1. Micah is too long to be included in this volume.
2. See Yvonne Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives: The Survival of Jonah in Western Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000) for a fine history of interpretation.
3. Cited, with an extensive summary of this theme in ibid., 32–42.
4. See ibid., 60–61.
5. See full discussion of the theme of repentance in the Bridging Contexts section of Jonah 3.
6. Sherwood, A Biblical Text, 42–47.
7. For a catalogue of this widespread tendency see ibid., 21–31, 65–87.
8. Cf. Phyllis Trible, “The Book of Jonah,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 7:490.
9. A New Testament case could also be made for this “call—resistance—call confirmed with a sign” pattern from the lives of apostles Peter and Paul. Paul even boasts about his human weakness (1 Cor. 2:3; 15:43; 2 Cor. 11:30). His early zealous resistance to the gospel in the name of God, which in turn prepared him for his uniquely effective apostleship, is well known.
10. See James Limburg, Jonah: A Commentary (Louisville: John Knox, 1993), 28–29.
11. For a modern cultural analogy we might think of the slaughters of the Khmer Rouge killing fields of Cambodia, the million machete deaths in Rwanda, Hitler’s eleven million, Stalin’s twenty-five million lives taken, or Saddam Hussein’s mass graves.
12. Erika Bleibtreu, “Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death,” BAR (Jan/Feb 1991): 52–61. I am indebted to Erika Bleibtreu for her compilation of these descriptions.
13. Quoted in ibid., 57–58.
14. Ibid., 58.
15. Jerusalem later survived by paying tribute, but it was destroyed by the Babylonians 114 years later.
16. Our Hebrew Bible is the Masoretic Text from the Leningrad codex, 1008 A.D. Its authenticity is confirmed by the Dead Seas Scroll of Jonah, discovered in 1955; it was hidden in Cave 4 near the Dead Sea around A.D. 90.
17. The end of scene six is debated by scholars. It ends at Jonah 4:3 in the Masoretic Text, at 4:4 by setting shift, at 4:5 by thematic structure. See David A. Dorsey, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 290.
1. “The word of the LORD” (wyhy dbr-yhwh) in this exact form occurs 83 times, primarily in Jeremiah (21 times), Ezekiel (41 times), and Zechariah (6 times).
2. See Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives, 241–42, for a discussion of proposals for the meaning of “dove.”
3. The NIV translation in 3:3 is “important city.”
4. For Nineveh’s wickedness, see the introduction.
5. Hendiadys of qum lek (1:2) should be translated “go immediately.”
6. The word the NIV translates as “that port” is lit. “Tarshish.”
7. Not to be confused with Paul’s hometown, Tarsus, of Asia Minor. For a discussion of various viewpoints on the location of Jonah’s Tarshish, see David W. Baker, “Tarshish (Place),” ABD, 6:331–33.
8. For further references see Limburg, Jonah: A Commentary, 43.
9. haelohim can be translated either “the true God” or “the gods.”
10. “Occupation” is the feminine noun melaʾkah; “messenger” or “representative” is the masculine noun from the same root, malʾak.
11. The parenthetical comment at 1:10b, “They knew he was running away from the LORD because he had already told them so,” is not a later editor’s hand. An editor would have added it at the end of verse 9 as a quotation (“I am running away from the LORD”). It is a true afterthought of the original hand, added to explain the sailors’ quick understanding and rhetorical question, “What have you done?”
12. On “do not let us die,” see 4:10 on “perish” (ʾabad), which occurs at 1:6, 14; 3:9; 4:10.
13. The distinction between “whale” and “fish” makes little difference for understanding the action in the text. The point is that “the LORD provided” in a “supernatural” way for Jonah’s deliverance from drowning. A whale would have done as well. Ancient peoples did not distinguish fish from mammals in the same way that we do.
14. The original storm wind was “hurled” and not “provided,” but it functions in a similar way.
15. Paul Kleinert, Jonah, trans. by Charles Elliott in Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Minor Prophets (1874; rprt. Grand Rapids, Zondervan, n.d.), 20.
16. E. Achtemeier drew my attention to this warning.
17. See the introduction and the comments on Walt Disney’s version of the Pinocchio story.
18. A whale captain’s report in the latter nineteenth century that a sailor survived such an experience lends fuel to this fire. A. J. Wilson, “The Sign of the Prophet Jonah and Its Modern Confirmations,” Princeton Theological Review 25 (1927): 630–42.
19. See Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1983), ch. 2, for an expansion of the term sui generis.
20. See R. Niebuhr, quoted in Hauerwas, ibid., 32.
21. T. M. Johnson and P. F. Crossing, “Which Peoples Need Priority Attention: Those with the Least Christian Resources,” Mission Frontiers (Jan–Feb 2002): 16–23.
22. See the Contemporary Significance section of ch. 3
23. “Jonah,” in J. D. Douglas, ed., The New Bible Dictionary (Leicester: Intervarsity Press, 1962), 652–54.
