1. Please note that when the author discusses words in the original biblical languages, this series uses the general rather than the scholarly method of transliteration.
1. For a sobering look at the number and power of such swarms, see the following website from the United Nations (http://www.fao.org/). See also J. A. Lockwood, Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier (New York: Basic, 2004).
2. J. L. Crenshaw, Joel (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1995), 46–47.
3. S. L. McKenzie, “Joel (PERSON),” ABD, 3:873.
4. Philip C. Schmitz, “Sidon (Place),” ABD, 6:18.
5. H. J. Katzenstein, “Philistines,” ABD, 5:326–28. The only remaining legacy of the Philistines is in the name “Palestine.”
6. John Bright, A History of Israel, 4th ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000), 322, n. 33.
7. Crenshaw, Joel, 25 and n. 25.
8. See “Egypt, History of,” esp. the section of A. Spalinger, “3rd Intermediate—Saite Period (Dyn. 21–26),” ABD, 2:356–67.
9. P.-A. Beaulieu, The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556–539 B.C. (YNER 10; New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1989), 166.
10. J. R. Bartlett, “Edom,” ABD, 2:293–94.
11. H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977), 3.
12. Ibid., 3.
13. Crenshaw, Joel, 24.
14. Ezek. 6:7, 13; 7:4, 9; 11:10, 12; 13:14; 14:8; 15:7; 17:21; 20:38, 42, 44; 22:22; 25:5; 35:9; 37:6, 13, 14; cf. also Ex. 6:7; 10:2; 16:12; 1 Kings 20:28.
15. S. A. Meier, Speaking of Speaking: Marking Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Bible (VTSup 46; Leiden: Brill, 1992), 213. For the fullest treatment of this topic, see S. Bergler, Joel als Schriftinterpret (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1988).
16. Willem S. Prinsloo, The Theology of the Book of Joel (BZAW 163; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1985), 92.
17. Ronald Simkins, Yahweh’s Activity in History and Nature in the Book of Joel (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1991), 203–4; J. Barton, Joel and Obadiah: A Commentary (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 5–7.
18. For a list of examples, see G. A. Mikre-Selassie, “Repetition and Synonyms in the Translation of Joel with Special Reference to the Amharic Language,” BT 36 (1985): 230–37.
19. Wolff, Joel, 7–8.
20. B. S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 389.
21. See J. D. Nogalski, “The Day(s) of YHWH in the Book of the Twelve,” in Thematic Threads in the Book of the Twelve, ed. Paul L. Redditt and Aaron Schart (BZAW 325; Berlin, de Gruyter, 2003), 200.
22. L. F. Bliese, “Metrical Sequences and Climax in the Poetry of Joel, Occasional Papers in Translation and Textlinguistics 2.4 (1988): 74. There is also evidence that the concept unites the entirety of the twelve Minor Prophets; see Nogalski, “The Day(s),” 192–93 and bibliography.
23. See commentaries on Obadiah, 182, and Malachi, 271.
24. This has been referred to as Joel’s multireferential nature (R. C. van Leeuwen, “Scribal Wisdom and Theodicy in the Book of the Twelve,” In Search of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of John G. Gammie, ed. L. G. Perdue et al. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993), 40, n. 32.
25. It continues in importance in other prophetic books as well (e.g., Zech. 1:14, 17; 9:9, 13), and on into the New Testament (e.g., Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1).
1. Barton, Joel, 5.
1. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 12.
2. See K. Marti, Das Dodekapropheton (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1904), 116.
3. Wolff, Joel, 25; cf. Barton, Joel, 41.
4. Crenshaw, Joel, 86; D. A. Hubbard, Joel and Amos: An Introduction and Commentary (TOTC; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 41; Barton, Joel, 41.
5. Cf. David Prior, The Message of Joel, Micah & Habakkuk (BST; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 22–23.
6. The use of the disjunctive coordinator weʾim between the two phrases (F. I. Andersen, The Sentence in Biblical Hebrew [The Hague: Mouton, 1974], 148) shows that more is involved here than simple conjunction, presenting options (“a or b”). Here there seems to be intensification (“a or even b”). Wolff (Joel, 17) suggests that the specific disjunctive interrogative form used here (ba— … weîm) is late. It is found in earlier documents as well, however (e.g., Gen. 18:21; 42:16; 2 Sam. 24:12; cf. G. W. Ahlström, Joel and the Temple Cult of Jerusalem [VTSup 21; Leiden: Brill, 1971], 3).
7. C.-A. Keller, “Joël,” in Osée, Joël, Abdias, Jonas, Amos (CAT; Neuchatel: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1965), 109.
8. See BDB. This is accentuated by the prefixed ʾ, which can strengthen the word (see Waltke-O’Connor, 91). For cognates in other Semitic languages, see HALOT.
10. BDB. HALOT suggests cognates in Syriac (“to stop”), Arabic (“to eat away”), and the Canaanite from the Amarna tablets (“to raid”); E. Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 226.
11. See Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1966), 124.
12. For a discussion of various identification options, see Wolff, Joel, 27–28; Simkins, Yahweh’s Activity, 101–20; Edwin Firmage, “Zoology,” ABD, 6:1151–59.
13. See Crenshaw, Joel, 91–94; Barton, Joel, 43–45.
14. Keller, “Joël,” 109.
15. Crenshaw, Joel, 94.
16. Wine’s occurrence here at both the start and end of the prophecy forms a chiasm; see Bliese, “Metrical Sequences,” 56.
17. Gôy, used 10 times in the book.
18. ʿam, used 15 times in Joel; cf. also Prov. 30:25, 26.
19. ḥaytô-gôy, which the LXX takes as “beasts of the earth”; BHS suggests it might be a transliteration of Hebrew gayʾ (“valley”).
20. Bliese (“Metrical Sequences,” 56, 72) suggests another chiasm with the roaring (lion) in Joel 3:18. “Lion” is not explicit there, only its roaring. He notes the reversal from the destructive presence here and the saving presence there.
21. For the emphatic intensification of the form of infinitive absolute + perfect, see T. Muraoka, Emphatic Words and Structures in Biblical Hebrew (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1985), 87.
22. Mikre-Selassie, “Repetition and Synonyms,” 230.
23. Wolff (Joel, 29) suggests that the subject is “the daughter of my people,” based on Jer. 6:6, though there is no evidence for the suggestion.
24. Ordinarily the root used here (ʿlh) means “curse” (DCH, 1:272, where a homonym “mourn” is suggested for this verse alone, apparently based on sense; see too HALOT), which is inappropriate for this context.
25. Crenshaw, Joel, 97.
26. Cf. L. J. Braaten, “God Sows: Hosea’s Land Theme in the Book of the Twelve,” in Redditt, Thematic Threads, 126.
27. Wolff, Joel, 29.
28. In Akkadian, saqqu is also listed among items of fine clothing, such as those included in a dowry (CAD, 15, 168–69), so it does not, at least in that context, have the negative connotation that English has derived from Hebrew.
29. NLT, GNB; Wolff, Joel, 30. The LXX reads “the husband of her maidenhood,” i.e., the one who took her virginity, namely, her first husband.
30. The term is also used in secular contexts for a gift, present, or tribute; HALOT, 601.
31. A different word (yiṣhār) is used in this verse. It will be discussed below.
32. The third clause has a linking, supraclausal particle kî (“because”).
33. 2–2 / 3–3 / 2–2 / 2–2 / 2–2.
34. The litany of destruction shows literary craftsmanship through the Hebrew sounds. Those that would have struck the ear are underlined in the transcription that follows, where each strophe is separated: šuddad śādeh / ʾābelâ ʾ adāmâ / kî šuddad dāgān / hôbîš tîrôš / ʾumlal yiṣhār. The recurring initial vowel /u/ also links clause 1–3–5.
35. Crenshaw, Joel, 99; see the NIV note with “dried up.”
36. kōrmîm, “vine-dressers,” an artificial participial form from kerem, “vineyard.”
37. DCH, 4:77; HALOT. This verb is a biform of the much more common root bôš, which carries the same meaning (Joel 2:26, 27). This verb is used of farm laborers in Jer. 14:4.
38. Marti, Dodekapropheton, 121; DCH, 4:77 for Joel 1:10, 11, 12, 17.
39. The harvesting seasons for barley (cf. Ruth 2:23) and wheat (cf. Gen. 30:14; Judg. 15:1) were listed sequentially in the Gezer Calendar (COS, 2, 222). The relative harvesting dates are also evident in Ex. 9:31–32.
40. “Vine,” Joel 1:7; 2:22; “fig tree,” 1:7; 2:22; cf. also “field,” 1:10, 19; “dry up,” twice in two Hebrew stems, Hiphil in 1:10, 11 and Qal, 1:20; “wither,” translated “fails” in 1:10.
41. For the fruits mentioned here, see Oded Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1987), 116–17, 126–30; cf. John Goldingay, After Eating the Apricot (Carlisle: Solway, 1996).
42. E.g., the olive and sycamore (see 1 Chron. 27:28; Ps. 78:47; Amos 7:14), a different species than that found in North America, which also produces an edible fig (see Borowski, Agriculture, 117–26, 128–29, respectively).
43. The last five words of the preceding clause and the first three of this are: kol-ʿ aṣê haśśādeh yābēšû / kî hôbîš śâśôn. There is much repetition of actual letters or phonetically similar elements (sibilants, vowel classes) within these few words. There is also a chiasm, pivoting on two stems of the same verbal root.
44. The NIV took the initial conjunction of the last clause (kî) as emphatic (“surely”), though many of the other uses of this conjunction have been interpreted as causal (“because”). C. Frankfort, “Le kî de Joel I 12,” VT 10 (1960): 445–48, suggests that a causal sense carries through here as well; the farm laborers lost the joy of their work because of the loss of their other crops, so they let their fruit trees go to ruin.
45. The LXX reads simply “God,” but all other occurrences of “God” in Joel have a pronominal suffix—3mp (2:17), 1cp (1:16) or, more regularly, 2mp (1:13, 14; 2:13, 14, 23, 26, 27; 3:17). The occurrence of the same noun with “my” and “your” in the same verse is irregular. Wolff’s proposal of “your house of God” (Joel, 19) would solve this difficulty.
46. In addition to the biblical passages exemplifying this ritual of sackcloth, see also the practice within the later Jewish community in fifth-century B.C. Israel (A. Cowley, Jewish Documents of the Time of Ezra (New York: MacMillan, 1919), 73, lines 15, 20.
47. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 24.
48. This interjection is usually followed immediately by the person addressed (Judg. 11:35; 2 Kings 6:5, 15), most commonly “my Lord Yahweh” (e.g., Josh. 7:7; Judg. 6:22). For a survey of passages in which it occurs, see Siegfried Bergler, Joel als Schriftinterpret (BEATAJ 16; Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1988), 78–84.
49. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, §83, 85 respectively. This could also be an example of what Williams calls the “distinctive,” i.e., “the God” (§88).
50. The morphological form of krt is ambiguous—either 3ms Niphal perfect in pause or a Niphal ms participle. In either case, however, the Day would have already arrived.
51. See among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 11QT 47:6, 13; 4Q370.
52. Cf. also 1:12, where the same theme had been expressed with different words.
53. ʿênênû (“our eyes”) / ʾ elôhênû (“our God”).
54. Of the 25 words and particles, 14 are not repeated anywhere else in Joel. Four are used only here in the Old Testament.
