14:7 The whole earth rests and is quiet;
they break into song.
24:3 The earth will be completely devastated
and thoroughly ransacked.
For the Lord has decreed this judgment. 1
24:17 Terror, pit, and snare
are ready to overtake you inhabitants of the earth! 2
41:5 The coastlands 3 see and are afraid;
the whole earth 4 trembles;
they approach and come.
1 tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.”
2 tn Heb “[are] upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.” The first line of v. 17 provides another classic example of Hebrew wordplay. The names of the three instruments of judgment (פָח,פַחַת,פַּחַד [pakhad, fakhat, fakh]) all begin with the letters פח (peh-khet) and the first two end in dental consonants (ת/ד, tet/dalet). Once again the repetition of sound draws attention to the statement and contributes to the theme of the inescapability of judgment. As their similar-sounding names suggest, terror, pit, and snare are allies in destroying the objects of divine wrath.
3 tn Or “islands” (NIV, CEV); NCV “faraway places”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”
4 tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.