| 1 | 1 The word of Yăhwēh which had been to Miƙ̣ah the Mórashtee in the days of Yotam, Aɦ̣az, and Ḥ̂izqeeyahu, kings of Yehudah, which he had seen concerning Shomron and Yerushalaim. |
| 2 | 2 Hear, O peoples, all of you. Pay attention, O earth, and its fulness: and let Adŏnai Yăhwēh be witness among you, Adŏnai from his holy temple. |
| 3 | 3 For, behold, Yăhwēh comes out out from his place. And he will have come down, and he will have treaded upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains will have melted themselves under him. And the valleys will split themselves open, like wax facing the fire, like waters poured down a slope. |
| 5 | 5 All this is on account of the transgression of Ya`ạqov̱ and in connection to the sins of the house of Yisra´æl. What is the transgression of Ya`ạqov̱? Is it not Shomron? And what is the high place of Yehudah? Is it not Yerushalaim? |
| 6 | 6 So I will have made Shomron a heap of ruins in the country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will have poured her stones into the valley; and her foundations I will reveal. |
| 7 |
7 And all her images shall be crushed: all her wages shall be burned in fire: and all her idols I will lay waste, because from the wages of a prostitute she has gathered them: and into the wages of |
| 8 | 8 Over this I will lament and I will wail; I will go barefoot and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the daughters of an ostrich. |
| 9 | 9 For her wound is incurable, because it has come even to Yehudah; it has struck as far as the gate of my people, as far as Yerushalaim. |
| 10 |
10 Tell it not in Gatʰ; do not lament a lament |
| 11 | 11 Move yourselves along, female residents of Shapheer, in nakedness and shame; the female residents of Tsa’anan will have not come out lamenting. Bætʰ-ha’ætsel shall take away from you¹ its position. |
| 12 |
12 Yea, the female residents of Morotʰ will have |
| 13 | 13 Hook up the chariots to the stallions, O residents of Laƙ̣eesh: It¹ was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Tseeyon; because the transgressions of Yisra´æl have been found in you. |
| 14 | 14 Therefore you shall give the parting dowry for Moreshetʰ-Gatʰ. The houses of ’Aƙ̲zeeb̲ shall be a disappointment¹ unto the kings of Yisra´æl. |
| 15 |
15 Again, I will bring someone to disposses you, O inhabitants of Maræshah. The glory of Yisra´æl, |
| 16 | 16 Make¹ yourselves bald and be shorn on behalf of the children of your delight. Widen your bald spot like the eagle, because they shall have been exiled from you. |
| 1 |
1 Woe to those planning iniquity and making up evil, |
| 3 |
3 Therefore thus has said Yăhwēh: “Behold, against this family I am planning a disaster, which you cannot remove your necks from under¹ and you shall not walk haughtily, because it |
| 4 | 4 In that day one will take up a ridicule against you. And one will have lamented a lament; it will have been, it will have said: “A Ruin, we have been ruined. The apportionment of my people is altered. How can he make it leave me! He apportions our fields to traitors.” |
| 5 | 5 Therefore, you will have no one stretching out a survey line according to allotment in the congregation of Yăhwēh. |
| 6 | 6 Do not drivel on. They drivel, “They should not drivel on about these things.” Insults cannot be turned away.¹ |
| 7 | 7 Can it be said, O house of Ya`ạqov̱, that the Rŭakh of Yăhwēh has been impatient? Are these never his actions? Do not my words do good to the one walking uprightly? |
| 8 |
8 And just yesterday my people were set up as the enemy: you strip off the |
| 10 | 10 Rise up and go! For this is not a resting place, because it has become unclean, it ruins itself¹ and the ruin is sickening. |
| 11 |
11 Perhaps if a man |
| 12 | 12 Gathering I will gather all of you, O Ya`ạqov̱. Collecting I will collect the remnant of Yisra´æl. I will put them¹ together as sheep in a fold, like a flock in the middle of its pasture; they are making a noisy clamor of men. |
| 13 | 13 He has gone up, The Breaker¹ before their faces. They have broken through. Then they pass through the gate. Then they go out by it. Then their king passes before their faces, even Yăhwēh at their head. |
| 1 |
1 Then I said, “Listen please, heads of Ya`ạqov̱, and rulers of the house of Yisra´æl. Doesn’t it concern you to understand justice, 2 O haters of good, and lovers of evil, who tear the skin off them, and their flesh from off their bones, 3 and who have eaten the flesh of my people, and who have stripped the skin from off them, and who have been breaking their bones, and have been spreading |
