Wahyu 11:18

11:18 The ¹  nations ²  were enraged,

but ³  your wrath has come,

and the time has come for the dead to be judged,

and the time has come to give to your servants, ⁴ 

the prophets, their reward,

as well as to the saints

and to those who revere ⁵  your name, both small and great,

and the time has come ⁶  to destroy those who destroy ⁷  the earth.”

Wahyu 16:14

16:14 For they are the spirits of the demons performing signs who go out to the kings of the earth ⁸  to bring them together for the battle that will take place on the great day of God, the All-Powerful. ⁹ 

Yesaya 13:6-22

13:6 Wail, for the Lord’s day of judgment ¹⁰  is near;

it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge. ¹¹ 

13:7 For this reason all hands hang limp, ¹² 

every human heart loses its courage. ¹³ 

13:8 They panic –

cramps and pain seize hold of them

like those of a woman who is straining to give birth.

They look at one another in astonishment;

their faces are flushed red. ¹⁴ 

13:9 Look, the Lord’s day of judgment ¹⁵  is coming;

it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, ¹⁶ 

destroying ¹⁷  the earth ¹⁸ 

and annihilating its sinners.

13:10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations

no longer give out their light; ¹⁹ 

the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,

and the moon does not shine. ²⁰ 

13:11 ²¹ I will punish the world for its evil, ²² 

and wicked people for their sin.

I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,

I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants. ²³ 

13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,

and people more scarce ²⁴  than gold from Ophir.

13:13 So I will shake the heavens, ²⁵ 

and the earth will shake loose from its foundation, ²⁶ 

because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies,

in the day he vents his raging anger. ²⁷ 

13:14 Like a frightened gazelle ²⁸ 

or a sheep with no shepherd,

each will turn toward home, ²⁹ 

each will run to his homeland.

13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;

everyone who is seized ³⁰  will die ³¹  by the sword.

13:16 Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;

their houses will be looted

and their wives raped.

13:17 Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them; ³² 

they are not concerned about silver,

nor are they interested in gold. ³³ 

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ³⁴ 

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ³⁵ 

they will not ³⁶  look with pity on children.

13:19 Babylon, the most admired ³⁷  of kingdoms,

the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, ³⁸ 

will be destroyed by God

just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. ³⁹ 

13:20 No one will live there again;

no one will ever reside there again. ⁴⁰ 

No bedouin ⁴¹  will camp ⁴²  there,

no shepherds will rest their flocks ⁴³  there.

13:21 Wild animals will rest there,

the ruined ⁴⁴  houses will be full of hyenas. ⁴⁵ 

Ostriches will live there,

wild goats will skip among the ruins. ⁴⁶ 

13:22 Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,

jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. ⁴⁷ 

Her time is almost up, ⁴⁸ 

her days will not be prolonged. ⁴⁹ 

Yeremia 30:7

30:7 Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! ⁵⁰ 

There has never been any like it.

It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,

but some of them will be rescued out of it. ⁵¹ 

Yoel 2:31

2:31 The sunlight will be turned to darkness

and the moon to the color of blood, ⁵² 

before the day of the Lord comes –

that great and terrible day!

Zefanya 1:14-18

1:14 The Lord’s great day of judgment ⁵³  is almost here;

it is approaching very rapidly!

There will be a bitter sound on the Lord’s day of judgment;

at that time warriors will cry out in battle. ⁵⁴ 

1:15 That day will be a day of God’s anger, ⁵⁵ 

a day of distress and hardship,

a day of devastation and ruin,

a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and dark skies,

1:16 a day of trumpet blasts ⁵⁶  and battle cries. ⁵⁷ 

Judgment will fall on ⁵⁸  the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

1:17 I will bring distress on the people ⁵⁹ 

and they will stumble ⁶⁰  like blind men,

for they have sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dirt;

their flesh ⁶¹  will be scattered ⁶²  like manure.

1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them

in the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.

