5:6 Seek the Lord so you can live!
Otherwise he will break out 1 like fire against Joseph’s 2 family; 3
the fire 4 will consume
and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. 5
6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. 6
The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:
“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;
I hate their 7 fortresses.
I will hand over to their enemies 8 the city of Samaria 9 and everything in it.”
1 tn Heb “rush.” The verb depicts swift movement.
2 sn Here Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.
3 tn Heb “house.”
4 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “to/for Bethel.” The translation assumes that the preposition indicates advantage, “on behalf of.” Another option is to take the preposition as vocative, “O Bethel.”
6 tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”
7 tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.
8 tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
9 tn Heb “the city”; this probably refers to the city of Samaria (cf. 6:1), which in turn, by metonymy, represents the entire northern kingdom.