2:8 They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral;
they do so right 1 beside every altar!
They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied;
they do so right in the temple 2 of their God! 3
4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God 4 overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 5
You were like a burning stick 6 snatched from the flames.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!
Promote 7 justice at the city gate! 8
Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on 9 those who are left from 10 Joseph. 11
6:14 “Look! I am about to bring 12 a nation against you, family 13 of Israel.”
The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking.
“They will oppress 14 you all the way from Lebo-Hamath 15 to the Stream of the Arabah.” 16
1 tn The words “They do so right” are supplied twice in the translation of this verse for clarification.
2 tn Heb “house.”
3 tn Or “gods.” The Hebrew term אֱלֹהֵיהֶם (’elohehem) may be translated “their gods” (referring to pagan gods), “their god” (referring to a pagan god, cf. NAB, NIV, NLT), or “their God” (referring to the God of Israel, cf. NASB, NRSV).
4 tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
5 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.
6 tn Heb “like that which is burning.”
7 tn Heb “set up, establish.” In the ancient Near East it was the responsibility especially of the king to establish justice. Here the prophet extends that demand to local leaders and to the nation as a whole (cf. 5:24).
8 sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate (see the note in v. 12). This repetition of this phrase serves to highlight a deliberate contrast to the injustices cited in vv. 11-13.
9 tn Or “will show favor to.”
10 tn Or “the remnant of” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “what’s left of your people.”
11 sn Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.
12 tn Or “raise up” (KJV, NASB); NIV “stir up.”
13 tn Heb “house.”
14 sn Once again there is irony in the divine judgment. The oppressive nation itself will suffer oppression. The verb “oppress” (לָחַץ, lakhats) in this verse is not the same as that used in 4:1 (עָשַׁק, ’ashaq).
15 tn Or “from the entrance to Hamath.” The Hebrew term לְבוֹא (lÿvo’) can either be translated or considered a part of the place name.
16 sn Lebo-Hamath refers to the northern border of Israel, the Stream of the Arabah to its southern border. See 2 Kgs 14:25. Through this invader the Lord would reverse the victories and territorial expansion Israel experienced during the reign of Jeroboam II.