The whole earth ⁶³  will be consumed by his fiery wrath. ⁶⁴ 

Indeed, ⁶⁵  he will bring terrifying destruction ⁶⁶  on all who live on the earth.” ⁶⁷ 

Roma 2:5

2:5 But because of your stubbornness ⁶⁸  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ⁶⁹ 

Yudas 1:6

1:6 You also know that ⁷⁰  the angels who did not keep within their proper domain ⁷¹  but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept ⁷²  in eternal chains ⁷³  in utter ⁷⁴  darkness, locked up ⁷⁵  for the judgment of the great Day.

[11:18]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[11:18]  ² tn Or “The Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[11:18]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[11:18]  ⁴ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[11:18]  ⁵ tn Grk “who fear.”

[11:18]  ⁶ tn The words “the time has come” do not occur except at the beginning of the verse; the phrase has been repeated for emphasis and contrast. The Greek has one finite verb (“has come”) with a compound subject (“your wrath,” “the time”), followed by three infinitive clauses (“to be judged,” “to give,” “to destroy”). The rhetorical power of the repetition of the finite verb in English thus emulates the rhetorical power of its lone instance in Greek.

[11:18]  ⁷ tn Or “who deprave.” There is a possible wordplay here on two meanings for διαφθείρω (diafqeirw), with the first meaning “destroy” and the second meaning either “to ruin” or “to make morally corrupt.” See L&N 20.40.

[16:14]  ⁸ tn BDAG 699 s.v. οἰκουμένη 1 states, “the inhabited earth, the world…ὅλη ἡ οἰκ. the whole inhabited earth…Mt 24:14; Ac 11:28; Rv 3:10; 16:14.”

[16:14]  ⁹ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”

[13:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the day of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).

[13:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like destruction from the sovereign judge it comes.” The comparative preposition (כְּ, kÿ) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the destruction unleashed will have all the earmarks of divine judgment. One could paraphrase, “it comes as only destructive divine judgment can.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x.

[13:6]  sn The divine name used here is שַׁדַּי (shaddai, “Shaddai”). Shaddai (or El Shaddai) is the sovereign king/judge of the world who grants life/blesses and kills/judges. In Genesis he blesses the patriarchs with fertility and promises numerous descendants. Outside Genesis he both blesses/protects and takes away life/happiness. The patriarchs knew God primarily as El Shaddai (Exod 6:3). While the origin and meaning of this name is uncertain (see discussion below) its significance is clear. The name is used in contexts where God appears as the source of fertility and life. In Gen 17:1-8 he appears to Abram, introduces himself as El Shaddai, and announces his intention to make the patriarch fruitful. In the role of El Shaddai God repeats these words (now elevated to the status of a decree) to Jacob (35:11). Earlier Isaac had pronounced a blessing upon Jacob in which he asked El Shaddai to make Jacob fruitful (28:3). Jacob later prays that his sons will be treated with mercy when they return to Egypt with Benjamin (43:14). The fertility theme is not as apparent here, though one must remember that Jacob viewed Benjamin as the sole remaining son of the favored and once-barren Rachel (cf. 29:31; 30:22-24; 35:16-18). It is quite natural that he would appeal to El Shaddai to preserve Benjamin’s life, for it was El Shaddai’s miraculous power which made it possible for Rachel to give him sons in the first place. In 48:3 Jacob, prior to blessing Joseph’s sons, tells him how El Shaddai appeared to him at Bethel (cf. chapter 28) and promised to make him fruitful. When blessing Joseph on his deathbed Jacob refers to Shaddai (we should probably read “El Shaddai,” along with a few Hebrew mss, the Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, and Syriac) as the one who provides abundant blessings, including “blessings of the breast and womb” (49:25). (The direct association of the name with שָׁדַיִם [shadayim, “breasts”] suggests the name might mean “the one of the breast” [i.e., the one who gives fertility], but the juxtaposition is probably better explained as wordplay. Note the wordplay involving the name and the root שָׁדַד [shadad, “destroy”] here in Isa 13:6 and in Joel 1:15.) Outside Genesis the name Shaddai (minus El, “God”) is normally used when God is viewed as the sovereign king who blesses/protects or curses/brings judgment. The name appears in the introduction to two of Balaam’s oracles (Num 24:4, 16) of blessing upon Israel. Naomi employs the name when accusing the Lord of treating her bitterly by taking the lives of her husband and sons (Ruth 1:20-21). In Ps 68:14; Isa 13:6; and Joel 1:15 Shaddai judges his enemies through warfare, while Ps 91:1 depicts him as the protector of his people. (In Ezek 1:24 and 10:5 the sound of the cherubs’ wings is compared to Shaddai’s powerful voice. The reference may be to the mighty divine warrior’s battle cry which accompanies his angry judgment.) Last but not least, the name occurs 31 times in the Book of Job. Job and his “friends” assume that Shaddai is the sovereign king of the world (11:7; 37:23a) who is the source of life (33:4b) and is responsible for maintaining justice (8:3; 34:10-12; 37:23b). He provides abundant blessings, including children (22:17-18; 29:4-6), but can also discipline, punish, and destroy (5:17; 6:4; 21:20; 23:16). It is not surprising to see the name so often in this book, where the theme of God’s justice is primary and even called into question (24:1; 27:2). The most likely proposal is that the name means “God, the one of the mountain” (an Akkadian cognate means “mountain,” to which Heb. שַׁד [shad, “breast”] is probably related). For a discussion of proposed derivations see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 70-71. The name may originally depict God as the sovereign judge who, in Canaanite style, rules from a sacred mountain. Isa 14:13 and Ezek 28:14, 16 associate such a mountain with God, while Ps 48:2 refers to Zion as “Zaphon,” the Canaanite Olympus from which the high god El ruled. (In Isa 14 the Canaanite god El may be in view. Note that Isaiah pictures pagan kings as taunting the king of Babylon, suggesting that pagan mythology may provide the background for the language and imagery.)

