Yeremia 12:4

12:4 How long must the land be parched ¹ 

and the grass in every field be withered?

How long ²  must the animals and the birds die

because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? ³ 

For these people boast,

“God ⁴  will not see what happens to us.” ⁵ 

Yeremia 14:2-6

14:2 “The people of Judah are in mourning.

The people in her cities are pining away.

They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. ⁶ 

Cries of distress come up to me ⁷  from Jerusalem. ⁸ 

14:3 The leading men of the cities send their servants for water.

They go to the cisterns, ⁹  but they do not find any water there.

They return with their containers ¹⁰  empty.

Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. ¹¹ 

14:4 They are dismayed because the ground is cracked ¹² 

because there has been no rain in the land.

The farmers, too, are dismayed

and bury their faces in their hands.

14:5 Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn ¹³  in the field

because there is no grass.

14:6 Wild donkeys stand on the hilltops

and pant for breath like jackals.

Their eyes are strained looking for food,

because there is none to be found.” ¹⁴ 

Ulangan 29:23-28

29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹⁵  29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ¹⁶  all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. ¹⁷  29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ¹⁸  written in this scroll. 29:28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”

Mazmur 76:7

76:7 You are awesome! Yes, you!

Who can withstand your intense anger? ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 107:34

107:34 and a fruitful land into a barren place, ²⁰ 

because of the sin of its inhabitants.

Yesaya 5:9-10

5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: ²¹ 

“Many houses will certainly become desolate,

large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. ²² 

5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard ²³  will produce just a few gallons, ²⁴ 

and enough seed to yield several bushels ²⁵  will produce less than a bushel.” ²⁶ 

Yesaya 7:20-25

7:20 At that time ²⁷  the sovereign master will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, ²⁸  the king of Assyria, to shave the head and the pubic hair; ²⁹  it will also shave off the beard. 7:21 At that time ³⁰  a man will keep alive a young cow from the herd and a couple of goats. 7:22 From the abundance of milk they produce, ³¹  he will have sour milk for his meals. Indeed, everyone left in the heart of the land will eat sour milk and honey. 7:23 At that time ³²  every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be overrun ³³  with thorns and briers. 7:24 With bow and arrow ³⁴  men will hunt ³⁵  there, for the whole land will be covered ³⁶  with thorns and briers. 7:25 They will stay away from all the hills that were cultivated, for fear of the thorns and briers. ³⁷  Cattle will graze there and sheep will trample on them. ³⁸ 

Mikha 3:12

3:12 Therefore, because of you, ³⁹  Zion will be plowed up like ⁴⁰  a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the Temple Mount ⁴¹  will become a hill overgrown with brush! ⁴² 

[12:4]  ¹ tn The verb here is often translated “mourn.” However, this verb is from a homonymic root meaning “to be dry” (cf. HALOT 7 s.v. II אָבַל and compare Hos 4:3 for usage).

[12:4]  ² tn The words “How long” are not in the text. They are carried over from the first line.

[12:4]  ³ tn Heb “because of the wickedness of those who live in it.”

[12:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “he.” The referent is usually identified as God and is supplied here for clarity. Some identify the referent with Jeremiah. If that is the case, then he returns to his complaint about the conspirators. It is more likely, however, that it refers to God and Jeremiah’s complaint that the people live their lives apart from concern about God.

[12:4]  ⁵ tc Or reading with the Greek version, “God does not see what we are doing.” In place of “what will happen to us (אַחֲרִיתֵנוּ, ’akharitenu, “our end”) the Greek version understands a Hebrew text which reads “our ways” (אָרְחוֹתֵנו, ’orkhotenu), which is graphically very close to the MT. The Masoretic is supported by the Latin and is retained here on the basis of external evidence. Either text makes good sense in the context. Some identify the “he” with Jeremiah and understand the text to be saying that the conspirators are certain that they will succeed and he will not live to see his prophecies fulfilled.

[12:4]  sn The words here may be an outright rejection of the Lord’s words in Deut 32:20, which is part of a song that was to be taught to Israel in the light of their predicted rejection of the Lord.

[14:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “Judah mourns, its gates pine away, they are in mourning on the ground.” There are several figures of speech involved here. The basic figure is that of personification where Judah and it cities are said to be in mourning. However, in the third line the figure is a little hard to sustain because “they” are in mourning on the ground. That presses the imagination of most moderns a little too far. Hence the personification has been interpreted “people of” throughout. The term “gates” here is used as part for whole for the “cities” themselves as in several other passages in the OT (cf. BDB 1045 s.v. שַׁעַר 2.b, c and see, e.g., Isa 14:31).