24. J. A. Bewer, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jonah (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1912), 64. Another commentator calls Jonah a type of “flinty-hearted Judaism” demonstrating “jealousy sunk into itself.” A. Peake, “Jonah,” in Peake’s Commentary on the Bible (London: Nelson and Sons, 1919), 556.
25. For a comprehensive survey of the anti-Semitic readings of Jonah, see Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives, 64–67.
26. How would Jesus’ message and salvific work have any context or audience if the Jews had not struggled to keep the faith for the hundreds of years between Jonah and Jesus? If they had failed to be faithful, to what people would the Lord have come?
27. Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives, 14. The most accessible discussion of Jerome is in ibid., 14–19.
28. Martin Luther, Luther’s Smaller Catechism (1531), personal trans.
29. The early church father Irenaeus said that Jonah’s unanticipated fish-deliverance is like our unanticipated deliverance from death through the unanticipated resurrection of Jesus (Against Heresies, 3.21.1).
30. M. Luther, cited in Limburg, Jonah, 51.
31. Cf. John Calvin, Commentaries on the Minor Prophets, trans. J. Owen (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 54. For another deliverance from a storm and struggle with faith, see Mark 4:35–41.
1. Note that later (Jonah 4:4–5), he again walks away without responding to Yahweh’s question.
2. Is it a male or female fish? Rabbi Izkakais said that Jonah didn’t pray in the male fish (1:17), which was larger, so it vomited him in the water and a female fish swallowed him. In this smaller place Jonah began to pray.
3. BDB, 589; see Isa. 63:15 and Jer. 31:20.
5. “Sheol” is a synonym of “the pit” and refers to the place of the dead where people are cut off from memory (Ps. 88:11–12), from knowledge (Eccl. 9:10), from return (Job 7:9; 10:22), and from the presence of God (Ps. 88:5, 10–12; 115:17; Isa. 38:18). Sheol is not, however, beyond God’s power (Amos 9:2; Prov. 15:11; Ps. 139:8).
6. Many different organizational patterns have been proposed for this psalm. For a summary of seven of them, see Dorsey, The Literary Structure, 239.
7. The best source for studying Old and New Testament chiasms is Nils W. Lund, Chiasmus in the New Testament: A Study in the Form and Function of Chiastic Structures (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1992).
8. Sometimes the repetition is only recognized in the original Hebrew, since English translations vary.
9. Cf. Ps. 18:6: In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
10. His cry is set apart rhetorically as Jonah quotes himself in the words “I said.”
11. Sheol is the place of the dead under the earth, so “grave” is a good translation. See Gen. 37:35; Num. 16:30; Ps. 88:3–7; Isa. 38:17.
12. See Andrew Thompson, “Salvation Belongs to the Lord.” © 2002. Used by permission. This song puts Jonah’s entire second chapter psalm to music, using the biblical structure. You may listen to this song on the author’s web page: http://www.personal.northpark.edu/jbruckner
13. Isa. 57:1; Jer. 2:2; Hos. 6:4, 6.
14. Elizabeth Achtemeier, Minor Prophets I (NIBC; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson; 1996), 272.
15. Limburg, Jonah, 72. Hosea develops this theme of Israel forsaking God’s ḥesed.
16. For other examples of this type of psalm of praise, see Ps. 18, 30, 32, 92, 118, 138.
17. For a fuller description of the todah offering, see Limburg, Jonah, 67, 70.
18. Ibid., 33.
19. Keil thought Jonah regarded the fish as a convincing “pledge of his future complete deliverance.” The text says nothing about this complete mature faith. Noted in Kleinert, Jonah, 26.
20. Phyllis Trible, “The Book of Jonah” (NIB; Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 7:507.
21. Luther explained that Jonah must have written this later, at home, since its formality does not fit Jonah’s messy situation in the belly of the fish. The text, however, offers no explanation of the kind, letting the tension ride.
22. Trible, “The Book of Jonah,” 7:507.
23. Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives, 258; Trible, “The Book of Jonah,” 7:506–7.
24. Sherwood describes the psalm as Jonah’s “white handkerchief” (A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives, 256).
25. Luke records Jesus’ second interpretation of “Jonah” as a “sign” for his listeners (see Luke 11:29–30). In this passage, Jesus points to the “miracle” of the Ninevites’ repentance.
26. “Swallowed” and “šeʾol” generally go together (see Num. 16:30).
27. Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1953), 10–11.
28. For pure lament see Ps. 88.
29. Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, ed. M. O. Dietrich (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969), 42:99.
1. Luther suggested the possibility that Jonah set out to walk all its streets (see Luther’s Works, ed. H. C. Oswald [St. Louis: Concordia, 1974]), 19:84.
2. “Forty days” is the traditional length of time for reflection and purification (see Ex. 24:18; Num. 13:25; Mark 1:13).
3. The 1978 NIV version and NLT have “Nineveh will be destroyed.” KJV, RSV, NRSV, NASB all have “will be overthrown.” The 1984 NIV version has “overturned,” which is the best word for preserving both necessary possibilities of the Hebrew text.