[13:7]  ¹² tn Heb “drop”; KJV “be faint”; ASV “be feeble”; NAB “fall helpless.”

[13:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “melts” (so NAB).

[13:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “their faces are faces of flames.” Their faces are flushed with fear and embarrassment.

[13:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the day of the Lord.”

[13:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[with] cruelty, and fury, and rage of anger.” Three synonyms for “anger” are piled up at the end of the line to emphasize the extraordinary degree of divine anger that will be exhibited in this judgment.

[13:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “making desolate.”

[13:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “land” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT).

[13:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “do not flash forth their light.”

[13:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “does not shed forth its light.”

[13:11]  ²¹ sn The Lord is definitely speaking (again?) at this point. See the note at v. 4.

[13:11]  ²² tn Or “I will bring disaster on the world.” Hebrew רָעָה (ra’ah) could refer to the judgment (i.e., disaster, calamity) or to the evil that prompts it. The structure of the parallel line favors the latter interpretation.

[13:11]  ²³ tn Or perhaps, “the violent”; cf. NASB, NIV “the ruthless.”

[13:12]  ²⁴ tn The verb is supplied in the translation from the first line. The verb in the first line (“I will make scarce”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.

[13:13]  ²⁵ tn Or “the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[13:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “from its place” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV).

[13:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and in the day of the raging of his anger.”

[13:14]  ²⁸ tn Or “like a gazelle being chased.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[13:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “his people” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “his nation” (cf. TEV “their own countries”).

[13:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “carried off,” i.e., grabbed from the fleeing crowd. See HALOT 764 s.v. ספה.

[13:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “will fall” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NLT “will be run through with a sword.”

[13:17]  ³² tn Heb “against them”; NLT “against Babylon.”

[13:17]  ³³ sn They cannot be bought off, for they have a lust for bloodshed.

[13:18]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.

[13:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”

[13:18]  ³⁶ tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.

[13:19]  ³⁷ tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).

[13:19]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”

[13:19]  sn The Chaldeans were a group of tribes who lived in southern Mesopotamia. The established the so-called neo-Babylonian empire in the late seventh century b.c. Their most famous king, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Judah in 605 b.c. and destroyed Jerusalem in 586 b.c.