[14:2]  ⁷ tn The words “to me” are not in the text. They are implicit from the fact that the Lord is speaking. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:2]  ⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:3]  ⁹ tn Though the concept of “cisterns” is probably not familiar to some readers, it would be a mistake to translate this word as “well.” Wells have continual sources of water. Cisterns were pits dug in the ground and lined with plaster to hold rain water. The drought had exhausted all the water in the cisterns.

[14:3]  ¹⁰ tn The word “containers” is a generic word in Hebrew = “vessels.” It would probably in this case involve water “jars” or “jugs.” But since in contemporary English one would normally associate those terms with smaller vessels, “containers” may be safer.

[14:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they cover their heads.” Some of the English versions have gone wrong here because of the “normal” use of the words translated here “disappointed” and “dismayed.” They are regularly translated “ashamed” and “disgraced, humiliated, dismayed” elsewhere (see e.g., Jer 22:22); they are somewhat synonymous terms which are often parallel or combined. The key here, however, is the expression “they cover their heads” which is used in 2 Sam 15:30 for the expression of grief. Moreover, the word translated here “disappointed” (בּוֹשׁ, bosh) is used that way several times. See for example Jer 12:13 and consult examples in BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2. A very similar context with the same figure is found in Jer 2:36-37.

[14:4]  ¹² tn For the use of the verb “is cracked” here see BDB 369 s.v. חָתַת Qal.1 and compare the usage in Jer 51:56 where it refers to broken bows. The form is a relative clause without relative pronoun (cf., GKC 486-87 §155.f). The sentence as a whole is related to the preceding through a particle meaning “because of” or “on account of.” Hence the subject and verb have been repeated to make the connection.

[14:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “she gives birth and abandons.”

[14:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “their eyes are strained because there is no verdure.”

[29:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[29:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[29:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

[29:27]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the entire curse.”

[76:7]  ¹⁹ tc Heb “and who can stand before you from the time of your anger?” The Hebrew expression מֵאָז (me’az, “from the time of”) is better emended to מֵאֹז (me’oz, “from [i.e., “because of”] the strength of your anger”; see Ps 90:11).

[107:34]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a salty land.”

[5:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

[5:9]  ²² tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”

[5:10]  ²³ tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.

[5:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.

[5:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”

[5:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.

[7:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB); KJV “In the same day.”

[7:20]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the river” (so KJV); NASB “the Euphrates.” The name of the river has been supplied in the present translation for clarity.

[7:20]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the hair of the feet.” The translation assumes that the word “feet” is used here as a euphemism for the genitals. See BDB 920 s.v. רֶגֶל.

[7:21]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[7:22]  ³¹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated, see note on 2:2.

[7:23]  ³² tn Heb “in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[7:23]  ³³ tn Heb “will become” (so NASB); NAB “shall be turned to.”

[7:24]  ³⁴ tn Heb “with arrows and a bow.” The more common English idiom is “bow[s] and arrow[s].”

[7:24]  ³⁵ tn Heb “go” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “go hunting.”

[7:24]  ³⁶ tn Heb “will be” (so NASB, NRSV).

[7:25]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and all the hills which were hoed with a hoe, you will not go there [for] fear of the thorns and briers.”

[7:25]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and it will become a pasture for cattle and a trampling place for sheep.”

[7:25]  sn At this point one is able to summarize the content of the “sign” (vv. 14-15) as follows: A young woman known to be present when Isaiah delivered this message to Ahaz (perhaps a member of the royal family or the prophetess mentioned in 8:3) would soon give birth to a boy whom the mother would name Immanuel, “God is with us.” Eventually Immanuel would be forced to eat sour milk and honey, which would enable him to make correct moral decisions. How would this situation come about and how would it constitute a sign? Before this situation developed, the Israelites and Syrians would be defeated. But then the Lord would usher in a period of time unlike any since the division of the kingdom almost 200 years before. The Assyrians would overrun the land, destroy the crops, and force the people to subsist on goats’ milk and honey. At that time, as the people saw Immanuel eating his sour milk and honey, the Davidic family would be forced to acknowledge that God was indeed with them. He was present with them in the Syrian-Israelite crisis, fully capable of rescuing them; but he was also present with them in judgment, disciplining them for their lack of trust. The moral of the story is quite clear: Failure to appropriate God’s promises by faith can turn potential blessing into disciplinary judgment.

[3:12]  ³⁹ tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.

[3:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).

[3:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[3:12]  ⁴² tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”