2:12 Indeed, the Lord who commands armies has planned a day of judgment, 1
for 2 all the high and mighty,
for all who are proud – they will be humiliated;
4:6 By day it will be a shelter to provide shade from the heat,
as well as safety and protection from the heavy downpour. 3
10:3 What will you do on judgment day, 4
when destruction arrives from a distant place?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,
they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain 5 –
at the hill of Jerusalem.
13:6 Wail, for the Lord’s day of judgment 6 is near;
it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge. 7
16:3 “Bring a plan, make a decision! 8
Provide some shade in the middle of the day! 9
Hide the fugitives! Do not betray 10 the one who tries to escape!
21:8 Then the guard 11 cries out:
“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, 12
I stand all day long;
at my post
I am stationed every night.
27:3 I, the Lord, protect it; 13
I water it regularly. 14
I guard it night and day,
so no one can harm it. 15
27:8 When you summon her for divorce, you prosecute her; 16
he drives her away 17 with his strong wind in the day of the east wind. 18
34:8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, 19
a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion. 20
34:10 Night and day it will burn; 21
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.
38:13 I cry out 22 until morning;
like a lion he shatters all my bones;
you turn day into night and end my life. 23
43:13 From this day forward I am he;
no one can deliver from my power; 24
I will act, and who can prevent it?”
61:2 to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor,
the day when our God will seek vengeance, 25
to console all who mourn,
62:6 I 26 post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
they should keep praying all day and all night. 27
You who pray to 28 the Lord, don’t be silent!
65:2 I spread out my hands all day long
to my rebellious people,
who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable,
and who did what they desired. 29
1 tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] has a day.”
2 tn Or “against” (NAB, NASB, NRSV).
3 tn Heb “a shelter it will be for shade by day from heat, and for a place of refuge and for a hiding place from cloudburst and rain.” Since both of the last nouns of this verse can mean rain, they can either refer to the rain storm and the rain as distinct items or together refer to a heavy downpour. Regardless, they do not represent unrelated phenomena.
4 tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.
5 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “a mountain of a house (בֵּית, bet), Zion,” but the marginal reading (Qere) correctly reads “the mountain of the daughter (בַּת, bat) of Zion.” On the phrase “Daughter Zion,” see the note on the same phrase in 1:8.
6 tn Heb “the day of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).
7 tn Heb “like destruction from the sovereign judge it comes.” The comparative preposition (כְּ, kÿ) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the destruction unleashed will have all the earmarks of divine judgment. One could paraphrase, “it comes as only destructive divine judgment can.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x.
sn The divine name used here is שַׁדַּי (shaddai, “Shaddai”). Shaddai (or El Shaddai) is the sovereign king/judge of the world who grants life/blesses and kills/judges. In Genesis he blesses the patriarchs with fertility and promises numerous descendants. Outside Genesis he both blesses/protects and takes away life/happiness. The patriarchs knew God primarily as El Shaddai (Exod 6:3). While the origin and meaning of this name is uncertain (see discussion below) its significance is clear. The name is used in contexts where God appears as the source of fertility and life. In Gen 17:1-8 he appears to Abram, introduces himself as El Shaddai, and announces his intention to make the patriarch fruitful. In the role of El Shaddai God repeats these words (now elevated to the status of a decree) to Jacob (35:11). Earlier Isaac had pronounced a blessing upon Jacob in which he asked El Shaddai to make Jacob fruitful (28:3). Jacob later prays that his sons will be treated with mercy when they return to Egypt with Benjamin (43:14). The fertility theme is not as apparent here, though one must remember that Jacob viewed Benjamin as the sole remaining son of the favored and once-barren Rachel (cf. 29:31; 30:22-24; 35:16-18). It is quite natural that he would appeal to El Shaddai to preserve Benjamin’s life, for it was El Shaddai’s miraculous power which made it possible for Rachel to give him sons in the first place. In 48:3 Jacob, prior to blessing Joseph’s sons, tells him how El Shaddai appeared to him at Bethel (cf. chapter 28) and promised to make him fruitful. When blessing Joseph on his deathbed Jacob refers to Shaddai (we should probably read “El Shaddai,” along with a few Hebrew
8 sn It is unclear who is being addressed in this verse. Perhaps the prophet, playing the role of a panic stricken Moabite refugee, requests the leaders of Judah (the imperatives are plural) to take pity on the fugitives.
9 tn Heb “Make your shade like night in the midst of noonday.” “Shade” here symbolizes shelter, while the heat of noonday represents the intense suffering of the Moabites. By comparing the desired shade to night, the speaker visualizes a huge dark shadow cast by a large tree that would provide relief from the sun’s heat.
10 tn Heb “disclose, uncover.”
11 tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.
12 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).
13 tn Heb “her.” Apparently “vineyard” is the antecedent, though normally this noun is understood as masculine (see Lev 25:3, however).
14 tn Or perhaps, “constantly.” Heb “by moments.”
15 tn Heb “lest [someone] visit [harm] upon it, night and day I guard it.”
16 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “in [?], in sending her away, you oppose her.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. The form בְּסַאסְּאָה (bÿsa’ssÿ’ah) is taken as an infinitive from סַאסְּאָה (sa’ssÿ’ah) with a prepositional prefix and a third feminine singular suffix. (The MT does not have a mappiq in the final he [ה], however). According to HALOT 738 s.v. סַאסְּאָה the verb is a Palpel form from an otherwise unattested root cognate with an Arabic verb meaning “to gather beasts with a call.” Perhaps it means “to call, summon” here, but this is a very tentative proposal. בְּשַׁלְחָהּ (bÿshalkhah, “in sending her away”) appears to be a Piel infinitive with a prepositional prefix and a third feminine singular suffix. Since the Piel of שָׁלָח (shalakh) can sometimes mean “divorce” (HALOT 1514-15 s.v.) and the following verb רִיב (riv, “oppose”) can be used in legal contexts, it is possible that divorce proceedings are alluded to here. This may explain why Israel is referred to as feminine in this verse, in contrast to the masculine forms used in vv. 6-7 and 9.
17 tn The Hebrew text has no object expressed, but one can understand a third feminine singular pronominal object and place a mappiq in the final he (ה) of the form to indicate the suffix.
18 sn The “east wind” here symbolizes violent divine judgment.
19 tn Heb “for a day of vengeance [is] for the Lord.”
20 tn Heb “a year of repayment for the strife of Zion.” The translation assumes that רִיב (riv) refers to Edom’s hostility toward Zion. Another option is to understand רִיב (riv) as referring to the Lord’s taking up Zion’s cause. In this case one might translate, “a time when he will repay Edom and vindicate Zion.”
21 tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”
22 tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Piel from שָׁוַה (shavah). There are two homonyms שָׁוַה, one meaning in the Piel “level, smooth out,” the other “set, place.” Neither fits in v. 13. It is likely that the original reading was שִׁוַּעְתִּי (shivva’ti, “I cry out”) from the verbal root שָׁוַע (shava’), which occurs exclusively in the Piel.
23 tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”
24 tn Heb “hand” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “No one can oppose what I do.”
25 tn Heb “to announce the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance.
26 sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.
27 tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.
28 tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”
29 tn Heb “who walked [in] the way that is not good, after their thoughts.”