4. This word play on the root hapak is similar to the English play with “evil” and “live,” which is “evil” spelled backwards. Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives, 121, 236.
5. The Hebrew is a Niphal participle, which may be understood reflexively as well as passively, i.e., “will overturn herself” (“repent”) as well as “will be overturned” (“destroyed”).
6. “Believed in God” is also a possible translation (yaʾaminu beʾlohim with bet of transitivity; cf. Gen. 15:6).
7. According to the historian Herodotus, it was customary for animals to participate in mourning (see, The Histories, trans. R. Waterfield [Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998]), 9.24.
8. In Israel this kind of total national repentance occurs only in Josiah’s reform.
9. The best discussion of the translation issue of “repent” (people) and “relent” (God) is in Kenneth Craig, A Poetics of Jonah—Art in the Service of Ideology, 2d ed. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press, 1997), 34.
10. Another context warrants the translation “vengeance” that God takes against Israel’s enemies for overdoing violence. This is the sense of the name of the book Nahum, which provides “vengeance” against Nineveh for its violence and “comfort” for Israel, who lost ten tribes to Nineveh’s armies and slave markets.
11. Jonah and God will return to their conversation in Jonah 4. If repentance were the only message, the book could have ended with 3:10.
12. See discussion of hapak in the Contemporary Significance section.
13. Limburg, Jonah, 85–87.
14. The kippur is literally the “cover” of the ark, but the association is so strong that the “covering” of sins, or “atonement,” is considered a second meaning of kippur. In the Greek Old Testament the word is hiliasterion, translated “mercy seat.” Paul says that Jesus has become our “mercy seat” or “covering” for sin (Rom. 3:25). The apostle can say therefore, “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14).
15. Uriel Simon, Jonah: The Traditional Hebrew Text, trans. L. J. Schramm (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1999), vii.
16. Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, cited in U. Simon, Jonah, vii.
17. Trible, “The Book of Jonah,” 7:515.
18. Terence E. Fretheim, “The Repentance of God,” in Horizons in Biblical Theology 10 (January 1988): 63.
19. See Fretheim, “The Repentance of God,” 52.
20. John provides assurance for those of tender conscience: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). For the callous of conscience, the freedom of God to judge justly has not been removed.
21. Assyrian Christians today readily point to their faith as inspired by God’s compassion toward Nineveh in sending Jonah to them and in accepting their repentance. The text has a life beyond its original historical boundaries.
22. See Trible, “The Book of Jonah,” 516. She cautions that we should not dismiss the claim of the text because it addresses systemic violence issues and shows the power of the body politic to turn around.
23. “And they believed God” describes the Ninevites as well as Abram and the children of Israel. See Gen. 15:6; Ex. 14:31; Jonah 3:5.
24. Cf. Charles Kraft, Christianity in Culture: A Study in Dynamic Biblical Theologizing in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1979); Alan Neely, Christian Mission: A Case Study Approach (American Society of Missiology Series 21; Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1995).
25. See “Why did Jonah run?” in Jonah 1.
1. See the introduction for historical background on the evil reputation of the Ninevites.
2. Limburg, Jonah, 91.
3. The NIV uses “compassionate” here.
4. See Achtemeier, Minor Prophets I, 258. Note Mal. 3:14: “It is futile to serve God.”
5. Hiphil of the verb yaṭab.
6. In these texts “LORD” (yahweh) is a reminder of the personal redeeming work of God. The more general word “God” (ʾelohim) recalls the Creator.
7. This word means “having tears in one’s eyes” (cf. Jesus’ tears over Jerusalem in Luke 19:41); see Limburg, Jonah, 97.
8. See Bridging Contexts for a discussion of the expression “people who cannot tell their right hand from their left.”
9. A third interpretive possibility is the poetic rendering, who are “as dumb as their cows”; see D. R. Slavitt, The Book of the Twelve Prophets (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000), 68.
10. Cf. 1:2; 3:2, 3; 4:11. Archaeology has confirmed the possibility of a city of 120,000 people.
11. See Achtemeier, Minor Prophets I, 279. Portions of this ancient creed can also be found in Num. 14:18; 2 Chron. 30:9; Ps. 111:4; Micah 7:18; and Nahum 1:3.
12. See 2 Peter 3:3–9, which takes up the same challenging issue.
13. “The Old Comedy … consisted chiefly of political and social satire commonly directed at contemporary men and issues”; see “comedy” in Webster’s New International Dictionary Unabridged, 2d ed. (Springfield, Mass.: G. S. C. Merriam Co., 1947).
14. Job 12:7–12 offers an interesting commentary on the concept of nature teaching us.
15. Simon, Jonah, 47.
16. See Joyce Baldwin, “Jonah,” in The Minor Prophets, ed. Thomas McComisky (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 2:590; Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 234.
17. Limburg, Jonah, 97.
18. Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives, 273.
19. See ibid., 98, for this theme.
20. Thanks to Sherwood, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives, 279–80, for developing this significance.
