1:5 I will break the bar 1 on the gate of Damascus.
I will remove 2 the ruler 3 from Wicked Valley, 4
the one who holds the royal scepter from Beth Eden. 5
The people of Aram will be deported to Kir.” 6
The Lord has spoken!
9:1 I saw the sovereign One 7 standing by the altar 8 and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, 9 so the thresholds shake!
Knock them down on the heads of all the people, 10
and I will kill the survivors 11 with the sword.
No one will be able to run away; 12
no one will be able to escape. 13
9:3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel,
I would hunt them down and take them from there.
Even if they tried to hide from me 14 at the bottom of the sea,
from there 15 I would command the Sea Serpent 16 to bite them.
1 sn The bar on the city gate symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.
2 tn Heb “cut off.”
3 tn Heb “the one who sits.” Some English versions take the Hebrew term in a collective sense as “inhabitants” (e.g., KJV, NKJV, NASB, NRSV). The context and the parallel in the next clause (“the one who holds the royal scepter”), however, suggest that the royal house is in view. For this term (יוֹשֵׁב, yoshev), see N. K. Gottwald, The Tribes of Yahweh, 512-30.
4 tn Heb “valley of wickedness.” Though many English versions take the Hebrew phrase בִקְעַת־אָוֶן (biq’-at ’aven) as a literal geographical place name (“Valley of Aven,” so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), it appears to be a derogatory epithet for Damascus and the kingdom of Aram.
5 tn Many associate the name “Beth Eden” with Bit Adini, an Aramean state located near the Euphrates River, but it may be a sarcastic epithet meaning “house of pleasure.”
6 sn According to Amos 9:7, the Arameans originally came from Kir. The
7 tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
8 sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.
9 tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.
10 tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”
11 tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.
12 tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”
13 tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”
14 tn Heb “from before my eyes.”
15 tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).
16 sn If the article indicates a definite serpent, then the mythological Sea Serpent, symbolic of the world’s chaotic forces, is probably in view. See Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 (where it is also called Leviathan). Elsewhere in the OT this serpent is depicted as opposing the