55. Simkins, Yahweh’s Activity, 146–47, suggests leaving the first clause untranslated.
56. See BDB; HALOT; NASB; NIV; NJPS; NRSV.
57. See KJV; ASV. See Wolff, Joel, 19, for a comparison of the versions.
58. HALOT, 963, prefers “that which was put aside,” referring to the seed grain for the next year’s planting.
59. See KJV; ASV; NASB; NJPS; NIV; NRSV; cf. GNB, NLT (dry/parched ground).
60. See BDB; HALOT, 546 (based on Syriac and Arabic).
61. See O. Borowski, Every Living Thing: Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira, 1998).
62. Better translated “livestock,” since the term is broader than simply bovines.
63. The last verb, neʾšāmû, has also been understood as nāšammû, “be made desolate” (from the root šmm, Joel 1:7, 17, etc.; LXX, BHS, HALOT; DCH, 1:415; 2:127). This reading might be preferred since this verb does occur in the context (though the MT root does not have this type of metaphorical extension to animals elsewhere), and it makes better theological sense, especially since no human wrongdoing had been adduced as precipitating the devastation so far in the prophecy.
64. Frankfort, “Le kî de Joel I 12,” 447.
65. E.g., 1:10, 12, 16 and notes there.
66. See J. de Waard and W. A. Smalley, A Translator’s Handbook on the Book of Amos (Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, 1979), 192.
67. See Carey Ellen Walsh, The Fruit of the Vine: Viticulture in Ancient Israel (HSM 60; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2000), 209–47, concerning the consumption of wine.
68. See the Gezer Calendar, which had “two months for grape harvesting” (COS, 2, 222). This seems to be the time of “ingathering” (Ex. 23:16), which is placed at the end of the Israelite agricultural calendar.
69. See Walsh, The Fruit of the Vine, 142–65. For a thorough discussion of the harvesting process, see 167–86.
70. See D. J. Clark, “Wine on the Lees (Zeph. 1.12 and Jer. 48.11),” BT 32/2 (1981): 241; P. J. King and L. E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 99–101; DDD, 871–72.
71. This is stated as the reason for creating humanity in the Epic of Atraḫasis as well as in the Babylonian creation account Enuma Elish, see COS, 1, 402, 450.
73. See, e.g., A. K. Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions I: From the Beginning to Ashur-resha-ishi I (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1972), 7, 9, 88.
74. Ibid., 80, 102; A. K. Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions II: From Tiglath-Pileser I to Ashur-nasir-apli (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1976), 18.
75. E.g., A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (TCS 5; Locust Valley, N.Y.: J. J. Augustin, 1975), 79, 86, 88, 91.
76. “Irreverently, he put an end to the regular offerings.… Marduk [the chief god] … surveyed and looked throughout all the lands, searching for a righteous king whom he could support. He called out his name: Cyrus” (COS, 2, 315).
77. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 27.
78. This understanding of Canaanite religion has recently been questioned (see, e.g., W. Hermann, DDD, 138).
79. See Borowski, Agriculture, 88; Ferdinand Deist, The Material Culture of the Bible: An Introduction (Biblical Seminar 70; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 185; cf. David W. Baker, “Agriculture,” DOTP, 21–26.
80. “The Spirit Song,” words written by Peter Scholtes (Los Angeles: F.E.L., 1966).
81. For a helpful discussion of the topic from an “open” perspective, see A. S. Bustanoby, The Wrath of Grapes: Drinking and the Church Divided (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987).
82. See D. W. Baker, “Leviticus,” Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (Wheaton: Tyndale, forthcoming).
83. Revised edition (New York: Harper Collins, 1953), chapters on “The Glittering Cloud” (192–205) and “Grasshoppers Walking” (259–67).
84. See http://www.ccel.org/e/edwards/sermons/sinners.html for a copy of the sermon.
85. E.g., Dorothy Day’s article “Our Country Passes from Undeclared to Declared War; We Continue our Christian Pacifist Stand,” from early in the Second World War (The Catholic Worker [January 1942] 1, 4 [http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/daytext.cfm?TextID=868]).
86. See Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 17.
1. The morphological form of the verb used here is ambiguous, either a perfect (“past tense”) or a participle (present continuous) form. This ambiguity may have been playing in the writer’s mind, since the locust swarm had already come (perfect), but it and its effects were by no means over (participle) (cf. 2:31; 3:14; see Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 41, n. 5).
2. Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 64, n. 3, suggests that the end of v. 1 should have been here.
3. šaḥar has been read here in two, seemingly opposite, ways: as “dawn, daybreak” (LXX, ASV, KJV, NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) or “darkness” (ESV, NRSV, GNB, NJPS [soot]; based on a revocalization like that suggested by BHS as kišeḥōr, “soot” [Lam. 4:8]). The MT vocalization shows that the Masoretes prefer the former option, though the context of this verse leans toward the latter, providing a tie to the first part of the verse.
4. At least two derivations for Eden have been suggested. The word in some contexts connotes joy and delight (Ps. 36:8; Jer. 51:34; cf. the Akkadian cognate suggested by A. R. Millard, “The Etymology of Eden,” VT 34 [1984], 105), leading to the concept of Eden as a paradise (see LXX of Gen. 2:15). Others have suggested a derivation from Sumerian EDIN (“steppe, plain”) through Akkadian edinu (CAD, 4:33) to Hebrew (BDB). Both derivations serve equally well in the context of our verse, since either special delicacies or the abundant grass needed for livestock will be greatly missed if destroyed.
5. Neither passage is an exact parallel. It seems that Joel conflates them. Underlining indicates exact verbal parallels with Joel, and italics indicate equivalent variants in these literal renditions: Isa. 51:3: “he will establish her garden like Eden”; Ezek. 36:35: “this ruined land was like the garden of Eden.”
6. See the introduction for a discussion of borrowing and relative dates.
7. Mary A. Littauer and J. H. Crouwel, “Chariots,” ABD, 1:890; Barry J. Beitzel, “Travel and Communication (OT World),” ABD, 6:645.
8. In Ps. 114:4, 6, the mountains themselves skip around.
9. Cf. the regional famine that drove Jacob’s family to Egypt finally also struck Egypt (Gen. 41:54–55).
10. HALOT, 908 (pʾr II) as “show glory.” Cf. 909 for a discussion of possible etymologies for this word.
11. See KJV, JB: “gather blackness”; cf. NWT: “collect a glow.”
12. The verse shows a partial chiasm of sound as well as syntax, which diagrammatically looks like this, with sound parallels underlined:
mippānāyw
yāḥîlû (verb)
ʿammîm (subject noun)
kol-pannîm (subject noun)
qibbeṣû (verb)
pāʾrûr
13. The first two clauses of the verse use plural forms of the nouns, indicating ordinary countable plurality. Then the two nouns are given in their singular forms, which is a means of indicating distribution, that is, “each, every” (DCH, 1:221–22; 3:313). They are presented in these two verses in reverse order, mighty one-men-each/every man-each/every mighty (one), another modified chiasm.
14. The two Hebrew verbs are used interchangeably with heavens and earth.
15. Taken from the title of a book by Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising (New York: Macmillan, 1973).
16. With the stage set for the series by the strong picture of it in the first book of the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1950, and subsequent reprints).
17. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954); The Two Towers (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954); Return of the King (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1955).
18. Starting with J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (London; Bloomsbury, 1997; published in the U.S. as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone [New York: Scholastic Press/Levine Books, 1999]), with subsequent novels and the movies being made from them.
19. E.g., The Planet of the Apes, Dr. Strangelove, and the Gilgamesh Epic.
20. See John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul (trans E. Allison Peers; Garden City, N.J.: Image, 1959). See also E. Underhill, Evelyn Underhill: Selected Writings, ed. E. Griffin (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2003); G. May, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection between Darkness and Spiritual Growth (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004).
1. For a discussion of the clause and its use, see Meier, Speaking of Speaking, 298–314.
2. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 59.
3. The only difference between the two passages is in the final verb “have pity,” which are phonetically identical in both but morphologically distinct (in Jonah a 3ms perfect form and in Joel a ms participle). The noun “disaster, evil, calamity” (Joel 2:13) also occurs in Jonah in reference to this same episode in his life (Jon. 3:10).
4. Deist, Material Culture, 167, n. 2, suggests that the word regularly translated “blessing” (berākâ) could in this and several other contexts (Lev. 25:21; Ezek. 44:30; Mal. 3:10) have been seen as “(reciprocal) gift,” an equal response to an action of another.
5. Joel 1:14 has nouns 2, 3, 6 (cf. 1:2, 14); 2:1 has noun 1; 2:2 has noun 4. Two of the previously encountered noun-verb combinations are not repeated here.
6. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 52.
7. There does not appear to be any distinction between the two words Joel uses. “Children” is etymologically related to suckling infants and animals (HALOT, 797), while the latter word clearly has that connotation.
8. “Your people” and “your inheritance” are the only words in Joel with the 2ms pronominal suffix, compared to 37 uses of the 2mp pronominal suffix. “Your inheritance” with its suffix occurs a total of nine times in the Old Testament, referring either to a people (Israel: Ps. 74:2; 106:5; Isa. 63:17; Mic. 7:14; others: Ps. 2:8) or a place (Ex. 15:17; Ps. 68:10). The juxtaposition of these two terms occurs also in Ps. 28:9, another prayer for help and salvation. In the first prayer the speaker is self-identified as “us” (Joel 1:16).
9. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 56.
10. Unfortunately, even today most groups use terms referring to those different from them in a derogatory fashion, the subject of humor, and the means of insult. This is evident in the saying quoted in Titus 1:12 about the nature of Cretans; Jesus countered such stereotyping through the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37; cf. 17:16).
11. In several different Hebrew verb stems (P= piel; N= nifal; T= hitpael), for example Gen. 24:67[N]; 37:35[N,T]; 2 Sam. 13:39[P]; cf. Ps. 77:2[N]; Isa. 40:1[P, P]; 49:13[P]; Jer. 31:13[P]; Ezek. 14:22[P], 23[P].
12. Gen. 6:6–7; Ex. 32:12–14; 1 Sam. 15:35.
13. See in particular the works of Clark Pinnock (e.g., Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God’s Openness [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001]); John Sanders (e.g., The God Who Risks: A Theology of Providence [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998]; with C. A. Hall, Does God Have a Future? A Debate on Divine Providence [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003]); and Gregory Boyd (e.g., God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000]; idem, Is God to Blame? Moving Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Evil [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003]).
14. For a useful introduction to the topic, identifying various players and options, see B. B. Colijn, “Open Theism: Framing the Discussion,” ATJ 34 (2002): 55–65.
15. The Westminster Confession states: “There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable” (Chapter II).
16. Cf. N. L. Geisler and H. W. House, The Battle for God: Responding to the Challenge of Neotheism (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2001), 71, 272–74. Regarding anthropomorphic/ anthropopathic or analogical language, see, e.g., K. Vanhoozer, ed., Nothing Greater, Nothing Better: Theological Essays on the Love of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001).
17. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 58.
18. A powerful picture of the outworking of this kind of perspective and its place within a Christian understanding of the world can be seen in the fictional writings of Charles Williams, a friend and writing companion of C. S. Lewis, most particularly in All Hallow’s Eve (London: Faber & Faber, 1945; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981).
19. See Bridging Contexts section of Mal. 3:6–12.
20. M. M. Shideler, The Theology of Romantic Love: A Study of the Writings of Charles Williams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), 137.