| 4 | 4 At that time, they will cry out to Yăhwēh, and he will not answer them. Then he will hide his face from them at that time, since they have been made evil from their deeds. |
| 5 | 5 Thus has said Yăhwēh about the prophets making my people err, who when chewing with their teeth, then they will have proclaimed peace, but he who may not put something in their mouth, then they will have sanctified war against him! |
| 6 | 6 Therefore it shall be a night to you, without vision, and it will have become darkness to you, without divination. And the sun shall have gone down on the prophets, and the day shall have become black over them. 7 And the seers will have been shamed, and the diviners will have been disgraced. And all of them will have covered their lips, because there is no answer from the Almĭghty. |
| 8 | 8 And I however, I have been filled with power, with the Ruăkh of Yăhwēh, and with justice and might, to declare to Ya`ạqov̱ his transgression and to Yisra´æl his sin. |
| 9 | 9 Please hear this, heads of the house of Ya`ạqov̱, and rulers of the house of Yisra´æl, the abhorrers of justice, and who are making everything straight to be crooked, 10 who are building Tseeyon with bloodshed and Yerushalaim with injustice: 11 “Her heads with a bribe will do justice, and her priests for a price will teach, and her prophets for silver will divine, but on Yăhwēh they support themselves, saying ‘Is not Yăhwēh in our midst? No disaster can come on us!’”¹ |
| 12 |
12 Therefore on account of you Tseeyon will be plowed |
| 1 | 1 And it will have been in the latter days, that the mountain of the House¹ of Yăhwēh will be established on the headmost of the mountains, and it will have been lifted up above the hills, and the peoples will have streamed over it. |
| 2 | 2 And many nations will have come, and they will have said, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yăhwēh, and to the House of the Almĭghty of Ya`ạqov̱, and let him teach us from his ways, and let us walk in his paths, because from Tseeyon will go out the Torah, and the word of Yăhwēh from Yerushalaim.” |
| 3 | 3 And he will have judged between many peoples, and he will have given decisions for strong nations far away; and they will have beaten their swords into plowing blades, and their spears into prunning knives. Nation will not lift up the sword against nation, and they will not learn war again. |
| 4 | 4 Then they will dwell, each one under his vine, and under his fig tree, and no one is spreading fear. Yea, the mouth of Yăhwēh of Hosts has spoken. |
| 5 | 5 Though all the peoples walk, each one in the name of his gods, even we will walk in the name of Yăhwēh our Almĭghty to time-immemorial and onward. |
| 6 | 6 “In that day,” (by declaration of Yăhwēh) “I want to¹ gather the lame; and I want to assemble the banished, and whoever I have brought a disaster, 7 And I will establish the lame as a remnant, and those removed far off as a strong nation, and Yăhwēh will have ruled over them in Mount Tseeyon from that time and onward time immemorial.” |
| 8 | 8 “And you, O Tower of Æder¹ fortress of the daughter of Tseeyon, unto you it will come: the former dominion will have come, the kingdom to the daughter of Yerushalaim. 9 Now why do you shout aloud? Is there no king in you? Your counselor, has he perished? Yea, the labor pain has seized you like the woman giving birth.” |
| 10 | 10 “Convulse and groan, O daughter of Tseeyon like the woman giving birth, because now you will go out from the city, and you will have resided in the fields, and you will have gone even to Bavel. There you will be ¹delivered. There Yăhwēh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.” |
| 11 | 11 “And now many nations are gathered against you, those saying, ‘Let her be defiled,’ and ‘Let our eyes gaze on Tseeyon.’ 12 But they have not known the plans of Yăhwēh, and they have not understood his advice, because he will have collected them as sheaves to the threshing floor. 13 Rise and thresh, O daughter of Tseeyon, because I will make your horn iron, and your hoofs I will make bronze, and you will have crushed many peoples, and I will have devoted to Yăhwēh their ill gotten gain, and their army to the Lŏrd of all the earth.” |
