NRSV

[11] The haughty eyes of the people shall be brought low,

And the pride of everyone shall be humbled;

And the LORD alone will be exalted on that day. 

[12] For the LORD of hosts has a day

Against all that is proud and lofty

Against all that is lifted up and high;

[13] Against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up;

Against all the oaks of Bashan;

[14] Against all the high mountains,

And against all the lofty hills;

[15] Against every high tower,

And against every fortified wall;

[16] Against all the ships of Tarshish, 

And against all the beautiful craft.

[17] The haughtiness of the people shall be humbled,

And the pride of everyone shall be brought low;

And the LORD alone will be exalted on that day. 

[18] The idols shall utterly pass away. 

[19] Enter the caves of the rocks

 and the holes of the ground,

From the terror of the LORD,

From the glory of his majesty, 

When he rises to terrify the earth.

[20] On that day the people will throw away to the moles and to the bats

Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,

Which they made for themselves to worship,

[21] to enter of the caverns of the rocks 

And the clefts in the crags,

From terror of the LORD,

And from the glory of his majesty,

When he rises to terrify the earth. 

[22] Turn away from mortals, 

Who have only breath in their nostrils,

For of what account are they?

LXX

[11] For the eyes of the Lord are lofty, but the person is humble;

And the exaltation of people shall be humbled

And the Lord alone shall be elevated on this day. 

[12] For the sabbath day of the Lord shall be upon all the insolent and arrogant,

And upon all the elevated and eminent, and they shall be humbled,

[13] And upon all the elevated and eminent cedars of Lebanon,

And every acorn tree of Basan

[14] and upon every mountain and upon every elevated hill

[15] and upon every elevated tower and upon every elevated city wall

[16] and upon every boat in the sea upon every spectacle of fine ships;

[17] and they shall be humbled, every person, and the exaltation of people shall fall,

And the Lord alone shall be elevated on this day.

[18] And they shall conceal all the things made by hand

[19] and carrying into the caves and into the schisms of rocks

And into the holes of the earth from before the fear of the lord

And from the glory of his strength, 

Whenever he should raise up to shatter the earth.

[20] For on this day a person shall cast out his abominations

The silver things and the gold things, which they made to make obeisance to,

To the meaningless and to the bats

[21] to enter into the caves of strong rock

And into the schisms of the rocks from before the fear of the Lord,

And from the glory of his strength

Whenever he should raise up to shatter the earth.

Notes on Text

As we hinted in the last post, this passage makes a quite explicit argument that’s God’s glory and power is preeminent to and will replace worldly power.  In the NRSV, the passage is clearly divided into two parts with nearly identical opening verses. The first part is vv. 11-16, which opens with a verse promising that the pride of people will be brought low and God shall be exalted, and then proceeds to list high things that will be brought low (cedars, oaks, mountains, hills, towers, walls, ships, “beautiful craft”).  The “cedars of Lebanon” and “oaks of Bashan” are stock metaphors used to describe aristocracies in several parts of the Hebrew Bible (e.g. similar language also appears in Zechariah, as we have seen).  The second part of the passage begins in vv. 17, which closely mirrors vv. 11, and then proceeds to describe the idols being thrown away and people hiding from the terror and glory of God in caves and holes.

Verses 11 & 17 have less identical language in the LXX text, and generally the tenor of vv. 17-21 is slightly different when compared to the NRSV text.  The way I read it, the NRSV text seems like it is talking to a much larger extent about people exclusively hiding in holes and caves from the terror of the Lord, whereas in the LXX text the condemnation is much more heavily directed towards idols, which are described as handmade things and abominations.  The Greek text is also missing vv. 22 entirely!