Yesaya 1:26

1:26 I will reestablish honest judges as in former times,

wise advisers as in earlier days. ¹ 

Then you will be called, ‘The Just City,

Faithful Town.’”

Yesaya 45:24

45:24 they will say about me,

“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” ² 

All who are angry at him will cower before him. ³ 

Yesaya 52:1

52:1 Wake up! Wake up!

Clothe yourself with strength, O Zion!

Put on your beautiful clothes,

O Jerusalem, ⁴  holy city!

For uncircumcised and unclean pagans

will no longer invade you.

Yesaya 60:21

60:21 All of your people will be godly; ⁵ 

they will possess the land permanently.

I will plant them like a shoot;

they will be the product of my labor,

through whom I reveal my splendor. ⁶ 

Yesaya 61:10--62:1

61:10 I ⁷  will greatly rejoice ⁸  in the Lord;

I will be overjoyed because of my God. ⁹ 

For he clothes me in garments of deliverance;

he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. ¹⁰ 

I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would;

I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. ¹¹ 

61:11 For just as the ground produces its crops

and a garden yields its produce,

so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ¹²  to grow,

and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ¹³ 

The Lord Takes Delight in Zion

62:1 “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent;

for the sake of Jerusalem ¹⁴  I will not be quiet,

until her vindication shines brightly ¹⁵ 

and her deliverance burns like a torch.”

Yeremia 31:23

Judah Will Be Restored

31:23 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁶  says,

“I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns.

When I do, they will again say ¹⁷  of Jerusalem, ¹⁸ 

‘May the Lord bless you, you holy mountain,

the place where righteousness dwells.’ ¹⁹ 

Yehezkiel 36:27-28

36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ²⁰  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ²¹  and carefully observe my regulations. ²²  36:28 Then you will live in the land I gave to your fathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. ²³ 

Yehezkiel 37:23-26

37:23 They will not defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, and all their rebellious deeds. I will save them from all their unfaithfulness ²⁴  by which they sinned. I will purify them; they will become my people and I will become their God.

37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow ²⁵  my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. ²⁶  37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever. 37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. ²⁷  I will establish them, ²⁸  increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever.

Yoel 3:17-21

The Lord’s Presence in Zion

3:17 You will be convinced ²⁹  that I the Lord am your God,

dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.

Jerusalem ³⁰  will be holy –

conquering armies ³¹  will no longer pass through it.

3:18 On that day ³²  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ³³ 

and the hills will flow with milk. ³⁴ 

All the dry stream beds ³⁵  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ³⁶  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ³⁷ 

3:19 Egypt will be desolate

and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,

because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, ³⁸ 

in whose land they shed innocent blood.

3:20 But Judah will reside securely forever,

and Jerusalem will be secure ³⁹  from one generation to the next.

3:21 I will avenge ⁴⁰  their blood which I had not previously acquitted.

It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

Zakharia 8:3

8:3 The Lord says, ‘I have returned to Zion and will live within Jerusalem. ⁴¹  Now Jerusalem will be called “truthful city,” “mountain of the Lord who rules over all,” “holy mountain.”’

Zakharia 8:2

8:2 “The Lord who rules over all says, ‘I am very much concerned for Zion; indeed, I am so concerned for her that my rage will fall on those who hurt her.’

Pengkhotbah 3:13

3:13 and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil,

for these things ⁴²  are a gift from God.

[1:26]  ¹ tn Heb “I will restore your judges as in the beginning; and your counselors as in the beginning.” In this context, where social injustice and legal corruption are denounced (see v. 23), the “judges” are probably government officials responsible for making legal decisions, while the “advisers” are probably officials who helped the king establish policies. Both offices are also mentioned in 3:2.

[45:24]  ² tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”

[45:24]  ³ tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”

[52:1]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[60:21]  ⁵ tn Or “righteous” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “just.”

[60:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “a shoot of his planting, the work of my hands, to reveal splendor.”

[61:10]  ⁷ sn The speaker in vv. 10-11 is not identified, but it is likely that the personified nation (or perhaps Zion) responds here to the Lord’s promise of restoration.