21. Reported in L. Crabb, Inside Out (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1988), 150.
22. Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who (New York: Random House, 1954).
1. The same plea-response form is found Ps. 22 on the personal level, and in Ps. 60:1–5, 6–8; 65:1–7, 8–13; 2 Chron. 30:6–13, 14–17, on the national level; cf. Wolff, Joel, 58.
2. E.g., B. Duhm, “Anmerkungen zu den Zwölf Propheten,” ZAW 31 (1911): 184–88.
3. See the same order of land, then people, who are restored in 2 Chron. 7:13–14; Braaten, “God Sows,” 126, notes that in this section of Joel it is land (Joel 2:21), animals (v. 22), people (v. 23).
4. The verbal form used here is unusual, following a form that most regularly occurs in narratives. Note the NIV’s alternate translation in the textual note on v. 19. The use of the perfect here may be a “persistent perfect,” describing a permanent characteristic of God (his jealousy) that is past, present, and future.
5. Cf. Ahlström, Joel and the Temple Cult, 132; Keller, Joël,” 102; Wolff, Joel, 67; Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 63.
6. See G. J. Wenham, “The Coherence of the Flood Narrative,” VT 28 (1978): 336–48[338].
7. E. R. Wendland, “Recursion in the Prophecy of Joel: Its Form, Function, and Significance for the Translator,” United Bible Society Triennial Workshop manuscript, Stuttgart (1984) 24; cited in Bliese, “Metrical Sequences,” 74.
8. Dryness here uses a different root (ṣyh) than that used previously, but the concept is the same. Cf. D. W. Baker, “Aspects of Grace in the Pentateuch,” ATJ 29 (1997): 7–22, concerning the concept of appropriateness in this type of situation.
9. See Allen, Joel, 89; Crenshaw, Joel, 152.
10. Môreh (“autumn rain”) is also used of a “teacher” (Isa. 30:20). A combination of the two terms could be taken as “teacher for righteousness” (Joel 2:23, Young’s; NIV mg.).
11. Cf. Allen, Joel, 93 and n. 29.
12. Ahlström, Joel and the Temple Cult, 6–7; see also Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 69.
13. Williams, §438; Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 69.
14. While there were strong similarities between these, internal variations indicate that they were not simply copies from some source, whether one of these passages or some other.
15. Note the NASB here: “It will come about after this.”
16. There is here a play on the various meanings of “spirit” in Hebrew, which can also mean “wind, breath.” As God’s Spirit here will bring blessing on all, so at the time of the Exodus, it was a “wind” brought by God that removed the earlier locust plague (Ex. 10:13, 19; M. Sweeney, “The Place and Function of Joel in the Book of the Twelve,” in Redditt, Thematic Threads, 145).
17. At times the former term lost any gender connotation (e.g., Gen. 3:16; Ex. 1:9).
18. Heb. wegam, identified as a “focus inducing connecter” (C. H. J. van der Merwe, The Old Hebrew Particle Gam: A Syntactic-semantic Description of Gam in Gn–2Kg (ATSAT 34; St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1990).
19. Ruth 2:13 seems to capture the two different nuances of the term. Naomi acknowledges that she is of a more lowly state than Boaz, so is his “servant” (šipḥâ) even if she is not one of his chattel-slaves (also šipḥâ).
20. See G. C. Chirichigno, Debt-Slavery in Israel and the Ancient Near East (JSOTSup 141; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993).
21. See G. Haas, DOTP, 778–83.
22. Neh. 13:15; Jer. 3:16, 18; 5:18; 50:4; Joel 2:29; 3:1; Zech. 8:23. Cf. the equivalent phrase bayyāmîm hāhēm, which occurs an additional 28 times with equivalent usages.
23. This particular word for “billows” only occurs again in relation to the smoke arising from burning incense (Song 3:6).
24. The burnt sacrifices produced much smoke, which wafted up to the nostrils of Yahweh as a “pleasing odor” (e.g., Joel 1:5–9). Nowhere in this passage or in any sacrificial context is the specific term for smoke used, however, so any possible tie-in to sacrifice in the Joel 2:30–31 context is conceptual rather than lexical. See Sweeney, “Place and Function,” 145.
25. Re was the sun god: J. Assmann, Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism (New York: Kegan Paul, 1995); DDD, 689–92; I. Shaw and P. Nicholson, British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (London: British Museum Press, 1995) 239; Khons was the moon god (ibid., 151–52).
26. UTU/Shamash was the sun god: J. Black and A. Green, Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary (London: British Museum Press, 1992), 182–84; Nanna-Suen (Sîn) was the moon god (ibid., 135); see also DDD, 586–93.
27. Shemesh was the sun god: DDD, 764–68; Yarikh was the moon god: DDD, 587–93.
28. Cf. G. Hasel, “The Polemic Nature of the Genesis Cosmology,” EQ 46 (1974): 81–102 (esp. 88–89).
29. Cf. the same motif in Rev. 6:12.
30. Blood and darkening sun and moon also were part of God’s judgment and punishment (e.g. … Ezek. 32:6–7).
31. See Deut. 7:21, where the two types of fear seem to be contrasted; also Neh. 1:5, where God has this characteristic along with love.
32. The two passages differ in only two Hebrew words. They read: “for on Mount Zion and Jerusalem there will be deliverance” (Joel 2:32; Jerusalem also parallels Zion in 3:16); “but on Mount Zion there will be deliverance” (Obad. 17; cf. also Obad. 14, where “deliverance” and “survivors” occur together as they do in this verse.
33. The same term occurs in Obad. 18 and could have been chosen here because of this association with the portion previously cited from that prophecy.
34. See Wolff, Joel, 68; Wilhelm Rudolph, Joel, Amos, Obadja, Jona (KAT 13/2; Gütersloh: G. Mohr, 1971), 70, n. 5.
35. See E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier: Invading Hordes from the Russian Steppes (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1982).
36. See DDD, 132–39, 152–54, 927–29.
37. The noun is most commonly feminine in Hebrew, esp. so when identified as that of God (feminine: Gen. 1:2; Num. 24:2; Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Sam. 10:6, 10; 11:6; 16:15, 16, 23; 18:10; 19:9, 20, 23; 2 Chron. 15:1; 20:14; 24:20; Isa. 11:2; 40:7; 59:19; 63:14; Ezek. 11:24; masculine: 2 Sam. 23:2; 1 Kings 18:12; 22:24//2 Chron. 18:23; 2 Kings 2:16), so this pronoun is consciously chosen here. A masculine pronoun would go counter to the regular Hebrew grammar, and a neuter pronoun (“it”) is theologically problematic, for the Spirit is a personal being rather than an inanimate force.
38. In the order of the Old Testament books in the Christian canon, the Spirit arguably appears for the last time in Zech. 12:10, but definitely so in 7:12.
39. At times, however, the Spirit has a more negative role; cf. 1 Sam 16:15–16, 23; 18:10; 19:9, where an evil spirit came from God. The Spirit also blows on grass and flowers to desiccate them (Isa.40:7).
40. Originated by Friedrich Nietzsche (Joyful Wisdom [New York: F. Ungar, 1960], sec. 125). See, e.g. T. J. J. Altizer, The Gospel of Christian Atheism (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966); T. J. J. Altizer and W. Hamilton, Radical Theology and the Death of God (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966); idem, Godhead and the Nothing (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 2003); S. R. Haynes and J. K. Roth, ed., The Death of God Movement and the Holocaust (Westport: Greenwood, 1999).
41. The first of these recorded is not even to an Israelite, but to the pagan Philistine king Abimelech (Gen. 20:3, 6; cf. also Laban, 31:24; cf. the Egyptian pharaoh, whose dreams need interpretation by the Yahweh worshiper, Joseph, in Gen. 41; 42:9; Egyptian functionaries, 40:5–17; Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king, Dan. 2, 4; Mesopotamian astrologers, Matt. 2:20; Pilate’s wife, Matt. 27:19). Abraham’s descendants also had revelatory dreams; e.g., Jacob, Gen. 28:11; Joseph, Gen. 37; Solomon, 1 Kings 3:5; Joseph, Matt. 1:20; 2:13, 19, 22.
42. Gen. 15:1; 46:2; Num. 24:4 (of Balaam); Isa. 1:1; Dan. 8; Hos. 12:10; Obad. 1; Nah. 1:1; Hab. 2:2–3.
43. See, e.g., Gen. 12:6; Num. 12:6; Deut. 13:1; Jer. 23:28; Ezek. 7:26; Dan. 1:17.
44. Beside the biblical references noted above, see A. L. Oppenheim, The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1956); S. A. L. Butler, Mesopotamian Conceptions of Dreams and Dream Rituals (AOAT 258; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1998); J.-M. Husser, Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World (Biblical Seminar 63: Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999).
45. From Mari, a city on the Euphrates, come several letters from the eighteenth century B.C. reporting revelatory dreams received by laypeople, ANET, 623–24.
46. For a more detailed discussion of the human endeavors to meet this need, see J. P. Oleson, “Water Works,” ABD, 6:885–93. See also J. L. Kelso and F. N. Hepper, “Agriculture,” NBD, 19–20.
47. Compare the Amorites, whose territory in northern Mesopotamia spread over several regions, each requiring different types of water provision; see G. E. Mendenhall, “Amorites,” ABD, 1:199–200.
48. Several terms could indicate irrigation canals, such as yûbal (Jer. 17:8; cf. the proper noun in Gen. 4:21) and peleg (Ps. 1:3; 65:9; cf. the proper noun in Gen. 10:25//1 Chron. 1:19, whose name could indicate the beginning of irrigation [cf. S. R. Driver, The Book of Genesis, 15th ed. (London: Methuen, 1948), 130]). Of the Siloam channel, see Y. Shiloh, “Underground Water Systems in Eretz-Israel in the Iron Age,” in Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation: Essay in Memory of D. Glenn Rose, ed. L. G. Perdue et al. (Atlanta: John Knox, 1987), 203–44 (esp. 220). Irrigation may have been in use in the area of Jericho from as early as the Neolithic period (late 9th century B.C.; R. Miller, “Water Use in Syria and Palestine from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age,” World Archaeology 11 [1980]: 331–32).
49. Borowski, Agriculture, 47–48; F. S. Frick, “Rain,” ABD, 5:612.
50. For this and other words, see P. Reymond, L’eau: sa vie et sa signification dans l’Ancien Testament (VTSup 6; Leiden: Brill, 1958); D. W. Baker, “The Wind and the Waves: Biblical Theology in Protology and Eschatology,” ATJ 34 (2002): 13–37.
51. A. Even-Shoshan, A New Concordance of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985), 886–87.
52. Ibid., 73–74.
53. E.g., S. R. Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989); The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families: Building a Beautiful Family Culture in a Turbulent World (New York: Franklin Covey, 1997).
54. E.g., D. A. McGavran and W. C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977).
55. Bill W, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, [1953]); B. Pittman and Dick D, Courage to Change: The Christian Roots of the Twelve-Step Movement (Center City, Minn.: Hazelden, 1994).
56. J. C. Maxwell, The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: Embrace Them and Empower Your Team (Nashville: Nelson, 2001); idem, The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player: Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants (Nashville: Nelson, 2002); idem, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person That People Will Want to Follow (Nashville: Nelson, 1999).
57. E.g., Jer. 20:1–2, 7–10; 26:7–11; 36:1–38:13; cf. 1 Kings 19:10, 14 [Rom. 11:3]; Matt. 5:12; Luke 6:23; 1 Thess. 2:15.