| 1 | 1 “Now mass together, O daughter of troops. A siege has been put on us. With a rod they will strike the judge of Yisra´æl on the ¹cheek.” |
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2 And you, Bæytleɦ̣em Ephratʰah, being little among the thousands of Yehudah, out of you shall he come forth to me |
| 3 | 3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time she who bears has given birth. And the rest of his brothers shall return to be with the sons of Yisra´æl.¹ 4 And he will have stood up, and he will have shepherded his flock in the power of Yăhwēh, in the majesty of the name of Yăhwēh hĭs Almighty. And they will have stayed, because then he will become great as far as the ends of the earth. |
| 5 |
5 And he will have made¹ to be this ‘peace’ with Ashur: because it comes into our land, and because it marches into our fortresses: 6 then we will have raised up against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; And they will have shepherded the land of Ashur with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances, and he will have delivered |
| 7 | 7 And the remnant of Ya`ạqov̱ will have been in the midst of many peoples as dew from Yăhwēh, as rain showers on the verdant grassland, which will not wait for man, and will not delay for a son of Adam. |
| 8 | 8 And the remnant of Ya`ạqov̱ will have been among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if it has passed by, then it has treaded down, and it has torn, and no one delivers. 9 Your hand shall have been lifted high over your advesaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off. |
| 10 |
10 “And it will have been, in that day,” by declaration of Yăhwēh, “that I will have cut off your |
| 1 |
1 Hear please that which Yăhwēh is saying. Arise, argue with the mountains, and may the hills listen to your voice! 2 Hear O mountains the argument of Yăhwēh, and |
| 3 |
3 “My people, what have I done to you, and how have I wearied you. Answer against me! 4 For I had brought you up from the land of Egypt, and from the house of slavery I had redeemed you, and I had sent before your faces Moshēh, ‘Aharon, and Miryam. 5 My people, remember please what Balaq king of Mo´av̱ had devised, and what Bil`am the son of Be‘or had answered him; |
| 6 | 6 With what should I meet Yăhwēh? Should I bow myself to my Almĭghty on high? Should I meet him him with ascending offerings, with calves, the sons of a year? 7 Will Yăhwēh be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has told you, O man, what is good! And what is Yăhwēh seeking from you except to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your Almĭghty? |
| 9 |
9 The voice of Yăhwēh proclaims to the city, and sound wisdom will fear your name. Listen to the rod and he who appointed it! 10 “Is there still in the house of wickedness¹ ill-gotten treasures, and an angry emaciated ’Æphah? 11 Shall I acquit |
| 14 | 14 “You, you shall eat, and not be satisfied. Then it will oppress¹ you in your midst. Then, you shall retreat² but you will not escape, and whoever does escape, I will give to the sword. 15 You shall sow, but you will not reap. You shall press olives, but you shall not annoint yourself with oil, and grape mush, but you shall not drink wine. |
| 16 | 16 Thus, you yourselves have kept the statutes of Omree, and all the works of the house of Aɦ̣´av̱. Thus, you walk by their counsels so that I can give you over to destruction, and its residents to derision; and insult of my people you will carry. |
| 1 |
1 Woe to me, because I have become like the gleanings of summer, like left overs of a vineyard. There is no grape cluster to eat, |
| 2 | 2 The pious have perished from the land; and there is no one upright among men; all of them lie in wait for bloodshed; each one hunts his brother with a net. 3 Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince makes inquiry (or the judge) for a bribe, then the great man dictates the desire of his soul, himself; Then they plot it. 4 The best of them is like a briar; the upright one is from a thorn hedge. The day of your watching out, of your attending, has come. Now it will confound them. 5 Put no support in a neighbor. Put no trust in a friend. From she who lies in your bosom, guard the doors of your mouth. 6 For the son treats the father as a fool, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. |
