Yeremia 34:10

34:10 All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ¹ 

Yehezkiel 22:27-31

22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ²  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ³ 

22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ⁴  22:31 So I have poured my anger on them, and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I hereby repay them for what they have done, ⁵  declares the sovereign Lord.”

Daniel 9:6

9:6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority ⁶  to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, ⁷  and to all the inhabitants ⁸  of the land as well.

Daniel 9:8

9:8 O LORD, we have been humiliated ⁹  – our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors – because we have sinned against you.

Daniel 9:12

9:12 He has carried out his threats ¹⁰  against us and our rulers ¹¹  who were over ¹²  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!

Mikha 7:1-5

Micah Laments Judah’s Sin

7:1 I am depressed! ¹³ 

Indeed, ¹⁴  it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered,

and the grapes have been harvested. ¹⁵ 

There is no grape cluster to eat,

no fresh figs that I crave so much. ¹⁶ 

7:2 Faithful men have disappeared ¹⁷  from the land;

there are no godly men left. ¹⁸ 

They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ¹⁹ 

they hunt their own brother with a net. ²⁰ 

7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ²¹ 

government officials and judges take bribes, ²² 

prominent men make demands,

and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ²³ 

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ²⁴ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²⁵ 

and then you will experience confusion. ²⁶ 

7:5 Do not rely on a friend;

do not trust a companion!

Don’t even share secrets with the one who lies in your arms! ²⁷ 

Zefanya 3:3-4

3:3 Her princes ²⁸  are as fierce as roaring lions; ²⁹ 

her rulers ³⁰  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ³¹ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ³² 

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ³³ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ³⁴ 

they break God’s laws. ³⁵ 

[34:10]  ¹ tn Heb “And they complied, [that is] all the leaders and all the people who entered into the covenant that they would each let his male slave and his female slave go free so as not to hold them in bondage any longer; they complied and they let [them] go.” The verb “they complied” (Heb “they hearkened”) is repeated at the end after the lengthy description of the subject. This is characteristic of Hebrew style. The translation has resolved the complex sentence by making the relative clauses modifying the subject independent sentences describing the situational background before mentioning the main focus, “they had complied and let them go.”

[22:28]  ² tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[22:29]  ³ tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

[22:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “I did not find.”

[22:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”

[9:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate, “as your representatives.”

[9:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “our fathers” (also in vv. 8, 16). The Hebrew term translated “father” can refer to more distant relationships such as grandfathers or ancestors.

[9:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “people.”

[9:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “to us (belongs) shame of face.”

[9:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

[9:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “our judges.”

[9:12]  ¹² tn Heb “who judged.”

[7:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “woe to me!” In light of the image that follows, perhaps one could translate, “I am disappointed.”

[7:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “for.”

[7:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I am like the gathering of the summer fruit, like the gleanings of the harvest.” Micah is not comparing himself to the harvested fruit. There is an ellipsis here, as the second half of the verse makes clear. The idea is, “I am like [one at the time] the summer fruit is gathered and the grapes are harvested.”

[7:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my appetite craves.”

[7:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “have perished”; “have been destroyed.”

[7:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and an upright one among men there is not.”

[7:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “for bloodshed” (so NASB); TEV “for a chance to commit murder.”

[7:2]  ²⁰ sn Micah compares these ungodly people to hunters trying to capture their prey with a net.

[7:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”

[7:3]  ²² tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”

[7:3]  ²³ tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.

[7:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[7:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “from the one who lies in your arms, guard the doors of your mouth.”

[3:3]  ²⁸ tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ³⁰ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ³² tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

[3:4]  ³³ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ³⁴ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  sn These priests defile what is holy by not observing the proper distinctions between what is ritually clean and unclean (see Ezek 22:26).

[3:4]  ³⁵ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”