[13:19]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת (mahpekhat, “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7.

[13:20]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.

[13:20]  ⁴¹ tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”

[13:20]  ⁴² tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל (ye’ehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.

[13:20]  ⁴³ tn The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12.

[13:21]  ⁴⁴ tn The word “ruined” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[13:21]  ⁴⁵ tn The precise referent of this word in uncertain. See HALOT 29 s.v. *אֹחַ. Various English versions translate as “owls” (e.g., NAB, NASB), “wild dogs” (NCV); “jackals” (NIV); “howling creatures” (NRSV, NLT).

[13:21]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “will skip there.”

[13:22]  ⁴⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “wild dogs will yip among his widows, and jackals in the palaces of pleasure.” The verb “yip” is supplied in the second line; it does double duty in the parallel structure. “His widows” makes little sense in this context; many emend the form (אַלְמנוֹתָיו, ’almnotayv) to the graphically similar אַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ (’armÿnoteha, “her fortresses”), a reading that is assumed in the present translation. The use of “widows” may represent an intentional wordplay on “fortresses,” indicating that the fortresses are like dejected widows (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:308, n. 1).

[13:22]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “near to come is her time.”

[13:22]  ⁴⁹ sn When was the prophecy of Babylon’s fall fulfilled? Some argue that the prophecy was fulfilled in 689 b.c. when the Assyrians under Sennacherib sacked and desecrated the city (this event is alluded to in 23:13). This may have been an initial phase in the fulfillment of the prophecy, but the reference to the involvement of the Medes (v. 17) and the suggestion that Babylon’s demise will bring about the restoration of Israel (14:1-2) indicate that the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians in 538 b.c. is the primary focus of the prophecy. (After all, the Lord did reveal to Isaiah that the Chaldeans [not the Assyrians] would someday conquer Jerusalem and take the people into exile [see 39:5-7].) However, the vivid picture of destruction in vv. 15-22 raises a problem. The Medes and Persians did not destroy the city; in fact Cyrus’ takeover of Babylon, though preceded by a military campaign, was relatively peaceful and even welcomed by some Babylonian religious officials. How then does one explain the prophecy’s description of the city’s violent fall? As noted above, the events of 689 b.c. and 538 b.c. may have been merged in the prophecy. However, it is more likely that the language is stylized and exaggerated for rhetorical effect. See Isa 34:11-15; Jer 50:39-40 (describing Babylon’s fall in 538 b.c.); 51:36-37 (describing Babylon’s fall in 538 b.c.); Zeph 2:13-15; the extra-biblical Sefire treaty curses; and Ashurbanipal’s description of the destruction of Elam in his royal annals. In other words, the events of 538 b.c. essentially, though not necessarily literally, fulfill the prophecy.

[30:7]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “Alas [or Woe] for that day will be great.” For the use of the particle “Alas” to signal a time of terrible trouble, even to sound the death knell for someone, see the translator’s note on 22:13.

[30:7]  sn The reference to a terrible time of trouble (Heb “that day”) is a common shorthand reference in the prophets to “the Day of the Lord.” The “Day of the Lord” refers to a time when God intervenes in judgment against the wicked. The time referent can be either near or far, referring to something as near as the Assyrian threat in the time of Ahaz (Isa 7:18, 20, 21, 23) or as distant as the eschatological battle of God against Gog when he attacks Israel (Ezek 38:14, 18). The judgment can be against Israel’s enemies and result in Israel’s deliverance (Jer 50:30-34). At other times as here the Day of the Lord involves judgment on Israel itself. Here reference is to the judgment that the northern kingdom, Israel, has already experienced (cf., e.g., Jer 3:8) and which the southern kingdom, Judah, is in the process of experiencing and which Jeremiah has lamented over several times and even described in hyperbolic and apocalyptic terms in Jer 4:19-31.

[30:7]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “It is a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.”