21. Ibid., 280.
22. Trible, “The Book of Jonah,” 524–25, develops this theme.
23. This is Trible’s apt expression (ibid., 524).
24. Ibid., 525.
25. Terence Fretheim, The Message of Jonah: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1997), 130.
26. Cf. Stanley Hauerwas, With the Grain of the Universe: The Church’s Witness and Natural Theology (Gifford Lectures; Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2001).
27. Simon, Jonah, xiii.
28. See Donald Juel, Mark (Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament; Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1990), 229–35.
29. For an excellent discussion of these issues see James L. Crenshaw, “Theodicy in the Book of the Twelve,” Society of Biblical Literature 2001 Seminar Papers (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001), 1–18.
30. See the Qur’an 101:6–9; 23:62; 45:29.
31. Simon, Jonah, xiii.
1. Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire from 701 B.C. until its destruction in 612 B.C. by the Babylonians. I use “Nineveh” and “Assyria” interchangeably in this commentary.
2. See David A. Dorsey, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 301 n. 1, for a summary of the scholarly discussion on the subdivisions of Nahum.
3. See Jonah 3, Bridging Contexts section, for an extended discussion of “compassion” (naḥam) in the broader biblical context.
4. The NIV has, “He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.”
5. See “The Terror-Mongers of Nineveh, Assyria” in the introduction to Jonah for a description of the methods of torture and sadism for which that empire was notorious.
6. For examples of human cruelty in Assyria and by the Nazis who drew on Assyrian culture, see Jeffrey B. Russell, The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1977), 18, 19, 84–87; and idem, Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1986), see index for “Nazis.”
7. J. P. M. Smith, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah and Joel (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1912), 281.
8. R. Mason, Book List of the SOTS (1988), as quoted in K. Spronk, Nahum (HCOT; Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1997), 14. He has since modified his viewpoint in R. Mason, Micah, Nahum, Obadiah (OTG; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991), 82–83.
1. See the introduction, “Content and Message.”
2. The same root nḥm is in Nahum 3:7, “Where can I find comforters for you?” (see the introduction).
3. See comments in the Bridging Contexts section.
4. The NIV translates the Hebrew of 1:2a well: “The LORD” is “jealous” and responds by “avenging.”
5. The participle noqem is translated “avenging” once and “takes vengeance” twice in the NIV.
6. See Hos. 11:1–12; cf. Eccl. 7:8–9.
7. God is known for his patience in grace and mercy and by his “slowness” to anger. This is true whether the offender is Israel or Nineveh (cf. Rom. 9:22–26).
8. Jer. 1:10; 18:7; 52:14; Ezek. 26:9; cf. Ex. 34:13; Deut. 7:5; 12:3; Ezek. 16:39.
9. The NIV translates ʿabar as follows: “they will … pass away” (Nah. 1:12); “no more will the wicked invade you” (1:15b); and “who has not felt [been overwhelmed by] your endless cruelty?” (3:19).
10. Note that in the Heb. text, ch. 1 ends with v. 14. English versions follow the Greek Bible.
11. In Heb., 1:9 also has the more forceful direct address to the Ninevites: “whatever you plot.” The NIV is the only translation that uses “they”; perhaps this keeps the abrupt change in pronouns from confusing the reader.
12. Note that Nah. 1:11 functions in two ways: as the end to the introduction and the beginning of the personal address to Nineveh (and Judah). This is a typical style in Hebrew prophetic oracles.
13. See Isa. 52:7; Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:15; Eph. 6:15.
14. Eventually, Jesus comes on behalf of “all nations,” as in Matt. 11:17; 28:19; John 11:51–52; Gal. 3:8; Rev. 15:4; 22:2.
15. Elizabeth Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi (Interpretation; Atlanta: Westminster John Knox, 1986), 8–14.
16. Ibid., 11.
17. F. O. Garcia-Treto, “The Book of Nahum” (NIB; Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 7:596–97.
18. See comments on Jonah 3 in the Bridging Contexts section, “Overturning has two possibilities.”
19. See J. K. Bruckner, “Ethics,” in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, ed. David W. Baker (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2002).
20. See Brevard S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament As Scripture (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 444–45; Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 15; Ralph L. Smith, Micah-Malachi (WBC; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1984), 68. Cf. Garcia-Treto, “Nahum,” 603, 606.
21. Tremper Longman III, “Nahum,” in The Minor Prophets, ed. T. McComisky (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 2:776–77.
22. God invites participation (Gen. 18) and offers choice to choose the good and suppress evil (Gen. 4). God gives us freedom and, with it, responsibility. God offers time for repentance (Jonah). Even in Nahum, the prophetic word of judgment comes before the judgment, leaving the door open, that some might turn to God in repentance for salvation.
23. Some readers object to the wrath of God and insist on a soft love that closes its eyes to moral issues in the reader’s life, but that is a sophomoric attitude that neither Old nor New Testament allows.
24. See Habakkuk’s dialogue with God concerning violence, described later in this volume.
25. From The Poems of John Donne, ed. H. J. C. Grierson (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1933), 299.