58. M. Robert Mulholland, Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 15.
1. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 92.
2. On circumstantial clauses, especially those in this episode-initial position, see Andersen, Sentence, 77–91 [79–80]. See also 86–87 for the use of such clauses as time marginal references.
3. This is done by using the combination of the conjunction kî (“for”) plus hinnēh (“now, behold”). See, e.g., T. O. Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (New York: Scribners, 1971/ London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1973), 168–69; Muraoka, Emphatic, 140. Hinnēh functions to indicate immediacy in relationship to the speaker or the event, something happening immediately preceding (“just,” e.g., Gen. 48:2) or following (“about to; just then,” e.g., Gen. 6:17; 37:7–9).
4. The relative pronoun is omitted by some ancient manuscripts (BHS, 1013, n). Most English translations render it as a temporal adverb (“when”; DCH, 1:426)
5. The MT ketîb reads the verb as a Hiphil (ʾāšîb), while the qerîʾ took it as a Qal (ʾāšûb). The former is more common with this direct object, though the latter also occurs five times (Jer. 32:44; 33:7; 49:6; Lam. 2:14 [Q]; Ezek. 39:25)
6. See Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 104–5 and sources cited there.
7. Ibid., 108–9.
8. This may be an allusion to Deut. 30:2, where “gathering” and “restoration of fortune” are also juxtaposed—there with a positive benefit for those gathered, the reverse of the situation in Joel.
9. špt, Niphal + preposition ʿim; cf. Prov. 29:9; Jer. 2:35; 20:35, all with the semantically equivalent preposition ʾet; Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 94.
10. If it were not for the parallelism in the verse, the first of these two could have been read just as well syntactically with the preposition be with the function of identity (Williams, §240), “they gave boys as prostitutes.”
11. See F. I. Andersen, The Hebrew Verbless Clause in the Pentateuch (Nashville: Abingdon, 1970); C. L. Miller, ed., The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew: Linguistic Approaches (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1999).
12. This assumes a perfect ternse; see Wolff, Joel, 77; cf. NJPS, “What are you doing,” which apparently assumes a participle; cf. Allen, Joel, in loc.; GNB).
13. See on this, Rudolph, Joel, 77.
14. On the tribute received from these kings, see COS, 2:285, 287, 288, 289, 291, 293, 303. According to Sennacherib’s inscription, the tribute included gold, silver, precious stones, and ivory, as well as family members and numerous other items. Many of these were included among the “finest treasures” in Scripture.
15. For the more common and culturally accepted form of slavery that is entered into because of debts, see see I. Mendelsohn, Slavery in the Ancient Near East (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1949); M. A. Dandamaev, Slavery in Babylonia: From Nabopolassar to Alexander the Great (626–331 B.C.), rev. ed. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois Univ. Press, 1984); idem, “Slavery,” ABD, 6:58–65.
16. One writer states: “There was no action or belief or institution in Graeco-Roman antiquity that was not one way or other affected by the possibility that someone involved might be a slave” (M. I. Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology [New York: Viking, 1980] 65).
17. Many read the preposition lemaʿan (NIV “that [you might]”) as a purpose clause (Williams, §277; LXX, ASV, ESV, KJV, NASB, NCV), but this makes no sense. It is better read as a result, “so that you removed them” (Joüon §169g; NLT, NRSV).
18. In Isa. 59:18–19 these coastlands, associated with the west, would be recompensed for what they had done to Israel, using the same terminology as Joel 3:4, a text to which this may be alluding.
19. Cf. John MacRay, “Greece,” ABD, 2:1093.
20. The verbal form here is waw conversive + perfect, while in v. 4 it is a prefix. Both share the same meaning, and the remainder of the clause is identical.
21. E.g., Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 15.
22. The Masoretic setumah division marker (
) that follows Joel 3:8 confirms this.
23. BHS suggests reading the fourth and fifth verbs as imperatives instead of the jussive forms, which were in MT. There is little appreciable change in meaning.
25. Deist, Material Culture, 191.
26. See the related mezammeret, one of the temple implements used in the Holy Place, most likely a knife used to trim the wicks of the golden candlestick (1 Kings 7:50; Jer. 52:18).
27. Deist, Material Culture, 191.
28. See stone reliefs of swordsmen, spearmen, and shield-bearers in, e.g., ANEP, 332, 364, 366, 372.
29. It appears likely that Isaiah is the original source, with Micah citing it, using the direct discourse indicator, “for the LORD Almighty has spoken,” which is characteristic of Isaiah. See Meier, Speaking of Speaking, 156–58.
30. Whether these were homonyms or one root is debated among the dictionaries (cf. BDB, HALOT), though the meanings seem close enough not to require two separate roots.
31. Cf. T. Gaster, “The Battle of the Rain and the Sea: An Ancient Semitic Nature Myth,” Iraq 4 (1937): 28, n. 13, who proposes “launch into the fray,” based on an Ugaritic cognate.
32. Joel seems to have chosen the words for what is created here with thought, since the word translated “earth” (ʾereṣ) is also the word translated in the passage referred to as “land.”
33. It is ironic that the people still recognized the land as “this land” (Num. 14:3), but, having lost faith in God, this same land of promise became this land of terror.
34. This is reflected in positive (e.g., Isa. 9:2; 11:9; 25:8; Hos. 1:11; Mic. 5:3–6; Zech. 3:9) as well as negative (e.g., Isa. 6:12; 7:22, 24; 9:19; Zeph. 1:18; 5:3; 7:14) terms—restoration or exile, depending on belief or apostasy.
35. See, e.g., M. Lind, Yahweh Is a Warrior: The Theology of Warfare in Ancient Israel (Scottdale: Herald, 1980); T. Longman III and D. G. Reid, God Is a Warrior (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995); cf. P. C. Craigie, The Problem of War in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978).
38. E. Laroche, Catalogue des texts hittites (Paris: Klincksieck, 1971), 162, 8–14.
39. M. Elat, “Mesopotamische Kriegsrituale,” Bibliotheca Orientalis 39 (1982): 5–25; W. H. P. Römer, “Rituale und Beschwörungen in sumerischer Sprache,“in Religiöse Texte, ed. W. C. Delsman, et al. (TUAT 2/2; Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn, 1987), 169–71.
40. Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: A Historical Enquiry (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990), 79.
41. Zana Muhsen with Andrew Crofts, Sold: A Story of Modern Day Slavery (London: Warner, 1994); cf. Eileen MacDonald, Brides for Sale? Human Trade in North Yemen (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1988); Mende Nazer, Slave (New York: Public Affairs, 2003).
42. Amy O’Neil Richard, “International Trafficking in Women into the United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime,” available at http://www.odci.gov/csi/monograph/women/trafficking.pdf.
43. A 1991 study of a questionnaire sent to 500 pastors indicates that 45 percent of the respondents have used pornography (J. O. Balswick and J. W. Thoburn, “Demographic Data on Extra-marital Sexual Behavior in the Ministry,” Pastoral Psychology 46/6 ([1998]: 453); see also D. Hughes, “The Internet and Sex Industries: Partners in Global Sexual Exploitation,” Christian Social Action 14/4 (2001): 17–19.
44. Several resources available, among many, are: H. W. Schaumburg, False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1997); J. K. Balswick and J. O. Balswick, Authentic Human Sexuality: An Integrated Christian Approach (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999); S. Arterburn and F. Stoeker, Every Man’s Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2000), with other related volumes on the topic by the first author; J. Harris, Not Even a Hint: Guarding your Heart Against Lust (Portland: Multnomah, 2003).
45. Just war theory has a long history, going back to Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, part II, question 40. Hermeneutical approaches to the topic are delineated in, e.g., W. M. Swartley, Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women: Case Issues in Biblical Interpretation (Scottdale: Herald, 1983). See also, among others, S. Hauerwas, The Peacable Kingdom (South Bend, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1983); R. G. Clouse, ed., War: Four Christian Views, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1991); J. Daryl Charles, Between Pacificism and Jihad: Just War and Christian Tradition (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005).
46. A position less familiar to many among Reformed and Arminian Christians is pacifism, represented particularly among the Anabaptists. For an entrée, see works in the previous note, and see also H. J. M. Nouwen, The Road to Peace: Writings on Peace and Justice (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1998), and E. M. Sider and L. Keefer Jr., A Peace Reader (Nappanee, Ind.: Evangel, 2002).
1. See Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 102, concerning some suggestions as to the identity of the recipients of the imperatives.
2. Waltke-O’Connor, § 119.
3. DCH, 3:315–16 lists three adjectival uses as well as one proper name (2 Kings 21:19). It also lists “gold” and “channel, moat.”
4. See Bliesse, “Metrical Sequences,” 71.
5. Prinsloo, Theology of Joel, 103.
6. This strong tie between the ending of Joel and the beginning of Amos is not determinative for establishing which quoted the other.
7. See S. Gevirtz, Patterns in the Early Poetry of Israel (SAOC 32; Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1963), 56; Y. Avishur, Stylistic Studies of Word-Pairs in Biblical and Ancient Semitic Languages (AOAT 210; Kevelaer: Verlag Butzon & Bercker, 1984), 698.
8. Joel 3:18 literally reads, “they will drip (imperfect) the mountains new wine and the hills they will go milk,” while Amos 9:13 reads, “and they will drip (waw conversive + perfect) the mountains new wine and all of the hills will flow with it.” There is sufficient alteration between the two to indicate that authors were not slaves to their source.
9. E.g., R. Cleave, The Holy Land: A Unique Perspective (Oxford: Lion, 1992), 271, lists eleven sites with this as part of their name.
10. See, e.g., W. A. Ward, “Egyptian Relations with Canaan,” ABD, 2:401–8.
11. See, e.g., J. R. Bartlett, “Edom,” ABD, 2:287–95.
12. What Waltke-O’Connor calls the “psychological/linguistic” factitive, through means of a speech act estimating or declaring that something is the case (402–3); Williams, §145, calls it “delocutive.”
13. K. F. de Blois, “Metaphor in Common Language Translations of Joel,” BT 36 (1985): 214.
14. Van Leeuwen, “Scribal Wisdom,” takes this as an allusion to Ex. 34:6–7, which he finds as being a key verse regarding the Day of the Lord, showing both positive and negative aspects of his works in God’s self-revelation.
15. ANET, 391–92; ll. 21–27, 51–52.
16. E. H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1980).
17. The topic has produced many publications. Some of the best are by Richard Foster (e.g., Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth [San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978]; Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home [San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992]; Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith [San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998]); see also Eugene Peterson (Answering God: The Psalms as Tools of Prayer [San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989]; The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction [Waco, Tex.: Word, 1989]; Leap over a Wall; Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians [New York: HarperCollins, 1997]).
18. M. D. Bramlett and W. D. Mosher, “First Marriage Dissolution, Divorce and Remarriage: United States,” Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics 323 (Hyattsville, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics, 2001): 5.
19. http://www.barna.org/. Non-denominational church members had the highest rate (34 percent), with Baptists following in second place (29 percent) according to a report (http://www.adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html).
20. Oral presentation by John Shultz, Ashland Theological Seminary, May 4, 2004.
21. See, e.g., A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: Harper & Row, 1961); J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1973).
