Mazmur 46:5

46:5 God lives within it, ¹  it cannot be moved. ² 

God rescues it ³  at the break of dawn. ⁴ 

Mazmur 87:5

87:5 But it is said of Zion’s residents, ⁵ 

“Each one of these ⁶  was born in her,

and the sovereign One ⁷  makes her secure.” ⁸ 

Yesaya 2:2

2:2 In the future ⁹ 

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure ¹⁰ 

as the most important of mountains,

and will be the most prominent of hills. ¹¹ 

All the nations will stream to it,

Mikha 4:1

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ¹²  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ¹³ 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ¹⁴ 

People will stream to it.

Matius 16:18

16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades ¹⁵  will not overpower it.

[46:5]  ¹ tn Heb “God [is] within her.” The feminine singular pronoun refers to the city mentioned in v. 4.

[46:5]  ² tn Another option is to translate the imperfect verbal form as future, “it will not be upended.” Even if one chooses this option, the future tense must be understood in a generalizing sense. The verb מוֹט (mot), translated “upended” here, is used in v. 2 of the mountains “tumbling” into the seas and in v. 6 of nations being “upended.” By way of contrast, Jerusalem, God’s dwelling place, is secure and immune from such turmoil and destruction.

[46:5]  ³ tn Or “helps her.” The imperfect draws attention to the generalizing character of the statement.

[46:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “at the turning of morning.” (For other uses of the expression see Exod 14:27 and Judg 19:26).

[46:5]  sn At the break of dawn. The “morning” is viewed metaphorically as a time of deliverance and vindication after the dark “night” of trouble (see Ps 30:5; Isa 17:14). There may be an allusion here to Exod 14:27 (where the Lord destroyed the Egyptians at the “break of dawn”) or, more likely, to the miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian siege, when the people discovered the dead bodies of the Assyrian army in the morning (Isa 37:36).

[87:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and of Zion it is said.” Another option is to translate, “and to Zion it is said.” In collocation with the Niphal of אָמַר (’amar), the preposition lamed (-לְ) can introduce the recipient of the statement (see Josh 2:2; Jer 4:11; Hos 1:10; Zeph 3:16), carry the nuance “concerning, of” (see Num 23:23), or mean “be named” (see Isa 4:3; 62:4).

[87:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “a man and a man.” The idiom also appears in Esth 1:8. The translation assumes that the phrase refers to each of Zion’s residents, in contrast to the foreigners mentioned in v. 4. Those advocating the universalistic interpretation understand this as a reference to each of the nations, including those mentioned in v. 4.

[87:5]  ⁷ tn Traditionally “Most High.”

[87:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he makes her secure, the Most High.”

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “in the end of the days.” This phrase may refer generally to the future, or more technically to the final period of history. See BDB 31 s.v. ַאחֲרִית. The verse begins with a verb that functions as a “discourse particle” and is not translated. In numerous places throughout the OT, the “to be” verb with a prefixed conjunction (וְהָיָה [vÿhayah] and וַיְהִי [vayÿhi]) occurs in this fashion to introduce a circumstantial clause and does not require translation.

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “be established” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “as the chief of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills.” The image of Mount Zion being elevated above other mountains and hills pictures the prominence it will attain in the future.

[4:1]  ¹² tn Heb “at the end of days.”

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

[4:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

[16:18]  ¹⁵ tn Or “and the power of death” (taking the reference to the gates of Hades as a metonymy).

[16:18]  sn In the OT, Hades was known as Sheol. It is the place where the unrighteous will reside (Matt 11:23; Luke 16:23; Rev 20:13-14). Some translations render this by its modern equivalent, “hell”; others see it as a reference to the power of death.