Yesaya 2:13

2:13 for all the cedars of Lebanon,

that are so high and mighty,

for all the oaks of Bashan; ¹ 

Yehezkiel 27:6

27:6 They made your oars from oaks of Bashan;

they made your deck ²  with cypresses ³  from the Kittean isles. ⁴ 

Amos 2:9

2:9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. ⁵ 

They were as tall as cedars ⁶ 

and as strong as oaks,

but I destroyed the fruit on their branches ⁷ 

and their roots in the ground. ⁸ 

[2:13]  ¹ sn The cedars of Lebanon and oaks of Bashan were well-known for their size and prominence. They make apt symbols here for powerful men who think of themselves as prominent and secure.

[27:6]  ² tn Or “hull.”

[27:6]  ³ tc The Hebrew reads “Your deck they made ivory, daughter of Assyria.” The syntactically difficult “ivory” is understood here as dittography and omitted, though some construe this to refer to ivory inlays. “Daughter of Assyria” is understood here as improper word division and the vowels repointed as “cypresses.”

[27:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the coastlands (or islands) of Kittim,” generally understood to be a reference to the island of Cyprus, where the Phoenicians had a trading colony on the southeast coast. Many modern English versions have “Cyprus” (CEV, TEV), “the coastlands of Cyprus” (NASB), “the coasts of Cyprus” (NIV, NRSV), or “the southern coasts of Cyprus” (NLT).

[27:6]  sn The Kittean isles is probably a reference to southeast Cyprus where the Phoenicians had a colony.

[2:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “I destroyed the Amorites from before them.” The translation takes מִפְּנֵי (mippÿney) in the sense of “for the sake of.” See BDB 818 s.v. פָּנֻה II.6.a and H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia), 134. Another option is to take the phrase in a spatial sense, “I destroyed the Amorites, [clearing them out] from before them [i.e., Israel]” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[2:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “whose height was like the height of cedars.”

[2:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “his fruit from above.”

[2:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “and his roots from below.”