1. J. M. Kennedy, “Obadiah (Person),” ABD, 5:1–2.
2. R. H. Sack, “Nebuchadnezzar (Person),” ABD, 4:1058–59.
3. A. K. Grayson, “Shalmaneser (Person),” ABD, 5:1155.
4. See P. R. Raabe, Obadiah: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB 24D; New York: Doubleday, 1996), 49, for sources and other suggested links with this period.
5. For a discussion of other suggested dates, see ibid., 49–51; C. Armerding, “Obadiah,” Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985), 350–51.
6. P. A. Beaulieu, The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556–539 B.C. (YNER 10; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989), 166; cf. Raabe, Obadiah, 54.
7. U. Hübner, “Idumea (Place),” ABD, 3:382–83.
8. COS, 2:41, 263, 138 respectively.
9. M. Ottosson, “Gilead (Place),” ABD, 2:1020–22.
10. H. Brodsky, “Shephelah (Place),” ABD, 5:1204.
11. A. E. Knauf, “Seir (Place),” ABD, 5:1072–73.
12. T. J. Finley, “Obadiah,” in Joel, Amos, Obadiah (WEC; Chicago: Moody Press, 1990), 246; Iain Provan, 1 and 2 Kings (NIBC 7; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1995), 169–70.
13. E. A. Knauf, “Teman (Person),” ABD, 6:347–48.
14. Raabe, Obadiah, 166.
16. H. J. Katzenstein, “Philistines, History,” and T. Dothan, “Philistines, Archaeology,” ABD, 5:326–28 and 328–33, respectively.
17. P. C. Schmitz, “Canaan (Place),” and J. Day, “Canaan, Religion of,” ABD, 1:828–31 and 831–37, respectively.
18. J. D. Wineland, “Sepharad (Place),” ABD, 5:1089–90; Raabe, Obadiah, 266–68.
19. Leslie C. Allen, “Obadiah,” in The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 129.
20. Raabe, Obadiah, 6–14.
21. Ibid., 94–96; see also J. A. Naudé, “
,” NIDOTTE, 2:56–61.
22. Raabe, Obadiah, 16–17; see also Allen, “Obadiah,” 133–35; Finley, “Obadiah,” 248–49.
23. E.g., B. D. Sommer, “New Light on the Composition of Jeremiah,” CBQ 61 (1999): 646–66; W. McKane, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jeremiah, 2 vols. (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1986, 1996), 1:xv–xcvii; 2:cxxxiii–clxxiv.
24. See Allen, “Obadiah,” 132–33; Finley, “Obadiah,” 242–45, and Raabe, Obadiah, 22–31 for further discussion of Jeremiah’s relation to Obadiah.
25. See C. S. Lewis, “The Humanitarian View of Punishment,” reprinted in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 288.
26. E.g., G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1928), 2:179.
27. B. Oded, Mass Deportations and Deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1979).
28. See, e.g., D. W. Baker, “Aspects of Grace in the Pentateuch,” ATJ 29 (1997): 7–22.
1. Modified from A. Pope, Essay on Man, Epistle 1, line 123.
1. See the study by S. A. Meier, The Messenger in the Ancient Semitic World (HSM 45; Atlanta: Scholars, 1988); Raabe, Obadiah, 99–105.
2. See DCH, 4:482; HALOT, sub 
, 6.
4. For the former position, see Allen, “Obadiah,” 145; for the latter position, see Raabe, Obadiah, 113.
5. So Raabe, Obadiah, 113; Allen (“Obadiah,” 144) suggests that the actual report is not included in the book.
6. H. W. Wolff, “The Prophet Obadiah,” in Obadiah and Jonah: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1986), 33.
7. See M. C. Lind, Yahweh Is a Warrior: The Theology of Warfare in Ancient Israel (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald, 1980); D. Bergant, “Yahweh: A Warrior God?” in The Church’s Peace Witness, ed. M. E. Miller and B. N. Gingerich (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 89–103; T. Longman III and D. Reid, God Is a Warrior (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995); E. Gerstenberger, Yahweh the Patriarch: Ancient Images of God and Feminist Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 38–54; G. A. Boyd, God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997); M. Klingbeil, Yahweh Fighting from Heaven: God as Warrior and as God of Heaven in the Hebrew Psalter and Ancient Near Eastern Iconography (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999).
8. M. Weinfeld, “Divine Intervention in War in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East,” in History, Historiography and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Literatures (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983), 121–47; S-M. Kang, Divine War in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East (BZAW 175; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1989), 11–110, concerning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syro-Palestine, and Anatolia.
1. S. C. Carroll, “King’s Highway (Place),” ABD, 4:48–49.
2. B. Rothenberg, “Timnah,” NEAEHL, 4:1475–86.
3. Raabe, Obadiah, 142.
4. In spite of the NIV’s making the pillage and ransacking explicit, the two verbs used involve only a careful search for hidden things, not their removal.
5. BHS, note a. The same verbal root can mean “to eat,” so a revocalization and scribal deletion has been suggested from an original lōḥmê laḥmekā (“those who eat your bread”; see G. I. Davies, “A New Solution to a Crux in Obadiah 7,” VT 27 [1977]: 484–87).
6. Armerding, “Obadiah,” 345–46.
7. See J. D. Nogalski, “Obadiah 7: Textual Corruption or Politically Charged Metaphor?” ZAW 110 (1998): 67–71, who sees “your bread” as a political metaphor synonymous to “your covenant” and “your peace” and thus understands this verse as condemning Edom for her political alliances.
8. The LXX, Vulgate, Targum, Syriac, Theodotian, and Aquila apparently read either māṣôr (“siege”; e.g., Mic. 4:14) or māṣôd (“snare, net”; Job 19:6; Eccl. 7:26) instead of the MT māzôr.
9. P. K. McCarter, Jr., “Obadiah 7 and the Fall of Edom,” BASOR 221 (1976): 87–91; Raabe, Obadiah, 155.
, 3.11. See ANET, 199–201, also 201–3, and other treaties between equals, e.g., 203–6; cf. COS, 2:93–106.
12. See NBD, “Covenant, Alliance,” sec. 2.2.
13. Cf., e.g., R. J. Sider, Cry Justice! The Bible on Hunger and Poverty (New York: Paulist/Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1980); R. J. Foster, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex and Power (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985); H. Schlossberg, et al. eds., Christianity and Economics in the Post-Cold War Era: The Oxford Declaration and Beyond (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994); Max L. Stackhouse, ed. On Moral Business: Classical and Contemporary Resources for Ethics in Economic Life (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995); S. W. Carlson-Thies and J. W. Skillen, eds., Welfare in America: Christian Perspectives on a Policy in Crisis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996); R. J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity, 20th anniversary ed. (Dallas: Word, 1997); idem, Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999).
1. Taken from the title of a book by K. Menninger (New York: Hawthorn, 1973).
1. In Hebrew, as in English, such a genitive construction can be ambiguous, and it is vital to determine the exact function in any particular case. For example, it is of some importance in a construction such as “my killing” whether it is a subjective genitive (“I am the one killing another”) or an objective genitive (“another is killing me”). Sometimes the context clarifies the function (e.g., in 1 Kings 10:9, “the love of God” is stated to be “for Israel,” so it is clearly a subjective genitive), but other examples are not as clear (e.g., 1 John 2:5).
3. Cf. W. W. Hallo, “The First Purim,” BA 46 (1983): 19–29; Raabe, Obadiah, 175–76.
4. See Raabe, Obadiah, 179; cf. similar phrases in Ps. 35:19–21, where “rejoicing” also occurs with “opening wide the mouth”; Isa. 57:4.
5. The NIV omits two emphasizing words, “even you,” from this sentence.
6. The Hebrew has it as a 2/3fp imperfect Qal, but there is no clear subject for this form. The best interpretation is to see it as a 2ms form, which fits contextually in this address to Edom, with an energic ending (Raabe, Obadiah, 183–84; Ehud Ben Zvi, A Historical-Critical Study of the Book of Obadiah [Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1996], 156–57).
7. See Raabe, Obadiah, 184, and Ben Zvi, Historical-Critical Study, 160–62, for a discussion of options.
8. This ambiguity is theologically important in Amos 9:12, where the LXX reads “Edom” as “humanity,” a reading picked up at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15:17. This, along with other textual variants, is a key argument used in Acts for allowing Gentiles into the nascent church (see, e.g., D. M. King, “The Use of Amos 9:11–12 in Acts 15:16–18,” ATJ 21 [1989]: 8–13).
9. See H. van Dyke Parunak, “Transitional Techniques in the Bible,” JBL 102 (1983): 525–48.
10. The literature on the concept is extensive. Among more recent works, see R. H. Hiers, “Day of the Lord,” ABD, 2:82–83; K. J. Cathcart, “Day of Yahweh,” ABD, 2:84–85; Raabe, Obadiah, 190–92; R. Rendtorff, “Alas for the Day: The ‘Day of the Lord’ in the Book of the Twelve,” in God in the Fray: A Tribute to Walter Brueggemann, ed. T. Linafelt and T. K. Beal (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998), 186–97; J. D. Nogalski, “The Day(s) of Yahweh in the Book of the Twelve,” 1999 Seminar Papers (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999), 617–42.
11. David A. deSilva, Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 25.
13. See the discussion by D. A. Baer and R. P. Gordon, “
,” NIDOTTE, 2:211–18 and the accompanying bibliography.
14. M. E. J. Richardson, Hammurabi’s Laws: Text, Translation and Glossary (Semitic Texts and Studies 2; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 105.
15. See further Baker, “Aspects of Grace in the Pentateuch,” 12–18.
16. “Glossary: Department of Defense—Military and Associated Terms: Propaganda and Psychological Warfare Studies,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Publication 1 (1987), taken from http://www.africa2000.com/ (accessed in 2000).
17. See, for the other side of the story, A. B. Gilmore, You Can’t Fight Tanks with Bayonets: Psychological Warfare against the Japanese Army in the Southwest Pacific (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1998).
18. E. Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle (New York: Norton, 1980).
19. See, e.g., G. Ketterman, Verbal Abuse: Healing the Hidden Wound (Ann Arbor: Servant, 1992).
20. See, e.g., D. Johnson and J. VanVonderen, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1991); R. M. Enroth, Churches That Abuse (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992); J. and D. Ryan, Recovery from Spiritual Abuse (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992); K. Blue, Healing Spiritual Abuse: How to Break Free from Bad Church Experiences (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993); R. Enroth, Recovering from Churches That Abuse (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994); L. B. Smedes, Shame and Grace: Healing the Shame We Don’t Deserve (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1994).
21. See M. A. Fortune, Is Nothing Sacred? When Sex Invades the Pastoral Relationship (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989); E. A. Horst, Recovering the Lost Self: Shame Healing for Victims of Clergy Sexual Abuse (Collegeville: Liturgical, 1991); P. Mosgofian and G. Ohlschlager, Sexual Misconduct in Counseling and Ministry (Dallas: Word, 1995).
1. E.g., LXX; Vulgate; Calvin; Keil; F. E. Gaebelein, Four Minor Prophets (Chicago: Moody Press, 1970), 36; P. C. Craigie, Twelve Prophets I (DSB; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1984), 205–6; D. Stuart, Hosea–Jonah (WBC; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1987), 420; Finley, “Obadiah,” 270–72; J. Niehaus, “Obadiah,” The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary, ed. T. E. McComiskey (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 2:535–36; W. W. Wiersbe, Be Concerned (Colorado Springs: Chariot Victor, 1996), 82; E. Achtemeier, Minor Prophets I (NIBC; Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996), 249.