| 7 | 7 But I on Yăhwēh should keep watch. I will wait for the Almĭghty of my salvation. My Almĭghty will hear me. 8 Rejoice not, O my enemy against me. Though I have fallen, I will have risen again; though I dwell in darkness, Yăhwēh is light for me. 9 The rage of Yăhwēh I will bear, because I have sinned against him, until when he will argue my argument, and he will have done me judgment. He will bring me out to the light; I will look on his justice! |
| 10 | 10 Then my enemy will see. Then shame will cover him¹ who said to me, “Where is Yăhwēh your Almĭghty?” My eyes will look on him; now he will be for trampling like mud in the streets. |
| 11 |
11 |
| 14 |
14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, dwelling alone, |
| 18 |
18 Who is a Gŏd like you, bearing iniquity and passing over transgression for the sake of the remnant of his inheritance? He will not have fortified his anger for ever, because he is delighting in loving kindness. 19 He will return; he will show mercy; he will subdue our iniquities. Thus, you will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will give the truth to Ya`ạqov̱, |
1:10 ^ House of Dust
1:11 ^ Hebrew discourse can be difficut because it uses pronouns differently. “You” refers to the “female residents of Shapheer” and “its” refers to “the female residents of Tsa’anan.” The point is that Shapheer will not be moured by Tsa’anan, because Tsa’anan will be busy lamenting Bætʰ-ha’ætsel, which means in Hebrew “the house next door.”
1:12 ^ The words “performed an excellent mourners dance” are literally “writhed well.” The Hebrew verb means to writhe or dance, to twirl or twist about. The usual translations don’t know what to make of the word לְטוֹב following the verb. It is simply an adverb telling how they writhed: well.
1:13 ^ “It was” (cf. ESV) (Hebrew: she was) refers to the “residents of Laƙ̣eesh”; English discourse expects “you were” (cf. NIV) but Hebrew does not follow English discourse rules.
1:14 ^ “The houses of Disappointment shall be a disappointment.” The sense here is comparable to when someone goes looking for water in a well seen from a distance, and then arrives and finds no water in it, and says “Well that is false!” He means he is disappointed. Therefore Aƙ̲zeeb̲ will not do as expected.
1:15 ^ The cave of ‘Adullam was where David hid when he was fleeing from Saul. The italics explain the reference. Israel’s glory, its nobility, its royalty, its stars, its rich men, will end up hiding in the cave of ‘Adullam.
1:16 ^ This imperative is addressed to women in the Hebrew, which is lost in translation. Mother’s with children are being addressed.
2:1 ^ The italics are to explain the word “evil”, which is the same word as used in vs. 3., only with a different sense. The word evil in English always connotes moral depravity. But in Hebrew calamity, disaster, and evil are all expressed by one word. Gŏd creates and does no evil. The English “bad” could be used, “Woe to those making up bad stuff...Therefore I am planning something bad.” However bad does not carry enough force.
2:3 ^ The Hebrew says “from there”, which of course would be bad in English. Therefore, nearly every translation has skipped over translating the words “from there” since they did not think of the English functional equivalent: “from under.”
2:6 ^ The word drivel comes from the Hebrew root “to drip”; The prophet is being insulted for prophesying disaster. But their drivel against his words is drivel. Someone is always going to insult a bringer of bad news, because bad news is unpatriotic. Doomsayers are always insulted.
2:8 ^ The NET Bible gives close to the right sense for this difficult verse, “but you rise up as an enemy against my people”; The Pulpit Commentary gives the right sense, “According to Ewald, the present reading may be taken in a causative sense "They set up my people as an enemy," i.e. the grandees treat the Lord's people as enemies, robbing and plundering them. This translation obviates the difficulty of referring the words, "my people," in this verse to the oppressor, and in ver. 7 to the oppressed.” To do this the verb must be pointed thus a Pual: יְקוֹמַם, and taken in the sense “is made to be risen up.” In other words, the people who are not the enemy are raised up by the oppressive class in Israel as the enemy. They are treated as the enemy. We see that with the liberals in America who treat the conservatives as the enemy and who love its foreign enemies.
