Paragraph 9:12

9:12a

The first woe has passed: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as woe here means “trouble” or “distress.” This clause refers to the distress caused by the locusts (9:3–11). Other ways to translate this clause are:

That was the first of the disasters (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
The first trouble is past (New Century Version)

See how you translated the word woe in 8:13.

9:12b

Behold: In Greek the word which the Berean Standard Bible translates as Behold is more literally “look.” The word emphasizes or calls attention to the words that follow. The word is not a command to look at something. Other ways to translate this word are:

listen,
-or-
indeed/hey,

two woes are still to follow: The Greek clause is literally “two woes come yet after these things.” The phrase “these things” refers to the events in 9:1–11. Other ways to translate this clause are:

two woes are still coming after these things (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
there are still two other troubles that will come (New Century Version)
-or-
Two more horrible things will happen soon. (Contemporary English Version)

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.