4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God 1 overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 2
You were like a burning stick 3 snatched from the flames.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
1 tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
2 tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
sn The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is described in Gen 19:1-29.
3 tn Heb “like that which is burning.”