1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.
I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, 1
those who think to themselves, 2
‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ 3
1:17 I will bring distress on the people 4
and they will stumble 5 like blind men,
for they have sinned against the Lord.
Their blood will be poured out like dirt;
their flesh 6 will be scattered 7 like manure.
2:5 Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, 8 are as good as dead. 9
The Lord has decreed your downfall, 10 Canaan, land of the Philistines:
“I will destroy everyone who lives there!” 11
1 tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.
2 tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”
3 tn Heb “The
4 tn “The people” refers to mankind in general (see vv. 2-3) or more specifically to the residents of Judah (see vv. 4-13).
5 tn Heb “walk.”
6 tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).
7 tn The words “will be scattered” are supplied in the translation for clarity based on the parallelism with “will be poured out” in the previous line.
8 tn Heb “Kerethites,” a people settled alongside the Philistines in the coastal areas of southern Palestine (cf. 1 Sam 30:14; Ezek 25:16). They originally came from the island of Crete.
9 tn Heb “Woe, inhabitants of the coast of the sea, nation of Kerethites.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), is used to mourn the dead and express outwardly one’s sorrow (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5). By using it here the prophet mourns in advance the downfall of the Philistines, thereby emphasizing the certainty of their demise (“as good as dead”). Some argue the word does not have its earlier connotation here and is simply an attention-getting interjection, equivalent to “Hey!”
10 tn Heb “the word of the
11 tn Heb “I will destroy you so there is no inhabitant [remaining].”