¹ sn Jeremiah shows the hubris of the Egyptian Pharoah by comparing his might to that of the Nile River. Isaiah 8:7-8 similarly pictures the armies of Assyria overcoming everything in their path.

² tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.” Cf. 7:3 and see the study note on 2:19 for explanation of the translation and significance of this title.

¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.” For this title, which occurs again in the following verse, see the notes on 7:3 and the study note on 2:19.

¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.” See 7:3 and the study note of 2:19 for the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance.

² tn Heb “Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite, ‘Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel….” The indirect quotation is used in the translation to avoid the complexity of embedding a quotation within a quotation.

² tn Heb “Give them a charge for their masters, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, “Thus you shall say unto your masters…”’” The sentence is broken up in conformity with contemporary English style.

⁵ tn Heb “will utterly destroy them.” The referent (the land, its inhabitants, and the surrounding nations) has been specified in the translation for clarity, since the previous “them” referred to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.

² tn Heb “Lord of Armies, the one who tests the righteous, who sees kidneys and heart.” The sentence has been broken up to avoid a long and complex English sentence. The translation is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

¹ tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of Armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

¹ tn Heb “For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.” The introductory formula, which appears three times in vv. 1-9 (vv. 1, 3, 5), has been recast for smoother English style.

² sn Here the emphasis appears to be on the fact that the Lord is in charge of the enemy armies whom he will use to punish Israel for their denial of his prior warnings through the prophets.

² sn It was typical for an army in time of war in the ancient Near East not only to eat up the crops but to destroy the means of further production.

² sn The allusion is, of course, to the destructive forces of the enemy armies of Babylon, compared above in 4:7 to a destructive lion and here to the destructive desert winds of the Near Eastern sirocco.

² tn Heb “And the Lord of Heaven’s Armies [traditionally, “the Lord of hosts”] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”

¹ tn Heb “the Lord of Heaven’s Armies [traditionally, “the Lord of hosts”], him you must set apart.” The word order is emphatic, with the object being placed first.

² sn The use of this title, which also appears in v. 1, forms an inclusio around vv. 1-15. The speech begins and ends with a reference to “the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

⁵ sn The point of the metaphor is not entirely clear. The dew may symbolize the king’s youthful vitality or, more likely (note the parallelism), may refer to his army of strong, youthful warriors.

² sn The psalmist alludes here to Gideon’s victory over the Midianites (see Judg 7-8) and to Barak’s victory over Jabin’s army, which was led by his general Sisera (Judg 4-5).

¹ sn Oreb and Zeeb were the generals of the Midianite army that was defeated by Gideon. The Ephraimites captured and executed both of them and sent their heads to Gideon (Judg 7:24-25).

² tn Heb “the Lord of hosts.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Pss 24:10; 46:7, 11).