The next clause is also difficult, but Young’s literal translation seems to me to give the right sense, “From the outer garment the honourable ornament ye strip off,”; The word combination מִמּוּל gives the sense “from the front of”, thus מִמּוּל שַׂלְמָה = “from the front of the coat”; The word אֶדֶר I take as the object of the verb תַּפְשִׁטוּן. Thus אֶדֶר תַּפְשִׁטוּן = “you strip off the glory” or whatever ‘honor’ it has. In this case Young supposes ornaments, and so do I because of the following clause, “from those passing by securely, returnees from war.” In other words, the veterans expected to be secure, and to be treated with honor, but instead they are robbed of it.
2:9 ^ The Hebrew reads “You drive out from her nice house”, but English cannot so render due to discourse pronoun rules which Hebrew does not have. And in the following clause, “from upon her children you take away my honor forever.” They disposses the children, and therefore mar the image of God, and cause them to run their lives off a track that glorifies Him.
2:10 ^ Take the Hebrew verb as Niphal reflexive: תֵּחָבֵל.
2:11 ^ The idiom to drip words means to speak soothingly, but it can also have a bad connotation meaning to drivel words like a madman.
2:12 ^ “I will put them,” Hebrew: “put him”. “They are making a noisy calmor of men.” The pronoun “they” is 3fp in Hebrew and refers back to the feminine singular word “remnant.” The remnant are making a noisy clamor of men. A plural verb conjugation is used to refer to a singular entity which is plural in nature.
2:13 ^ The Breaker, הַפֹּרֵץ, is a title of Messiah. Messiah is the bondage breaker. By parallism the next clause equates Messiah with the King, and the next with Yăhwēh.
3:11 ^ Does this sound familiar? Our politicians are bribed by coorporate money to do their justice. Mega preachers teach error to those who give them money. Prognosticators tell us his coming is just a month, a year, or seven years away, to whomever will give them a buck. Then they all turn around and say “God bless America” thinking they will escape the result of their evil. Yes, may Gŏd bless America, but it is evil when those words come in vain out of the mouths of those destroying America.
3:12 ^ The word “House” means the temple.
4:1 ^The Temple.
4:6 ^ The words “want to” express the cohortative verb meaning. Other ways to express it are “I would like to” or “Let me.”
4:8 ^ The words mean “Tower of the Flock.”
4:10 ^ A double entendre
5:1 ^ Messiah was struck on the cheek, but it is not stated whether a rod was used in any of the beatings. We may suppose a small one was used by some of the soldiers who did not wish to bloody or injure their hand in striking Messiah.
5:3 ^ The “rest of of his brothers” refers to the Northern Kingdom that was exiled. “She who bears” refers to the virgin birth of Messiah. After this the house of Israel will rejoin witht he house of Judah.
5:5 ^ “And he will have made to be”: the Hebrew verb is a Piel: הִיָּה.
5:14 ^ The ’Ashærah was a wooden pole or image of the female goddess that was set upright in the earth. The exact ancient practice has been lost, but the same worship has evolved into Mariolatry, or the veneration of the “Queen of heaven,” and the “Mother of God.” It is customary among Catholics to plant shrines to Mary in their yards in cloisters, which are so ubiquitous where we live that we call them “Our lady of the bathtub.”
5:15 ^ “avenging myself”: The Hebrew should be a Niphal participle: נִקָּם = “being avenged” or reflexive “avenging myself.”
6:10 ^ Vowel point: רֶשַׁע.
6:12 ^ The neuter pronoun “its” and “it” are feminine in Hebrew: her, she. It refers to the city in vs. 9 which is feminine in Hebrew.
6:14 ^ From the verb for “bow down”: שׁחה in the Hiphil with suffix 2m: יַשְׁחֲךָ. With the waw consecutive: וַיַּשְׁחֲךָ. The sense is “then it will make you bow down”, i.e. “oppressed.”
²retreat: וַתַּֽסֶּג Hiph 2ms: Then you shall make a turn back, i.e. withdraw, retreat.
7:10 ^ The Hebrew uses “her” throughout to refer to the enemy, which is a feminine noun here in Hebrew from vs. 8.
7:15 ^ Hebrew: him.
7:20 ^ Compare John 1:17.