1. “Shatterer” in the RSV. Hebrew probably is “the one who scatters you.”
2. Nah. 2:1 and 3:11 give nebulous hints of an earthly opponent that Yahweh will use for his opposition.
3. Spronk, Nahum, 99.
4. Some believe this implies their drunkenness. It probably reflects their over-haste.
5. Commentators debate which army is being described in which verse.
7. This involves an emendation that treats the participle behind “it is decreed” as a noun. See discussion in Tremper Longman III, “Nahum,” 806.
8. The Heb. makes the positive intent clear with the words, “she was like a pool of water in her day.”
9. See Deut. 24:20a: “When you beat the olives from your trees [at harvest], do not go over the branches a second time.” Note how Nineveh did this in Nah. 2:2.
10. The Heb. root translated “prey” (ṭrp) occurs two more times, translated “killed” in 2:12 and “victims” in 3:1. The “lion” kills, strangles, and fills his lairs and dens with victims.
11. C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1958), 30, as quoted in J. R. Kohlenberger III, Jonah and Nahum (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984).
12. Compare David Baker, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah: An Introduction and Commentary (TOTC; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 23.
13. See Spronk, Nahum, 17.
14. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 22.
15. Luther, quoted in Spronk, Nahum, 17.
16. Spronk, ibid., 99.
1. See Longman, “Nahum,” 812, for an extended discussion of “woe.”
2. For other examples of woe oracles, see Amos 5:18–20; 6:1–7; Mic. 2:1–4.
3. Cf. Rev. 17:3–6.
4. If “nakedness” or “shame” is understood here as genitalia, the masculine forms in Hebrew should be taken into account with the female image of the harlot.
5. The metaphor of “eating” is continued in Nah. 3:13, 15. See the summary at 1:10.
6. See Longman, “Nahum,” 828, for a summary of the scholarly discussion.
7. ʿabar is a major word theme of Nahum (see 1:8, 12; 2:1; 3:19; see comments at 1:8).
8. Our society, like the ancient societies, steals life from children by not carefully attending to their nurture in gestation or in the critical first three years.
9. For his excellent discussion and interpretive proposals for Nahum I am indebted to Richard Nysse, “Keeping Company with Nahum: Reading the Oracles Against the Nations As Scripture,” in Word and World 15 (Fall 1995): 412–19.
10. The lawful use of force for maintaining security in a community should not be confused with “violence.”
11. Nysse, “Keeping Company with Nahum,” 419.
12. “Batter My Heart,” a sonnet by John Donne; see Grierson, ed., The Poems of John Donne, 299; the poem can also be found at http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/merge.cgi?11.
13. Abraham Lincoln, as found in Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1859–1865 (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1989), 687.
14. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 27.
1. Many scholars consider the name Habakkuk to be an Akkadian loan word for a garden plant. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah: A Commentary (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991), 86.
2. F. F. Bruce, “Habakkuk,” in The Minor Prophets, ed. Thomas McComisky (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 2:832.
3. Cf. Roberts, 83–84; Bruce, 2:833–34; Theodore Hiebert, “The Book of Habakkuk,” (NIB; Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 7:626.
4. See the timeline in the introduction to Jonah.
1. Other translations have “the Chaldeans,” which is a biblical name for the neo-Babylonians, esp. under Nebuchadnezzar’s rule (2 Kings 25:1–13; Ezek. 23:23; Jer. 21:4). The Hebrew (kasdim) is a reference to a region between the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers at the Persian Gulf. See Ralph L. Smith, Micah-Malachi (WBC; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1984), 101.
2. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 96.
3. Ibid., 96.
4. Many versions have “You will not die,” referring to God. The original word is debated, but all ancient manuscripts and versions have “we.” For a shift in scholarly opinion see R. J. Haak, Habakkuk (VTSup 44; Leiden: Brill, 1992), 48. Cf. O. P. Robertson, The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 157.
5. Bruce, “Habakkuk,” 845.
6. For an excellent discussion of suffering and lament, see Daniel Simundson, Where Is God in My Suffering? (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1983).
7. See Ps. 3–7; 13; 17; 22; 25–28; 31; 35; 39; 42–44; 51; 54–57; 59–64; 69–71; 74; 76; 77; 79; 80; 83; 86; 88; 90; 102; 109; 120; 130; 137; 140–43.
8. Rom. 9:19–24; Bruce, “Habakkuk,” 844.
9. Hiebert, “The Book of Habakkuk,” 7:637.
10. Gen. 49:24; Deut. 32:4, 15–18, 30–37; 1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Sam. 22:32, 47; 23:3; Ps. 18:2, 31, 46; 19:14; 27:5; 28:1; 31:2–3; 40:2; 42:9; 61:2; 62:2–7; 71:3; 78:20, 35; 81:16; 89:26; 92:15; 94:22; 95:1; 105:41; 114:8; 144:1; Rom. 9:33; 1 Cor. 10:4; 1 Peter 2:6.
11. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families (New York: Macmillan, 1969).
12. The difference in wording between this rendition and the one we read in Habakkuk exists because Paul is working with the LXX version of Habakkuk. As we know from Qumran, the authoritative text of the Hebrew Scriptures had not yet officially been established. The Heb. word for “scoffers” (bogadim) and “among the nations” (baggoyim) are similar.
13. Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), 28.
14. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 104.
15. See his Histories 4.62, cited in Lawrence Boadt, Jeremiah 26–52, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Nahum (Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1982), 178.
16. Hiebert, “The Book of Habakkuk,” 630.
1. The meaning of the “running” of the herald (or reader) is debated. Possibilities include: (1) that even one running can read it, (2) that the one who reads will run in terror, (3) that the one who reads will live by it, or (4) that the reader’s eye will run easily over it. The NIV is an appropriate translation. The point is that the message is plain so that it may be easily understood by everyone.
2. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 106, 111.
3. Many English translations use the Greek/Syriac and Qumran versions, which have “wealth” (hon) instead of “wine” (hayyayin).
4. In Isa. 28:7–8 Isaiah writes of a similar problem for Israel.
5. The most common form of extortion in the ancient world was to demand tribute in exchange for not leveling a city, as in 597 B.C. Jerusalem. The Babylonians carried off the treasures of the temple and the palace.
6. Hab. 2:15 has a double meaning in Heb. The NIV preserves the originally intended shock value of the actual forced drunkenness. See Bridging Contexts section.
7. See v. 17. This is the second reference to wine (cf. 2:5a).
8. See Isa. 14:8: The whole earth breaks forth into singing at the demise of Babylon; the cedars say, “Now that you have been laid low, no woodsman comes to cut us down” (see also Isa. 10:34; 55:12).
9. In what way will these things terrify and overwhelm them? By the awful realization that they have destroyed what cannot be replaced? By the fear of haunting (probably not an ancient concept for animals!)? Not haunting but rather, a nightmare: The verb for “terrify” (ḥatat) also means “terror of a nightmare.” The text centers on “violence” and “destruction” themselves being overwhelming and terrifying. Yahweh’s cup includes the reality that acts of destruction of any kind are not lost to memory but remain with the perpetrator of the violence. Justice is done in Yahweh’s creation by the reality that disgraceful deeds cannot be undone, but their shame eventually “will overwhelm” the doer.
10. See Heb. 10:38, “My righteous one will live by faith”; Rom. 1:17 and Gal. 3:11, “The righteous will live by faith.”
11. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 105.
13. J. K. Bruckner, “On the One Hand … On the Other Hand: The Two-Fold Meaning of the Law Against Covetousness,” in Hear and Obey: Essays in Honor of Frederick Carlson Holmgren (Chicago: Covenant, 1997), 97–118.
14. Cf. Hiebert, “The Book of Habakkuk,” 7:643.
15. Scholars disagree about the content of the revelation. Is it Hab. 2:4b only, the whole second chapter, or ch. 3? It must be all three: The righteous will live by faith (2:4–5), woe will come to the wicked (2:6–20), and Yahweh will come to judge the earth (3:1–15).
16. Smith, Micah-Malachi, 106.
17. Elizabeth Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi (Interpretation; Atlanta: Westminster John Knox, 1986), 45.
18. Hiebert, “The Book of Habakkuk,” 7:647.
19. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, from the explanation of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed.
1. For a summary of the discussion see F. I. Andersen, Habakkuk: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB; New York: Doubleday, 2001), 259–60. Andersen says that the arguments that the psalm is out of place “have no weight whatsoever.” So also Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 148.
2. “Shigionoth” only occurs here and in Ps. 7:1. Its meaning is uncertain, but it comes from the root šagah, which means “stumbling” or “go astray” and may refer to Habakkuk’s need for guidance from Yahweh.
3. Hab. 3:16 may be part of the third stanza of the song, although it is a response and not part of the description of God’s acts of power.
4. The meaning of the word is not known, but it functions in biblical songs as a musical divider.
5. See Ex. 15:3–12; 19:16–19; Judg. 5:4–5; Ps. 18:6–19; 68:4–19.
6. As the expectation of the Messiah intensified in Second Temple Judaism, texts that originally were references to the anointed king were reinterpreted as psalms of expectation of the coming King.
7. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 158.
8. Albright, cited in Bruce, “Habakkuk,” 890.
9. Andersen, Habakkuk, 326.
10. Athanasius, On the Incarnation, ed. and trans. by Sister P. Lawson (New York: Macmillan, 1981).
11. Donald Juel, The Gospel of Mark (Interpreting Biblical Texts; Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 59, 147–48.
12. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 54.
13. See Luther’s “Small Catechism.”
14. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 56.
15. Andersen, Habakkuk, 261–62.
16. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R. H. Fuller (New York: SCM Press, 1995), 89.
17. Many other commentators have previously noted this connection. Public domain.
18. William P. Brown, Obadiah Through Malachi (Westminster Bible Commentary; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996), 97.
