7:2 It was reported to the family 1 of David, “Syria has allied with 2 Ephraim.” They and their people were emotionally shaken, just as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. 3
9:12 Syria from the east,
and the Philistines from the west,
they gobbled up Israelite territory. 7
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 8
17:3 Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim,
and Damascus will lose its kingdom. 9
The survivors in Syria
will end up like the splendor of the Israelites,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
1 tn Heb “house.” In this context the “house of David” includes King Ahaz, his family, and the royal court. See also Jer 21:12; Zech 12:7-8, 10, 12, for a similar use of the phrase.
2 tn Heb “rests upon.” Most understand the verb as נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”), but HALOT 685 s.v. II נחה proposes that this is a hapax legomenon which means “stand by.”
3 tn Heb “and his heart shook and the heart of his people shook, like the shaking of the trees of the forest before the wind.” The singular pronoun “his” is collective, referring to the Davidic house/family. לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) here refers to the seat of the emotions.
4 tn Heb “guard yourself and be quiet,” but the two verbs should be coordinated.
5 tn Heb “and let not your heart be weak”; ASV “neither let thy heart be faint.”
6 sn The derogatory metaphor indicates that the power of Rezin and Pekah is ready to die out.
7 tn Heb “and they devoured Israel with all the mouth”; NIV “with open mouth”; NLT “With bared fangs.”
8 tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.” One could translate in the past tense here (and in 9:17b and 21b), but the appearance of the refrain in 10:4b, where it follows a woe oracle prophesying a future judgment, suggests it is a dramatic portrait of the judge which did not change throughout this period of past judgment and will remain unchanged in the future. The English present tense is chosen to best reflect this dramatic mood. (See also 5:25b, where the refrain appears following a dramatic description of coming judgment.)
9 tn Heb “and kingship from Damascus”; cf. NASB “And sovereignty from Damascus.”