pictures God as the sovereign king who has at his disposal a multitude of attendants, messengers, and warriors to do his bidding. In some contexts, like this one, the military dimension of his rulership is highlighted. In this case, the title pictures him as one who leads armies into battle against his enemies.

[1:9]  ¹¹ tc The translation assumes that כִּמְעָט (kim’at, “quickly,” literally, “like a little”) goes with what follows, contrary to the MT accents, which take it with what precedes. In this case, one could translate the preceding line, “If the Lord who commands armies had not left us a few survivors.” If כִּמְעָט goes with the preceding line (following the MT accents), this expression highlights the idea that there would only be a few survivors (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:20; H. Zobel, TDOT 8:456). Israel would not be almost like Sodom but exactly like Sodom.

[10:21]  ¹² tn The referent of אֵל גִּבּוֹר (’el gibbor, “mighty God”) is uncertain. The title appears only here and in 9:6, where it is one of the royal titles of the coming ideal Davidic king. (Similar titles appear in Deut 10:17 and Neh 9:32 [“the great, mighty, and awesome God”] and in Jer 32:18 [“the great and mighty God”]. Both titles refer to God.) Though Hos 3:5 pictures Israel someday seeking “David their king,” and provides some support for a messianic interpretation of Isa 10:21, the Davidic king is not mentioned in the immediate context of Isa 10:21 (see Isa 11, however). The preceding verse mentions Israel relying on the Lord, so it is likely that the title refers to God here.

[6:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[6:9]  sn For an explanation of the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.

[6:9]  ¹⁴ tn The words “to me” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “They will thoroughly glean those who are left in Israel like a vine.” That is, they will be carried off by judgment. It is not necessary to read the verb forms here as two imperatives or an infinitive absolute followed by an imperative as some English versions and commentaries do. This is an example of a third plural verb used impersonally and translated as a passive (cf. GKC 460 §144.g).

[6:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Pass your hand back over the branches like a grape harvester.” The translation is intended to clarify the metaphor that Jeremiah should try to rescue some from the coming destruction.

[40:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Why should he kill you?” However, this is one of those cases listed in BDB 554 s.v. מָה 4.d(b) where it introduces a question introducing rhetorically the reason why something should not be done. In cases like this BDB notes that it approximates the meaning “lest” and is translated in Greek by μήποτε (mhpote) or μή (mh) as the Greek version does here. Hence it is separated from the preceding and translated “otherwise” for the sake of English style.

[42:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “please let our petition fall before you.” For the idiom here see 37:20 and the translator’s note there.

[42:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “on behalf of us, [that is] on behalf of all this remnant.”

[42:2]  sn This refers to the small remnant of people who were left of those from Mizpah who had been taken captive by Ishmael after he had killed Gedaliah and who had been rescued from him at Gibeon. There were other Judeans still left in the land of Judah who had not been killed or deported by the Babylonians.

[42:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “For we are left a few from the many as your eyes are seeing us.” The words “used to be” are not in the text but are implicit. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness of English style.

[44:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “Yahweh, the God of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 35:17; 38:17 and for the title “God of armies” see the study note on 2:19.

[44:28]  ²² tn Heb “The survivors of the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number [more literally, “men of number”; for the idiom see BDB 709 s.v. מִסְפָּר 1.a].” The term “survivors of the sword” may be intended to represent both those who survive death in war or death by starvation or disease, a synecdoche of species for all three genera.

[44:28]  sn This statement shows that the preceding “none,” “never again,” “all” in vv. 26-27 are rhetorical hyperbole. Not all but almost all; very few would survive. The following statement implies that the reason that they are left alive is to bear witness to the fact that the Lord’s threats were indeed carried out. See vv. 11-14 for a parallel use of “all” and “none” qualified by a “few.”

[44:28]  ²³ tn Heb “will stand,” i.e., in the sense of being fulfilled, proving to be true, or succeeding (see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g).

[50:20]  ²⁴ tn Heb “In those days and at that time, oracle of the Lord, the iniquity [or guilt] of Israel will be sought but there will be none and the sins of Judah but they will not be found.” The passive construction “will be sought” raises the question of who is doing the seeking which is not really the main point. The translation has avoided this question by simply referring to the result which is the main point.

[50:20]  ²⁵ sn Compare Jer 31:34 and 33:8.

[50:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” In this case it is necessary to place this in the first person because this is already in a quote whose speaker is identified as the Lord (v. 18).

[2:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the remnant of Israel.”

[2:12]  ²⁸ tc The MT reads בָּצְרָה (batsrah, “Bozrah”) but the form should be emended to בַּצִּרָה (batsirah, “into the fold”). See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 38.

[2:12]  ²⁹ tc The MT reads “its pasture,” but the final vav (ו) belongs with the following verb. See GKC 413 §127.i.

[2:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and they will be noisy [or perhaps, “excited”] from men.” The subject of the third feminine plural verb תְּהִימֶנָה (tÿhimenah, “they will be noisy”) is probably the feminine singular צֹאן (tso’n, “flock”). (For another example of this collective singular noun with a feminine plural verb, see Gen 30:38.) In the construction מֵאָדָם (me’adam, “from men”) the preposition is probably causal. L. C. Allen translates “bleating in fear of men” (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah [NICOT], 300), but it is possible to take the causal sense as “because of the large quantity of men.” In this case the sheep metaphor and the underlying reality are mixed.