19. J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 107–8.
1. Many of these phrases are noted by Adele Berlin, Zephaniah: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1994), 12.
2. Zephaniah is the last book in the prophetic canon sequence that addresses a predestruction Judah.
3. J. Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988), 127.
4. Berlin, Zephaniah, 81–82. She notes similar patterns in Job 3; Jer. 4:23–28; and Hos. 4:1–3.
5. See the Original Meaning section of Nah. 1:1–3a.
6. The book of Chronicles has the first of Josiah’s changes in the twelfth year of his reign.
7. For a good discussion of the issues of dating Zephaniah, see Berlin, Zephaniah, 33–42.
8. J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah: A Commentary (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991), 166.
9. Ralph L. Smith, Micah-Malachi (WBC; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1984), 120.
1. Jerusalem surrendered to the Babylonians in 597 B.C. after a year of siege and starvation. Zephaniah’s warning echoed for about thirty years before that “day of darkness.”
2. In each case the “iah” is transliterated from “yah,” which is short for Yahweh. The tradition of treating “Yahweh” as a name too holy to be spoken (lest his name be taken in vain) is preserved in English translations by using the capitalized “LORD” in its place.
3. See Introduction, “Historical Context.”
4. In the rest of Zephaniah, the NIV English words “earth,” (Zeph. 1:18; 3:20), “land” (2:3, 5, 11; 3:19), and “world” (1:18; 3:8) come from the Heb. ʾereṣ. It is translated “world” and “earth” in 1:18 but may also be translated, “In the fire of his jealously, the whole country will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end to all who live in the land.”
5. More offenses are listed in 3:1–4.
6. Scholars do not agree on the association of these gods. The correspondence of Molech with Milcam is implied in the NIV translation (Milcam=Molech). Both are called Ammonite gods in 1 Kings 11:5–7. See the variety of opinions in George Heider, “Molech,” ABD, 4:895–98.
7. J. Alec Motyer, “Zephaniah,” in The Minor Prophets, ed. Thomas McComisky (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 3:913.
8. For “the day of the LORD” in Zephaniah, see Zeph. 1:18. For the concept of “nearness,” see 3:15.
9. See the further reference to the “sacrifice” at 3:18, where Yahweh removes the sorrow over this “appointed time.”
10. This root (meaning “cut off”) occurs seven times in Zephaniah: 1:3, 4, 11; 3:6, 7. In 2:5, 6 it constitutes the name Kerethite or Cretan.
11. This pattern repeats a similar progression in 1:4–6, which moves from the most heinous worship offenders to those who simply did not “seek the LORD nor inquire of him.” The two sets of progressive judgments are separated by the central verse, “Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near” (1:7).
12. See Jer. 48:11 for an expanded use of the metaphor of “wine on its dregs.”
13. Jeremiah spoke to the same problem and the same solution. Yahweh will bring Babylon to their door (Jer. 5:12–19).
14. “Near” also at Zeph. 1:7; see the contrast of “nearness” in 3:15–17.
15. Yahweh’s jealousy and wrath are mentioned in Zeph. 1:18; 2:1–3; 3:6–10.
16. Elizabeth Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi (Interpretation; Atlanta: Westminster John Knox, 1986), 66–67.
17. Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:918.
18. Ibid., 3:922.
19. Note how Paul’s argument in Rom. 1–3 culminates in the well-known 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
20. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 65.
21. A similar theme of mutual encouragement against the day of the Lord in 1 Thess. 5:1–11 is read with Zeph. 1:12–18 in some lectionaries. Also read is the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1–13) concerning the uncertain timing of that day and the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14–29) concerning the investment of time and resources while waiting for that day.
22. Moyter, “Zephaniah,” 3:921.
23. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 69.
24. Ibid., 71.
25. This is Webster’s definition.
26. See J. K. Bruckner, “On the One Hand … On the Other Hand: The Two-Fold Meaning of the Law Against Covetousness,” in Hear and Obey: Essays in Honor of Frederick Carlson Holmgren (Chicago: Covenant, 1997), 97–118.
1. For the expressions “the appointed time,” “that day,” and “the day of the LORD,” see comments on Zeph. 1:14.
2. ʿabar is translated “wrath” by the NIV in 1:15, 18. The third word (zaʿam) is translated “wrath” and has the sense of “indignation” (see comments on 3:8).
3. See the introduction, “Jealousy and Wrath of Yahweh.” Yahweh’s jealousy and wrath are mentioned in 1:18; 2:1–3; 3:6–10.
4. Some publishers include 2:4 with 2:1–3 as one paragraph. The NIV uses it as an introduction to the “woe.” In either case it is a transition sentence. The “for” (ki) in Hebrew is adversative (“but”) or asseverative (“surely”) and not causal (“because”).
5. From “Palestine” comes the name of the land’s more recent Arabic residents, the Palestinians.
6. Gath is the only major Philistine city not mentioned here.
7. They also lived in the south of Palestine. Some Cretans/Kerethites joined David’s mercenary troops (see 1 Sam. 30:14; 2 Sam. 8:18; 15:18; 20:7).
