22:22 My judgment will carry off all your leaders like a storm wind! 1
Your allies will go into captivity.
Then you will certainly 2 be disgraced and put to shame
because of all the wickedness you have done.
25:32 The Lord who rules over all 3 says,
‘Disaster will soon come on one nation after another. 4
A mighty storm of military destruction 5 is rising up
from the distant parts of the earth.’
1 tn Heb “A wind will shepherd away all your shepherds.” The figures have all been interpreted in the translation for the sake of clarity. For the use of the word “wind” as a metaphor or simile for God’s judgment (using the enemy forces) see 4:11-12; 13:24; 18:17. For the use of the word “shepherd” to refer to rulers/leaders 2:8; 10:21; and 23:1-4. For the use of the word “shepherd away” in the sense of carry off/drive away see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.d and compare Job 20:26. There is an obvious wordplay involved in two different senses of the word “shepherd,” one referring to their leaders and one referring to the loss of those leaders by the wind driving them off. There may even be a further play involving the word “wickedness” which comes from a word having the same consonants. If the oracles in this section are chronologically ordered this threat was fulfilled in 597
2 tn The use of the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is intensive here and probably also at the beginning of the last line of v. 21. (See BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e.)
3 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
sn See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for explanation of this extended title.
4 tn Heb “will go forth from nation to nation.”
5 tn The words “of military destruction” have been supplied in the translation to make the metaphor clear. The metaphor has shifted from that of God as a lion, to God as a warrior, to God as a judge, to God as the author of the storm winds of destruction.
sn For the use of this word in a literal sense see Jonah 1:4. For its use to refer to the wrath of the