2. See note on Obad. 13 concerning another possible second-person plural form.
3. So D. J. Clark and N. Mundhenk, A Translator’s Handbook on the Books of Obadiah and Micah (Helps for Translators; London/New York: United Bible Society, 1982), 27; Armerding, “Obadiah,” 353; J. Limburg, “The Book of Obadiah,” Hosea–Micah (Interpretation; Atlanta: John Knox, 1988), 133; Wolff, Obadiah and Jonah, 64–65; Ben Zvi, Historical-Critical Study, 181–82; Raabe, Obadiah, 203–4.
4. For a detailed analysis of the concept of drinking and the cup of the wrath of God, see Raabe, Obadiah, 206–42.
5. The verb used here is lʿʿ, and it refers to some kind of rash or incomprehensible speech (Job 6:3; Prov. 20:25), which could indicate the slurring caused by intoxication. A homonym meaning “to lap, slurp” has also been suggested for this verse; for a suggested emendation for Job 39:30, based on cognates in Arabic and Syriac, see 
in BDB; HALOT; DCH; Wolff, Obadiah, 65; Raabe, Obadiah, 205.
6. Cf. TEV; see also Clark and Mundhenk, Translator’s Handbook, 31; Wolff, Obadiah, 59; Raabe, Obadiah, 242–43).
7. An alternate reading, “they shall dispossess those who dispossessed them,” based on the Hiphil rather than the MT Qal form, has impressive textual support (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, Murabaʿat). It would also fit the context of Obadiah where talion is a key motif.
8. This is similar to Ezek. 25:14, where the same image of reciprocal retaliation appears, though without the motif of burning.
9. “Sixteen- and 17-year-olds represent only about 2 percent of all drivers, but they are involved in nearly 11 percent of crashes. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for teens, costing 5,805 lives in 1996” (US News and World Reports [Dec. 29, 1997], available at http://www.usnews.com/).
10. See information on the www.crime.about.com website.
11. See John Barton, Joel and Obadiah (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 154.
1. See Allen, “Obadiah,” 168–70; Raabe, Obadiah, 16–17.
2. “This name best expresses the prevailing syntactical relation, by waw consecutive an action is presented as the direct, or at least temporal consequence of a preceding action” (GKC § 49a, n. 1); cf. B. K. Waltke and M. O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1990), 477.
3. Ben Zvi, Historical-Critical Study, 197; Raabe, Obadiah, 18.
4. See Raabe, Obadiah, 256–58, for a discussion of various proposals.
5. See Raabe, Obadiah, 259–60; NEAEHL, sub “Ashdod,” “Ashkelon,” “Gaza”; Katzenstein, “Philistines (History)”; Dothan, “Philistines (Archaeology).”
2.7. S. Herrmann, “Ephraim (P), Ephraim in the Bible,” ABD, 2:531; J. D. Purvis, “Samaria (Place),” ABD, 5:914–21.
8. M. Ottosson, “Gilead (Place),” ABD, 2:1020–22; K.-D. Schunk, “Benjamin (Person),” ABD, 1:670–73.
9. F. I. Andersen, The Sentence in Biblical Hebrew (The Hague: Mouton, 1974), 77.
10. P. C. Schmitz, “Canaan (Place),” ABD, 1:828–31.
11. NEAEHL, 2:698, and a detailed study and detailed bibliography of the history and archaeology of the site, 2:698–804.
12. See Raabe, Obadiah, 266–68, for discussion and bibliography.
13. DCH, 3:213, which lists forms from extrabiblical as well as biblical sources, does not list any defective forms of the noun.
14. Waltke and O’Connor, Biblical Hebrew Syntax, 156–57.
15. Raabe, Obadiah, 264.
16. The MT reading ʾ ašer was read as yiršû, the transposition of two letters and the substitution of two for one (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, REB, NJB, NJPS).
.18. Currently housed in the British Museum and widely published. See, e.g., J. B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958), plate 101. See also the written record of Sennacherib’s third campaign, against Jerusalem, in which he boasts of deporting some and killing and impaling others (COS, 2:303).
20. Refugee numbers are derived from Refugees by Numbers: 2000 Edition (United Nations High Commission on Refugees).
21. Based on a study by B. Link et al., “Life-time and Five-Year Prevalence of Homelessness in the United States: New Evidence on an Old Debate,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 65/3 (July 1995): 347–54, with statistics extrapolated in “How Many People Experience Homelessness?” National Coalition for the Homeless Fact Sheet #2, 2/99 (http://nch.nationalhomeless.org/numbers.html).
22. J. Zorza, “Woman Battering: A Major Cause of Homelessness,” Clearinghouse Review 25/4 (1991): 421–29. While these figures do not reach the high public profile of war statistics, they are as least as horrific, since the domestic murder of women by their partners during the period of Vietnam War involvement by the U.S. equaled the number of American battle deaths during that conflict (M. M. Fortune and C. J. Adams, Violence against Women and Children: A Theological Sourcebook [New York: Continuum, 1995], 502, cited in E. A. Heath, “The Levite’s Concubine: Domestic Violence and the People of God,” Priscilla Papers 13/1 [1999]: 10).
23. J. Alsdurf and P. Alsdurf, Battered into Submission: The Tragedy of Wife Abuse in the Christian Home (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1989); N. Nason-Clark, The Battered Wife: How Christians Confront Family Violence (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997); C. K. Kroeger and J. R. Beck, ed., Healing the Hurting: Giving Hope and Help to Abused Women (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998); P. Hegstrom, Angry Men and the Women Who Love Them: Breaking the Cycle of Physical and Emotional Abuse (Kansas City: Beacon Hill, 1999).
1. Andrew E. Hill, Malachi: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB 25C; New York: Doubleday, 1998), 16.
2. See David Baker, “God, Names of,” DOTP, 362–64.
3. See, e.g., J. B. Pritchard, Harper Atlas of the Bible (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), 35. For studies of the Edomites, see J. R. Bartlett, “The Moabites and Edomites,” in Peoples of Old Testament Times, ed. D. J. Wiseman (Oxford: Clarendon, 1973), 229–58; J. R. Bartlett, Edom and the Edomites (JSOTSup 77; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989); A. Lemaire, “Populations et territories de la Palestine à l’époque Perse,” Transeuphratène 3 (1990): 45–54; K. G. Hoglund, “Edomites,” Peoples of the Old Testament World, ed. A. J. Hoerth et al. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 335–47; D. V. Edelman, You Shall Not Abhor the Edomite for He Is Your Brother: Edom and Seir in History and Tradition (Atlanta: Scholars, 1995).
4. See Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 171; Charles E. Carter, The Emergence of Yehud in the Persian Period: A Social and Demographic Study (JSOTSup 294; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), esp. ch. 2.
5. See C. Houtman, Exodus I (HCOT; Kampen: Kok, 1993), 116–22.
6. For discussions of the chronological ordering of the Minor Prophets, see R. Rendtorff, The Old Testament: An Introduction (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), 215; P. R. House, The Unity of the Twelve (JSOTSup 97; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990); J. Nogalski, Literary Precursors of the Book of the Twelve (BZAW 217; New York: de Gruyter, 1993); idem., Redactional Processes in the Book of the Twelve (BZAW 218; New York: de Gruyter, 1993); J. D. Nogalski and M. A. Sweeney, ed., Reading and Hearing the Book of the Twelve (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000).
7. See Bartlett, Edom, 157–61; idem, “Edom,” ABD, 2:293.
8. Ibid. For more on the Nabateans, see P. C. Hammond, The Nabataeans: Their History, Culture, and Archaeology (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 37; Philadelphia: Coronet, 1973); J. I. Lawlor, The Nabataeans in Historical Perspective (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974); A. Negev, Nabataean Archaeology Today (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1986); D. F. Graf, “Nabataeans,” ABD, 4: 970–73; idem, Rome and the Arabian Frontier: From the Nabataeans to the Saracen (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997); J. Taylor, Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 2002).
9. H. Wolf, Haggai and Malachi (Chicago: Moody Press, 1976), 58; G. L. Klein, “An Introduction to Malachi,” CTR 2 (1987): 24–25.
11. See AHw, 120; Jeremy Black et al., A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd (corrected) ed. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2000), 274.
12. P. Verhoef, Haggai and Malachi (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 157.
13. E. Sellin and G. Fohrer, Introduction to the Old Testament (Nashville: Abingdon, 1968), 470. See Klein, “Introduction,” 23–24.
14. G. L. Archer Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, rev. ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1974), 440.
15. For fuller discussions of the historical background of the Persian period, see K. G. Hoglund, Achaemenid Imperial Administration in Syria-Palestine and the Missions of Ezra and Nehemiah (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992); J. Berquist, Judaism in Persia’s Shadow: A Social and Historical Approach (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995); David L. Petersen, Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi (OTL; Louisville: Westminster, 1995), 3–23; Hill, Malachi, 51–76; P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2002). For life in Judah during the Persian period, see esp. Carter, The Emergence of Yehud; J. Kessler, The Book of Haggai: Prophecy and Society in Early Persian Yehud (VTSup 91; Leiden: Brill, 2002).
16. Petersen (Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi, 2–3) argues that the shared formal indicators support an interpretation that Zech. 9–14 and Malachi have been integrated into one textual unit by an editor.
17. See Y. Radday, An Analytical Key-word in Context Concordance to the Books of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (Wooster: Biblical Research Associates, 1973); Y. Radday and M. A. Pollatschek, “Vocabulary Richness in Post-Exilic Prophetic Books,” ZAW 92 (1980): 333–46.
18. Hill (Malachi, 413–41) lists 38 unique terms and nominal constructions.
20. See Hill, Malachi, 401–12, for a list of shared forms.
1. BDB, 669–73; HALOT. There is evidence of an understanding of the homonyms, since Isa. 22:1, 25, for example, seems to play on the two meanings of the noun, making an inclusio for the passage. Cf. also the discussion of Jer. 23:33–40 below.
2. See David W. Baker, “Scribes as Transmitters of Tradition,” in Faith, Tradition and History: Old Testament Historiography in its Near Eastern Context, ed. A. R. Millard, J. K. Hoffmeier, and D. W. Baker (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1994), 65–78.
3. See Waltke-O’Connor, §11.2.1b.
1. Ibid., 493.
2. Hill, Malachi, 150.
3. S. D. Snyman, “Antitheses in Malachi 1,2–5,” ZAW 98 (1986): 437–38.
4. Verhoef, Haggai and Malachi, 206; Hill, Malachi, 161. The preposition “over” (mēʿal) is used as “on, over” in several places (e.g., Gen. 7:17; Ps. 148:4). Waltke-O’Connor §11.3.2 suggest the combination proposition be translated “within,” also supporting this interpretation.
5. See W. Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961, 1967), 1:250–58.
6. E. G. Kraeling, The Brooklyn Museum Aramaic Papyri (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1953), 7:34, 39.
7. See D. M. King, “The Use of Amos 9:11–12 in Acts 15:16–18,” ATJ 21 (1989): 8–13.
8. Yahweh, but not “God,” is the subject of the verb “love” some 34 times in the Old Testament, 24 of these with human objects (mostly Israel or Israelites, e.g., Deut. 4:37; 7:8, 13; 10:15; 23:5; Neh. 13:26; Mal. 1:2[3x], but also others [e.g., Deut. 10:18, aliens; Isa. 48:14, Cyrus; Ps. 146:8; Prov. 15:9, righteous]).