8. C. Westermann, cited in Smith, Micah-Malachi, 135.
9. The name ʾelohim occurs four times in Zephaniah: Zeph. 2:7, 9; 3:2, 17.
10. Sabaoth (common spelling for ṣebaʾot) means of “hosts,” a reference to the angelic hosts as well as the hosts of heaven or stars.
11. The challenge of Isaiah’s preaching to the exiles was for them to see their God’s creating hand in creation, even as captives without a country or temple (see Isa. 40:12–31; 42:5–17).
12. When Jesus says the same thing, he is accused of blasphemy in John 8:58.
13. “Apology of the Augsburg Confession” in The Book of Concord, trans. and ed. by T. G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1959), 112.
14. Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:934.
15. Yahweh’s use of his own creation does not blunt his agency in destroying the arrogant.
16. God’s actions are “firmly bedded in the historical process” (Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:938).
17. Ibid., 3:938.
18. Noted in Zeph. 1:2–3; cf. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 65.
19. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 189.
20. The suffering they did endure is described in detail in the poetry of Lamentations. Jeremiah’s faithful response in the midst of horrific suffering may be found in Lam. 3:18–26.
21. Robert Bennett, “The Book of Zephaniah” (NIB; Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 7:692.
22. Ibid., 7:692.
23. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 74.
24. For the variety of Christian uses of the 613 Old Testament laws see J. K. Bruckner, “Ethics,” in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, ed. David W. Baker (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2002).
25. Brown, Obadiah Through Malachi, 108.
26. Cf. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 76. Also see Matt. 5:1–12.
27. The expression “restore their fortunes” is widely debated. Lit., it means “return captivity,” but it has a broader sense of restoring former societal order (see Smith, Micah-Malachi, 136).
28. Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:937.
1. Most translators divide the two sections between Zeph. 3:7 and 8 at “therefore.” I have divided it in the middle of the bridge, between verses 8 and 9, dividing the judgment (“consumed by fire”) from the promise introduced by “then will I purify.”
2. “The LORD” is a third person subject in 3:1–5, 14–17 and a first person subject in 3:6–10, 11–13, 18–20.
3. English does not translate the Hebrew preposition “in her midst” (beqirbah). See the use of this word throughout Zephaniah, discussed in the Bridging Contexts section “Nearness.”
4. Compare Hab. 1:8, where the Babylonians are “fiercer than wolves at dusk.”
5. Berlin, Zephaniah, 129.
6. The NIV alone supplies the abrupt future tense in Zeph. 3:6b. “No one will be left.” The Heb. does not have a verb or tense change here. This insertion draws attention from Yahweh’s destruction of nations in the past, to the destruction of nations prophesied for the future (2:4–15, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Cush, and Assyria). The shift in tense may be warranted by the allusion to ch. 2 made in the phrase “streets deserted, with no one passing through” (3:6b). This reminds the reader of “utterly desolate” and the description of Nineveh’s bird-echoing windows (2:14) and shifts the attention there.
7. The root occurs five times and is translated “punish” in 1:8, 9, 12; “care for” in 2:7; and “punishments” here.
8. For the meaning of the “whole world,” see comments on 1:2–3 and in the introduction. See 1:18 for comments on “jealous anger.”
9. The glowing terms describing their purity and unity, however, did not match their experience. See the Bridging Contexts section for a discussion of the fulfillment of this prophecy (see the book of Nehemiah).
10. See comments on the same root used in Jonah 3:4.
11. “No wrong” (loʾ … ʿawlah) means no unjust actions, usually in relation to care for the powerless.
12. See the Bridging Contexts section of Zeph. 2.
13. “Punishment” is mišpat, a reference to Yahweh’s earlier decision (also mišpat) in Zeph. 3:8, “I have decided … to pour out my wrath.” This decision (rather than “punishment”) comes to an end for the remnant that trusts in Yahweh. It is a decision that leads to blessing.
14. Many English translations place the first half of v. 18 with the previous sentence, but the NIV rightly follows the Heb. verses.
15. In the NIV this verse has a text note that says, “Or ‘I will gather you who mourn for the appointed feasts; your reproach is a burden to you.’” This alternate reading better communicates the original context referent, but would be more accurate if “feasts” were singular (“feast”), as is the Heb.
16. Paul quotes Deut. 30:12–14.
17. Motyer, “Zephaniah,” 3:945.
18. Brown, Obadiah Through Malachi, 116.
19. The Covenant Hymnal: A Worshipbook (Chicago: Covenant Publications, 1966), #435. Used by permission.
20. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 81.
21. Achtemeier rightly notes that “justice signifies God’s order in the natural world” (ibid., 81).
22. See also the conflict over Moses’ Ethiopian wife in Num. 12:1–10.
23. Bennett, “The Book of Zephaniah,” 7:700.
24. Achtemeier, Nahum-Malachi, 86.