[30:7]  sn Jacob here is figurative for the people descended from him. Moreover the figure moves from Jacob = descendants of Jacob to only a part of those descendants. Not all of his descendants who have experienced and are now experiencing trouble will be saved. Only a remnant (i.e., the good figs, cf., e.g., Jer 23:3; 31:7) will see the good things that the Lord has in store for them (Jer 24:5-6). The bad figs will suffer destruction through war, starvation, and disease (cf., e.g., Jer 24:8-10 among many other references).

[2:31]  ⁵² tn Heb “to blood,” but no doubt this is intended to indicate by metonymy the color of blood rather than the substance itself. The blood red color suggests a visual impression here – something that could be caused by fires, volcanic dust, sandstorms, or other atmospheric phenomena.

[1:14]  ⁵³ tn Heb “The great day of the Lord.” The words “of judgment” are supplied in the translation here and later in this verse for clarity. See the note on the expression “day of judgment” in v. 7.

[1:14]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “the sound of the day of the Lord, bitter [is] one crying out there, a warrior.” The present translation does four things: (1) It takes מַר (mar, “bitter”) with what precedes (contrary to the accentuation of the MT). (2) It understands the participle צָרַח (tsarakh, “cry out in battle”) as verbal with “warrior” as its subject. (3) It takes שָׁם (sham, “there”) in a temporal sense, meaning “then, at that time.” (4) It understands “warrior” as collective.

[1:15]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “a day of wrath.” The word “God’s” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:16]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “a ram’s horn.” By metonymy the Hebrew text mentions the trumpet (“ram’s horn”) in place of the sound it produces (“trumpet blasts”).

[1:16]  ⁵⁷ sn This description of the day of the Lord consists of an initial reference to anger, followed by four pairs of synonyms. The joining of synonyms in this way emphasizes the degree of the characteristic being described. The first two pairs focus on the distress and ruin that judgment will bring; the second two pairs picture this day of judgment as being very dark (darkness) and exceedingly overcast (gloom). The description concludes with the pairing of two familiar battle sounds, the blast on the ram’s horn (trumpet blasts) and the war cries of the warriors (battle cries).

[1:16]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “against.” The words “judgment will fall” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:17]  ⁵⁹ tn “The people” refers to mankind in general (see vv. 2-3) or more specifically to the residents of Judah (see vv. 4-13).

[1:17]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “walk.”

[1:17]  ⁶¹ tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).

[1:17]  ⁶² tn The words “will be scattered” are supplied in the translation for clarity based on the parallelism with “will be poured out” in the previous line.

[1:18]  ⁶³ tn Or “land” (cf. NEB). This same word also occurs at the end of the present verse.

[1:18]  ⁶⁴ tn Or “passion”; traditionally, “jealousy.”

[1:18]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “for.”

[1:18]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “complete destruction, even terror, he will make.”

[1:18]  ⁶⁷ tn It is not certain where the Lord’s words end and the prophet’s words begin. It is possible that Zephaniah begins speaking in the middle of v. 17 or at the beginning of v. 18 (note the third person pronouns referring to the Lord).

[2:5]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

[2:5]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

[1:6]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “and.” Verse 6 is a continuation of the same sentence begun in v. 5. Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:6]  ⁷¹ tn Grk “who did not keep their own domain.”

[1:6]  sn The idea is that certain angels acted improperly, going outside the bounds prescribed by God (their proper domain).

[1:6]  ⁷² sn There is an interesting play on words used in this verse. Because the angels did not keep their proper place, Jesus has kept them chained up in another place. The same verb keep is used in v. 1 to describe believers’ status before God and Christ.

[1:6]  ⁷³ sn In 2 Pet 2:4 a less common word for chains is used.

[1:6]  ⁷⁴ tn The word ζόφος (zofos, “utter, deepest darkness”) is used only five times in the NT: two in 2 Peter, two in Jude, and one in Hebrews. Jude 6 parallels 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 13 parallels 2 Pet 2:17.

[1:6]  ⁷⁵ tn The words “locked up” are not in Greek, but is expressed in English as a resumptive point after the double prepositional phrase (“in eternal chains in utter darkness”).