9. N. Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 90.
1. Michael H. Floyd, Minor Prophets: Part 2 (FOTL 22; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 589.
2. See, e.g., R. D. Nelson, Raising Up a Faithful Priest: Community and Priesthood in Biblical Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993); Duke, DOTP, 646–55.
3. Hill, Malachi, 182, notes the ironic sound play on attempting to placate God (ḥallû) through sick (ḥōleh) animals (v. 8).
4. Hill, Malachi, 190.
7. See also Peterson, Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi, 176.
8. E.g., R. L. Smith, Micah–Malachi (WBC 32; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1984), 308. A. B. Ehrlich, Randglossen zur hebräischen Bible: textkritisches, sprachliches und sachliches (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1908–14), 358, deletes the entire final clause.
9. Also Hill, Malachi, 171.
10. mattelāʾâ appears to consist of the pronoun mâ assimilated to the rare noun telāʾâ. The former is usually an interrogative pronoun, but here it is used emphatically indicating an exclamation (Williams, §127; Waltke-O’Connor, §18.3–4).
12. Paul L. Redditt, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (NCBC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 166.
13. For this interpretation here see HALOT; NASB; NJPS; NRSV.
14. Translating with an adversative “but” (Williams, §432; KJV; NASB) does not fit with the context, since this verse is climactic rather than antithetical to the preceding context.
15. Deut 27:15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; 28:16[2x], 17, 18, 19[2x]; Jer. 20:14, 15; 48:10[2x].
16. The first clause begins with the conjunction waw, which could be a waw explicativum, resulting in a translation “cursed is the cheat, that is, anyone who …’; cf. D. W. Baker, “Further Examples of the Waw Explicativum,” VT 30 (1980): 129–36.
17. See, e.g., Os Guinness, In Two Minds: The Dilemma of Doubt and How to Resolve It (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1976); A. E. McGrath, The Sunnier Side of Doubt (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
18. In Mesopotamia, some among the divine had to labor to supply the needs of the gods. When they complained about this onerous task, humanity was created to relieve them of it. See the Sumerian story of Enki and Ninmah (COS, I 1.159:516–7), the Assyrian Atraḫasis Epic (ibid., 1.130:450–451), and more briefly, the Enuma Elish creation story (ibid., 1.111:401); see also John Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context: A Survey of Parallels between Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 29–30. The situation is less clearly drawn in Egyptian texts, where humanity is called “god’s cattle” (COS, I 1.35:65).
19. COS, I 1.132:460. For the association of “table” with a temple, see AHw, 846 paššūru(m) 3.
20. Three names come to mind as among those who address these issues. From a previous generation is Jacques Ellul (e.g., False Presence of the Kingdom [New York: Seabury, 1972]; The Subversion of Christianity [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986]), and from this generation are Tony Campolo (e.g., Is Jesus a Republican or a Democrat: and 14 other Polarizing Issues [Dallas: Word, 1995]; Who Switched the Price Tags? A Search for Values in a Mixed-up World [Waco, Tex.: Word, 1986]), and Ronald Sider (e.g., Christ and Violence [Scottdale: Herald, 1979]; Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: A Biblical Study [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1977]).
1. This section also relates to the previous one through shared vocabulary, such as “And now” (weʿattâ; Mal. 1:9; 2:1); God’s “name” (šēm; 1:6, 14; 2:2); cursing (from the root ʾrr; 1:14; 2:2[2x]); and “honor, reverence” (môrāʾ; 1:6; 2:5).
2. Hill, Malachi, 197.
3. Wolf, Haggai and Malachi, 79.
4. W. C. Kaiser Jr., Malachi: God’s Unchanging Love (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), 56–57.
5. There is a sound play between this and the preceding word: hazzeraʿ wezērîtî.
6. See Hill, Malachi, 203.
7. The preposition le plus the infinitive of the verb indicates either purpose or result.
8. Cf. a similar construction of covenant “with” others (Gen. 9:12, Noah; 17:4, Abram).
9. This term is in the same semantic field as bloodshed and lies (Isa. 59:3; Mic. 3:10; Hab. 2:12; Zeph. 3:13), robbery (Isa. 61:8), wickedness and deception (Hos. 10:13), sin (Job 11:14), and evil (Ps. 37:1).
10. The noun mîšôr derives from the root yšr, indicating that which is physically (Ps. 26:12; Isa. 40:4; Zech. 4:7) or morally (Ps. 45:6; Isa. 11:4) straight or smooth (“upright”).
11. Cf. Amos 9:1 for a similar resultative use of the coordinating copula we—.
12. Hill, Malachi, 209–10, indicating this use also in Qumran. This could be parallel to the more common “people of the land” (cf. v. 9; also Jer. 1:18, where it is contrasted to officials and priests, translated “laity” in the LXX), which occurs almost fifty times in the OT.
13. See Hill, Malachi, 211–12.
14. Ibid., 215.
15. Ibid., 217.
17. See, e.g., G. E. Mendenhall, Law and Covenant in the Israel and the Ancient Near East (Pittsburgh: Biblical Colloquium, 1955); D. J. Wiseman, The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon (London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1958); M. G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy: Studies and Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963); K. Baltzer, Das Bundesformular, 2nd ed. (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1964); D. R. Hillers, Covenant: The History of a Biblical Idea (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1969); P. R. Williamson, DOTP, 139–55.
18. Taken from the title of the book by A. F. Holmes, All Truth Is God’s Truth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977).
19. The three aspects of life—inward, outward, and upward—are developed by R. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (San Francisco: HarperSanFranicsco, 1988); idem, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (San Francisco: HarperSanFranicsco, 1992); cf. T. Wardle, Healing Care, Healing Prayer (Siloam Springs, Ark.: Leafwood, 2001); K. L. Ladd and B. Spinka, “Inward, Outward, and Upward: Cognitive Aspects of Prayer,” JSSR 41 (2002): 475–84; Terry Wardle, The Transforming Path: A Christ-Centered Approach to Spiritual Formation (Siloam Springs, Ark.: Leafwood, 2003).
1. E. Wendland, “Linear and Concentric Patterns in Malachi,” BT 36 (1985): 116; cf. Gordon P. Hugenberger, Marriage As Covenant: A Study of Biblical Law and Ethics Governing Marriage, Developed from the Perspective of Malachi (VTSup 52; Leiden: Brill, 1994), 25.
2. The object of God’s covenant love; see comments on Mal. 1:2 regarding “love.”
3. Cf. Waltke-O’Connor, §18.2g, where rhetorical questions “give information with passion”; BDB, 210 (“an impassioned or indignant affirmation”).
4. This interpretation is that of the NIV, with its capitalization of “Father,” while the alternate is indicated through the lower case option given in a marginal note.
5. Cf. Deut. 32:6, though the creation verbs there (qnh, ʿśh, kwn) are different from the one used here (brʾ ).
6. In Hebrew, each of the first two questions has nine beats and differs from the other in only four consonants and two vowels: halôʾ ʾāb ʾeḥād lekullānû / halôʾ ʾēl ʾeḥād beraʾānû.
7. Cf. J. M. P. Smith, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and Jonah (ICC: Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1912), 48.
8. E.g. Joyce G. Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (TOTC; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1972), 237; S. L. McKenzie and H. N. Wallace, “Covenant Themes in Malachi,” CBQ 45 (1983): 552.
9. Cf. Eugene Merrill, An Exegetical Commentary: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 314; Hill, Malachi, 227–28.
10. The term here rendered “sanctuary” (qōdeš) is literally Yahweh’s “holiness” (HALOT; cf. LXX, Vulg., KJV, ASV). In construct with Yahweh, it can refer to sacrifices (Lev. 5:15; 19:8) as well as the temple (Ps. 11:4; cf. Ps. 93:5; 102:20), which is how it appears to be best understood in this context (cf. NASB; NRSV; NLT). Hill (Malachi, 230–31) suggests that it be left ambiguous, which may well reflect the author’s intent.
11. This entails reading the Hebrew particle ʾ ašer, taken in the NIV reading as a relative pronoun (“the sanctuary that Yahweh loves”) instead as a causal clausal introduction (“because he loved …; BDB, 83, 8c; DCH, 1:436,8b; NEB; Hill, Malachi, 231).
12. Petersen, Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi, 198–200. Petersen also reads the particle mentioned in the previous note as “Asherah,” a Canaanite goddess (199–200).
13. BDB, 127; DCH, 2:239. See J. Barr, “The Image of God in Genesis—A Study of Terminology,” BJRL 51 (1968–1969): 11–26, for a sample study of word selection from within a semantic field.
14. CAD, 2:239 (bintu a); UT, 373:481.
15. krt can be read as a jussive or desired action rather than as an indicative (see ESV; NASB; NIV; NLT; NRSV, in contrast to the straight future reading of LXX; KJV; ASV).
16. Hill, Malachi, 235.
17. T. Muraoka (Emphatic Words and Structures in Biblical Hebrew [Leiden: Brill, 1985], 35) suggests that the divine subject preceding the verb flows from a religious psychology that recognizes God’s dominance, an explanation that also highlights the gravity of the present statement.
18. In the treaties between nations, for example, the witnesses are the deities of the parties involved (see, e.g., COS, 2:95, 97–98, 105–6).
19. See Hill, Malachi, 243.
20. See Hill, Malachi, 247–48.
21. Anneli Aejmelaeus, “Function and Interpretation of 
in Biblical Hebrew,” JBL 105 (1986): 193–209.
22. The KJV translates as reported rather than direct speech, “For the Lord … saith,” repointing the verb as a participle; cf. Beth Glazier-McDonald, Malachi, the Divine Messenger (SBLDS; Atlanta: Scholars, 1987), 110–11.
23. śānēʾ read as śōnēʾ; LXX; REB; Glazier-McDonald, Malachi, 110–12.
24. See R. Westbrook, “The Prohibition on Restoration of Marriage in Deuteronomy 24:1–4,” in Studies in the Bible 1986: Scripta Hierosolymitana 31, ed. S. Japhet (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986), 387–405; Hugenberger, Marriage, 70–72.
25. See Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 241; Hugenberger, Marriage, 57–58.
26. See Glazier-McDonald, Malachi, 111.
27. Hill, Malachi, 251; “thereby covers”; see also Glazier-McDonald, Malachi, 82. A variation of this last option is for the conjunction to function explicatively, “divorce, that is, covering …”; cf. D. W. Baker, “Further Examples of the Waw Explicativum,” 129–36. This highlights the abusive nature of divorce in the context.
28. See Verhoef, Haggai and Malachi, 279; Hill, Malachi, 252;
29. Gen. 6:11, 13; Hab. 1:2, 3, 9; TDOT, 4:478–87; I. Swart and C. Van Dam, “
,”NIDOTTE, 2:177–79. Petersen (Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi, 194–95) prefers “wrongdoing” in an attempt to avoid a connotation of physical abuse, but abuse, whether physical assault (Judg. 9:24; Ps. 58:3; Jer. 51:35; Ezek. 7:23), verbal and psychological maltreatment (Gen. 16:5; Ex. 23:1; Ps. 27:12), or economic exploitation (Ezek. 28:16; Amos 3:10; Hab. 2:8), seems completely appropriate.
30. This plural addressee also provides a segue into the next section of the prophecy.
31. The topic of remarriage is important in a pastoral context. Helpful resources from different perspectives include W. A. Heth and G. J. Wenham, Jesus and Divorce: The Problem with the Evangelical Consensus (Nashville: Nelson, 1984); C. S. Keener, And Marries Another: Divorce and Remarriage in the Teaching of the New Testament (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1992); D. Instone-Brewer, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).