[61:10]  ⁸ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[61:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “my being is happy in my God”; NAB “in my God is the joy of my soul.”

[61:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “robe of vindication”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “robe of righteousness.”

[61:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like a bridegroom [who] acts like a priest [by wearing] a turban, and like a bride [who] wears her jewelry.” The words “I look” are supplied for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[61:11]  ¹² tn Or perhaps, “righteousness,” but the context seems to emphasize deliverance and restoration (see v. 10 and 62:1).

[61:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “and praise before all the nations.”

[62:1]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[62:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “goes forth like brightness.”

[31:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See 7:3 and the study note of 2:19 for the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance.

[31:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “They [i.e., people (the indefinite plural, GKC 460 §144.g)] will again say in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes.” For the meaning of the idiom “to restore the fortunes” see the translator’s note on 29:14.

[31:23]  ¹⁸ tn The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but it is implicit in the titles that follow. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity to aid in identifying the referent.

[31:23]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[31:23]  ¹⁹ sn The blessing pronounced on the city of Zion/Jerusalem by the restored exiles looks at the restoration of its once exalted state as the city known for its sanctity and its just dealing (see Isa 1:21 and Ps 122). This was a reversal of the state of Jerusalem in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah where wickedness not righteousness characterized the inhabitants of the city (cf. Isa 1:21; Jer 4:14; 5:1; 13:27). The blessing here presupposes the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the temple which gave the city its sanctity.

[36:27]  ²⁰ tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

[36:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

[36:27]  ²² tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.

[36:28]  ²³ sn This promise reflects the ancient covenantal ideal (see Exod 6:7).

[37:23]  ²⁴ tc Heb “their dwellings.” The text as it stands does not make sense. Based on the LXX, a slight emendation of two vowels, including a mater, yields the reading “from their turning,” a reference here to their turning from God and deviating from his commandments. See BDB 1000 s.v. מְשׁוּבָה, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:407.

[37:24]  ²⁵ tn Heb “walk [in].”

[37:24]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”

[37:26]  ²⁷ sn See Isa 24:5; 55:3; 61:8; Jer 32:40; 50:5; Ezek 16:60, for other references to perpetual covenants.

[37:26]  ²⁸ tn Heb “give them.”

[3:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “know.”

[3:17]  ³⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “strangers” or “foreigners.” In context, this refers to invasions by conquering armies.

[3:18]  ³² tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ³³ tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ³⁴ sn The language used here is a hyperbolic way of describing both a bountiful grape harvest (“the mountains will drip with juice”) and an abundance of cattle (“the hills will flow with milk”). In addition to being hyperbolic, the language is also metonymical (effect for cause).

[3:18]  ³⁵ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ³⁶ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ³⁷ tn Heb “valley of Shittim.” The exact location of the Valley of Acacia Trees is uncertain. The Hebrew word שִׁטִּים (shittim) refers to a place where the acacia trees grow, which would be a very arid and dry place. The acacia tree can survive in such locations, whereas most other trees require more advantageous conditions. Joel’s point is that the stream that has been mentioned will proceed to the most dry and barren of locations in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

[3:19]  ³⁸ tn Heb “violence of the sons of Judah.” The phrase “of the sons of Judah” is an objective genitive (cf. KJV “the violence against the children of Judah”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “violence done to the people of Judah”). It refers to injustices committed against the Judeans, not violence that the Judeans themselves had committed against others.

[3:20]  ³⁹ tn The phrase “will be secure” does not appear in the Hebrew, but are supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

[3:21]  ⁴⁰ tc The present translation follows the reading וְנִקַּמְתִּי (vÿniqqamti, “I will avenge”) rather than וְנִקֵּתִי (vÿniqqeti, “I will acquit”) of the MT.

[8:3]  ⁴¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:13]  ⁴² tn Heb “for it.” The referent of the 3rd person feminine singular independent person pronoun (“it”) is probably the preceding statement: “to eat, drink, and find satisfaction.” This would be an example of an anacoluthon (GKC 505-6 §167.b). Thus the present translation uses “these things” to indicate the reference back to the preceding.