Daniel 9:18

9:18 Listen attentively, ¹  my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins ²  and the city called by your name. ³  For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, ⁴  but because your compassion is abundant.

Mazmur 79:6

79:6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, ⁵ 

on the kingdoms that do not pray to you! ⁶ 

Yesaya 63:16-19

63:16 For you are our father,

though Abraham does not know us

and Israel does not recognize us.

You, Lord, are our father;

you have been called our protector from ancient times. ⁷ 

63:17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray ⁸  from your ways, ⁹ 

and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? ¹⁰ 

Return for the sake of your servants,

the tribes of your inheritance!

63:18 For a short time your special ¹¹  nation possessed a land, ¹² 

but then our adversaries knocked down ¹³  your holy sanctuary.

63:19 We existed from ancient times, ¹⁴ 

but you did not rule over them,

they were not your subjects. ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 14:9

14:9 Why should you be like someone who is helpless, ¹⁶ 

like a champion ¹⁷  who cannot save anyone?

You are indeed with us, ¹⁸ 

and we belong to you. ¹⁹ 

Do not abandon us!”

Yeremia 25:29

25:29 For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. ²⁰  So how can you possibly avoid being punished? ²¹  You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the Lord who rules over all, ²²  affirm it!’ ²³ 

[9:18]  ¹ tn Heb “turn your ear.”

[9:18]  ² tn Heb “desolations.” The term refers here to the ruined condition of Judah’s towns.

[9:18]  ³ tn Heb “over which your name is called.” Cf. v. 19. This expression implies that God is the owner of his city, Jerusalem. Note the use of the idiom in 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1; Amos 9:12.

[9:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “praying our supplications before you.”

[79:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “which do not know you.” Here the Hebrew term “know” means “acknowledge the authority of.”

[79:6]  ⁶ sn The kingdoms that do not pray to you. The people of these kingdoms pray to other gods, not the Lord, because they do not recognize his authority over them.

[63:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “our protector [or “redeemer”] from antiquity [is] your name.”

[63:17]  ⁸ tn Some suggest a tolerative use of the Hiphil here, “[why do] you allow us to stray?” (cf. NLT). Though the Hiphil of תָעָה (ta’ah) appears to be tolerative in Jer 50:6, elsewhere it is preferable or necessary to take it as causative. See Isa 3:12; 9:15; and 30:28, as well as Gen 20:13; 2 Kgs 21:9; Job 12:24-25; Prov 12:26; Jer 23:13, 32; Hos 4:12; Amos 2:4; Mic 3:5.

[63:17]  ⁹ tn This probably refers to God’s commands.

[63:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[Why do] you harden our heart[s] so as not to fear you.” The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[63:17]  sn How direct this hardening is, one cannot be sure. The speaker may envision direct involvement on the Lord’s part. The Lord has brought the exile as judgment for the nation’s sin and now he continues to keep them at arm’s length by blinding them spiritually. The second half of 64:7 might support this, though the precise reading of the final verb is uncertain. On the other hand, the idiom of lament is sometimes ironic and hyperbolically deterministic. For example, Naomi lamented that Shaddai was directly opposing her and bringing her calamity (Ruth 1:20-21), while the author of Ps 88 directly attributes his horrible suffering and loneliness to God (see especially vv. 6-8, 16-18). Both individuals make little, if any, room for intermediate causes or the principle of sin and death which ravages the human race. In the same way, the speaker in Isa 63:17 (who evidences great spiritual sensitivity and is anything but “hardened”) may be referring to the hardships of exile, which discouraged and even embittered the people, causing many of them to retreat from their Yahwistic faith. In this case, the “hardening” in view is more indirect and can be lifted by the Lord’s intervention. Whether the hardening here is indirect or direct, it is important to recognize that the speaker sees it as one of the effects of rebellion against the Lord (note especially 64:5-6).

[63:18]  ¹¹ tn Or “holy” (ASV, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT).

[63:18]  ¹² tn Heb “for a short time they had a possession, the people of your holiness.”

[63:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “your adversaries trampled on.”

[63:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “we were from antiquity” (see v. 16). The collocation עוֹלָם + מִן + הָיָה (hayah + min + ’olam) occurs only here.

[63:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “you did not rule them, your name was not called over them.” The expression “the name is called over” indicates ownership; see the note at 4:1. As these two lines stand they are very difficult to interpret. They appear to be stating that the adversaries just mentioned in v. 18 have not been subject to the Lord’s rule in the past, perhaps explaining why they could commit the atrocity described in v. 18b.

[14:9]  ¹⁶ tn This is the only time this word occurs in the Hebrew Bible. The lexicons generally take it to mean “confused” or “surprised” (cf., e.g., BDB 187 s.v. דָּהַם). However, the word has been found in a letter from the seventh century in a passage where it must mean something like “be helpless”; see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:433, for discussion and bibliography of an article where this letter is dealt with.

[14:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “mighty man, warrior.” For this nuance see 1 Sam 17:51 where it parallels a technical term used of Goliath used earlier in 17:4, 23.

[14:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in our midst.”

[14:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Your name is called upon us.” See Jer 7:10, 11, 14, 30 for this idiom with respect to the temple and see the notes on Jer 7:10.

[25:29]  ²⁰ tn Heb “which is called by my name.” See translator’s note on 7:10 for support.

[25:29]  ²¹ tn This is an example of a question without the formal introductory particle following a conjunctive vav introducing an opposition. (See Joüon 2:609 §161.a.) It is also an example of the use of the infinitive before the finite verb in a rhetorical question involving doubt or denial. (See Joüon 2:422-23 §123.f, and compare usage in Gen 37:8.)

[25:29]  ²² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[25:29]  sn See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for explanation of this extended title.

[25:29]  ²³ tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.”