Yesaya 14:4

14:4 you will taunt the king of Babylon with these words: ¹ 

“Look how the oppressor has met his end!

Hostility ²  has ceased!

Yesaya 33:1

The Lord Will Restore Zion

33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead, ³ 

you who have not been destroyed!

The deceitful one is as good as dead, ⁴ 

the one whom others have not deceived!

When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you finish ⁵  deceiving, others will deceive you!

Yesaya 51:13

51:13 Why do you forget ⁶  the Lord, who made you,

who stretched out the sky ⁷ 

and founded the earth?

Why do you constantly tremble all day long ⁸ 

at the anger of the oppressor,

when he makes plans to destroy?

Where is the anger of the oppressor? ⁹ 

Yeremia 48:8

48:8 The destroyer will come against every town.

Not one town will escape.

The towns in the valley will be destroyed.

The cities on the high plain will be laid waste. ¹⁰ 

I, the Lord, have spoken! ¹¹ 

Yeremia 48:18

48:18 Come down from your place of honor;

sit on the dry ground, ¹²  you who live in Dibon. ¹³ 

For the one who will destroy Moab will attack you;

he will destroy your fortifications.

Zakharia 9:8

9:8 Then I will surround my temple ¹⁴  to protect it like a guard ¹⁵  from anyone crossing back and forth; so no one will cross over against them anymore as an oppressor, for now I myself have seen it.

[14:4]  ¹ tn Heb “you will lift up this taunt over the king of Babylon, saying.”

[14:4]  ² tc The word in the Hebrew text (מַדְהֵבָה, madhevah) is unattested elsewhere and of uncertain meaning. Many (following the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a) assume a dalet-resh (ד-ר) confusion and emend the form to מַרְהֵבָה (marhevah, “onslaught”). See HALOT 548 s.v. II *מִדָּה and HALOT 633 s.v. *מַרְהֵבָה.

[33:1]  ³ tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”

[33:1]  sn In this context “the destroyer” appears to refer collectively to the hostile nations (vv. 3-4). Assyria would probably have been primary in the minds of the prophet and his audience.

[33:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.

[33:1]  ⁵ tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”

[51:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “and that you forget.”

[51:13]  ⁷ tn Or “the heavens” (also in v. 16). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[51:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and that you tremble constantly all the day.”

[51:13]  ⁹ tn The question anticipates the answer, “Ready to disappear!” See v. 14.

[48:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “The valley will be destroyed and the tableland be laid waste.” However, in the context this surely refers to the towns and not to the valley and the tableland itself.

[48:8]  sn Most commentaries see a reference to the towns in the Jordan valley referred to in Josh 13:27 and the towns mentioned in Josh 13:15-17 which were on the high tableland or high plateau or plain north of the Arnon. The mention of the towns in the first half of the verse is broader than that because it would include all the towns in the southern half of Moab between the Arnon and Zered as well as those mentioned in the second half in conjunction with the valley and the high plateau north of the Arnon.

[48:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “which/for/as the Lord has spoken.” The first person form has again been adopted because the Lord is the speaker throughout (cf. v. 1).

[48:18]  ¹² tn Heb “sit in thirst.” The abstract “thirst” is put for the concrete, i.e., thirsty or parched ground (cf. Deut 8:19; Isa 35:7; Ps 107:33) for the concrete. There is no need to emend to “filth” (צֹאָה [tso’ah] for צָמָא [tsama’]) as is sometimes suggested.

[48:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “inhabitant of Daughter Dibon.” “Daughter” is used here as often in Jeremiah for the personification of a city, a country, or its inhabitants. The word “inhabitant” is to be understood as a collective as also in v. 19.

[48:18]  sn Dibon was an important fortified city located on the “King’s Highway,” the main north-south road in Transjordan. It was the site at which the Moabite Stone was found in 1868 and was one of the cities mentioned on it. It was four miles north of the Arnon River and thirteen miles east of the Dead Sea. It was one of the main cities on the northern plateau and had been conquered from Sihon and allotted to the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:17).

[9:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[9:8]  ¹⁵ tn Though a hapax legomenon, the מִצָּבָה (mitsavah) of the MT (from נָצַב, natsav, “take a stand”) is preferable to the suggestion מַצֵּבָה (matsevah, “pillar”) or even מִצָּבָא (mitsava’, “from” or “against the army”). The context favors the idea of the Lord as a protector.