32. See discussion in Merrill, An Exegetical Commentary, 322–23.
33. Ibid., 423.
34. Exact figures are unavailable, one of the reasons being that sexual abuse is still underreported. For studies on this difficult issue from a secular perspective see D. Finkelhor, A Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1986), and other works by him. On family domestic violence in general, see D. Finkelhor et al., The Dark Side of Families: Current Family Violence Research (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983).
35. Oral communication from Victoria Kepler Didato, sexual abuse therapist and expert.
36. www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/features/surgeongeneralreport/chapter4/sec1_1.asp.
37. A 1998 survey by the Commonwealth Fund reports that violence or abuse will affect 39 percent of women at some time during their life.
38. A number of Christian resources available on this topic. For example, J. and P. Alsdurf, Battered into Submission (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1989); D. Allender, The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Child Sexual Abuse (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1990); C. J. Adams and M. M. Fortune, ed., Violence against Women and Children: A Christian Theological Sourcebook (New York: Continuum, 1995); C. C. Kroeger and J. R. Beck, Women, Abuse, and the Bible: How Scripture Can Be Used to Hurt or Heal (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996); N. Nason-Clark, The Battered Wife: How Christians Confront Family Violence (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997); C. C. Kroeger and N. Nason-Clark, No Place for Abuse: Biblical & Practical Resources to Counteract Domestic Violence (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2001).
1. This could be again speaking to the priests, cf. R. L. Smith, Micah–Malachi, 326; DCH, 4:81.
2. The verb is a participle, indicating habitual, ongoing behavior (see Waltke-O’Connor, §37.6b).
3. See Hill, Malachi, 264.
4. See Glazier-McDonald, Malachi, 123; Hill, Malachi, 262.
5. Hugenberger, Marriage, 102.
6. Waltke-O’Connor, §37.6d; 40.2.1b. Most English translations render the interjection as an imperative verb (“see!”; “behold!” etc.), though it is in fact neither verb nor imperative.
7. Cf. Glazier-McDonald, Malachi, 134–35, who calls this identity a “deception.”
8. Parallel terms in the two passages to those in Malachi are italicized. Ex. 23:20 reads: “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way,” implying opposition from which the people will need protection, and 33:2 reads “and I will send an angel before you,” whose purpose will be to remove the opposing Canaanite nations.
9. See Hill, Malachi, 266, for the ancient Near Eastern royal processional background.
10. See Hill, Malachi, 268.
11. An “incipient present non-perfective”; Waltke-O’Connor, §31.3d.
12. Cf. other cases where people get what they want but find out that they do not want it after all; e.g., wanting human wisdom and autonomy from God (Gen. 3); “if only we had died … in this desert” (Num. 14:2); the “day of the LORD” (Amos 5:18–20).
13. On this, see Verhoef, Haggai and Malachi, 289; B. Glazier-McDonald, “Malʾak habberit: The Messenger of the Covenant in Mal. 3:1,” HAR 11 (1987): 98; NKJV; cf. Petersen, Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi, 211.
14. The enigmatic appearances of Yahweh through/ in the person of angels (Gen. 16:7–14; 18:22; Judg. 13:8–23) show that the separation between God and his messenger is not absolute. Contra JB (note), which suggests their identity in this passage.
15. Cf. Petersen, Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi, 211.
16. This is the position of Kaiser, Malachi, 81–85.
17. F. E. Deist, The Material Culture of the Bible: An Introduction (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 211–13; P. J. King and L. E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 164–76.
18. King and Stager, Life in Biblical Israel, 158–59. The Hebrew consonants for the soap are the same for the covenant (bryt; Mal. 3:1), which may explain its use here (Hill, Malachi, 274).
19. Hill, Malachi, 274–75.
20. J. M. O’Brien, Priest and Levite in Malachi (SBLDS 121; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 47.
21. See also 1QH 14.5, 8; 6.3; 4QShirb 35.2.
22. Hill, Malachi, 276.
23. The Hebrew lit. reads: “and-they-will-become for-Yahweh ones-characterized-by-bringing-near offering in-righteousness.”
24. See Verhoef, Haggai and Malachi, 291; Petersen, Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi, 206.
25. Waltke-O’Connor, §10.2.2e.
26. See the order of the sin offerings in Lev. 4, with that of the priest preceding those of the people; see also 9:2–3; 2 Chron. 29:5–16, 34; 30:3, 15–17.
27. See Hill, Malachi, 279.
28. Ibid., 279.
29. For bibliography on the rîb, see D. W. Baker, “Israelite Prophets and Prophecy,” in The Face of Old Testament Study: A Survey of Contemporary Approaches, ed. D. W. Baker and B. T. Arnold (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 274, n. 40. Note some translations of this verse: “I will appear before you in court,” NEB; “But [first] I will step forward to contend against you,” NJPS.
30. For discussion of the priesthood, see R. D. Nelson, Raising Up a Faithful Priest: Community and Priesthood in Biblical Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993); cf. also R. Duke in DOTP, 646–55, and the bibliography there.
31. There are too many instances in Israel’s history when they turned away from their God and imported others gods and relied on other nations (e.g., 1 Kings 16:31–33; Hos. 2:2–13). The association of foreign gods with subservience to foreign powers is shown in the reign of King Hezekiah. When he became king, he removed pagan religious shrines and idols from the land of Judah (2 Kings 18:4). This is part of what the writer termed rebellion against the Assyrian king (v. 7), who then moved his armies against Judah (v. 18).
32. E.g., W. Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: MacMillan, 1910).
33. Some authors who have usefully addressed some of these issues are T. Campolo, S. Escobar, J. Hollyday, R. Padilla, R. Sider, T. Sine, J. Wallis, L. Wilkinson, N. Wolterstorff, T. Yamamori, and J. H. Yoder.
1. See Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 245; Glazier-McDonald, Malachi, 173.
2. Verhoef, Haggai and Malachi, 297. JB takes it as a strong disjunctive, “No”; cf. J. M. P. Smith, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, 66, “but.”
3. Waltke-O’Connor, §16.3.1b; 16.3.3c. The second pronoun is also introduced by the disjunctive conjunction “but” (ibid., §39.2).
4. The Heb. bānîm has several levels of meaning. On the literal, biological level it can mean “male descendants of the next generation” (e.g., Gen. 49:8), “male descendants several generations removed” (2 Chron. 22:9), or “descendants several generations removed without gender specification” (e.g., “the children of Israel”). The latter is the use in this verse.
5. See Verhoef, Haggai and Malachi, 297; Petersen, Zechariah 9–14 and Malachi, 212.
6. Hill, Malachi, 299.
7. Hill (ibid., 300) suggests that the two verbs serve as a hendiadys, a form representing “two aspects of a complex situation.” Both verbs highlight the act of purposefully ignoring the covenantal laws.
8. Glazier-McDonald, Malachi, 181–82, suggests that the covenant-profaning intermarriages condemned by Malachi in Mal. 2:10 harked back to earlier mentions of undesirable relationships outside of the covenant community (Ex. 34:10–14; Deut 7:16). See also where they are said to have strayed (Deut. 9:12).
9. W. L. Holladay, The Root ŠUBH in the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 1958), 120.
10. ʾādām, the subject of the verb, connotes the more generic “human, person” (NJB, NRSV, NLT; see D. J. A. Clines, “
, the Hebrew for ‘Human, Humanity’: A Response to James Barr,” VT 53 [2003]: 297–310) rather than an engendered “man, male person” (most English translations, using the ambiguously unengendered “man”; see J. Barr, “One Man, or All Humanity?” in A. Brenner and J. van Henten, ed., Recycling Biblical Figures [Leiderdorp: Deo Publishing, 1999], 3–21).
12. This is part of the debate concerning the openness of God. For a discussion of this wider issue, see, e.g., C. H. Pinnock et al., The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994); J. Sanders, The God Who Risks (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998); B. A. Ware, God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2000); C. H. Pinnock, Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God’s Openness (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001); N. Geisler and H. W. House, The Battle for God: Responding to the Challenge of Neotheism (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2001).
13. The capture of the Judean city of Lachish (2 Kings 18:13–15), the cruel death of its leaders, and the exile of its people can be seen on the wall reliefs of the palace of the Assyrian king Sennacherib in Nineveh (see J. B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East, vol. 1, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures [Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1958], fig. 101; also found at http://www.blueletterbible.org/images/bible_images/History/lachish.html.
14. Forgiveness is an important theological theme running throughout Scripture, e.g., Ex. 34:7, 9; Num. 14:18–19; 2 Chron. 6:21, 25, 27, 30; 7:13; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 79:9; 86:5; 98:8; 103:3; 130:4; Matt. 6:12; 26:28; Mark 2:7–10; 11:25; Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:9.
15. For discussions of the movement, see B. Barron, The Health and Wealth Gospel (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1987); C. E. Hummel, The Prosperity Gospel (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1991).
16. K. Copeland, The Laws of Prosperity (Forth Worth: Kenneth Copeland, 1974), 72.
17. This is especially true if one in reality is putting God to the test, trying to force him to respond in the desired way based on a reading of Mark 16:18, which itself is suspect on text-critical grounds.
1. See Hill, Malachi, 334.
2. The NIV obscures the existence of three separate clauses by rendering the second verb as a participle (“those who challenge”) rather than the finite verbal form of the Hebrew (“they challenged”).
3. The root dbr in the Niphal, exhibiting the reflexive use of the verbal stem; note the following phrase, “with each other” (lit., “a person with his friend”).
4. See Kaiser, Malachi, 105.
5. O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 27–28, 215–17; O. Keel and C. Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 389.
6. W. Rudolph, Haggai-Sacharja-Maleachi (KAT 13/4; Gütersloh: Mohn, 1976), 7.
7. See Lev. 23 for a discussion of the religious feasts and assemblies, Lev. 1–3 for the burnt, grain, and fellowship offerings, and several mentions of Yahweh’s music (e.g., 1 Chron. 6:16–17; 2 Chron. 5:12–13; 29:27–28).
8. For further discussion on the Day of the Lord, see, e.g., J. D. Nogalski, “The Day(s) of Yahweh in the Book of the Twelve,” in Thematic Threads in the Book of the Twelve (BZAW 325; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2003), 192–213.
9. L. L. Bronner, The Stories of Elijah and Elisha as Polemics against Baal Worship (Leiden: Brill, 1968).
10. See, e.g., D. Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999); G. L. Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life: Finding and Following the Will of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000); B. Waltke, Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).
11. For fairly recent uses of character ethics, see S. Hauerwas, Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics (San Antonio: Trinity Univ. Press, 1975); with C. Pinches, Christians among the Virtues: Theological Conversations with Ancient and Modern Ethics (Notre Dame: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1997); cf. R. S. Smith, Virtue Ethics and Moral Knowledge: Philosophy of Language after MacIntyre and Hauerwas (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2003); M. J. Dawn, Sexual Character: Beyond Technique to Intimacy (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993); Unfettered Hope: A Call to Faithful Living in an Affluent Society (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003).
12. Borrowing from the title of a book by S. Steele, The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America (New York: St. Martins, 1990).
13. For a moving look at the theology of Elijah in the events of the Passion, see N. T. Wright, The Crown and the Cross: Meditations on the Cross and the Life of the Spirit (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 41–45.