1:8 “On the day of the Lord’s sacrificial meal,
I will punish the princes 1 and the king’s sons,
and all who wear foreign styles of clothing. 2
1:11 Wail, you who live in the market district, 3
for all the merchants 4 will disappear 5
and those who count money 6 will be removed. 7
2:13 The Lord 8 will attack the north 9
and destroy Assyria.
He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins;
it will be as barren 10 as the desert.
1 tn Or “officials” (NRSV, TEV); NLT “leaders.”
2 sn The very dress of the royal court, foreign styles of clothing, revealed the degree to which Judah had assimilated foreign customs.
3 tn Heb “in the Mortar.” The Hebrew term מַכְתֵּשׁ (makhtesh, “mortar”) is apparently here the name of a low-lying area where economic activity took place.
4 tn Or perhaps “Canaanites.” Cf. BDB 489 s.v. I and II כְּנַעֲנִי. Translators have rendered the term either as “the merchant people” (KJV, NKJV), “the traders” (NRSV), “merchants” (NEB, NIV), or, alternatively, “the people of Canaan” (NASB).
5 tn Or “be destroyed.”
6 tn Heb “weigh out silver.”
7 tn Heb “be cut off.” In the Hebrew text of v. 11b the perfect verbal forms emphasize the certainty of the judgment, speaking of it as if it were already accomplished.
8 tn Heb “He”; the referent (the
9 tn Heb “he will stretch out his hand against the north.”
10 tn Or “dry.”