24:22
This verse gives parallel reasons to not join people who rebel against the LORD or the king. Notice the parts that are similar in meaning (in the Berean Standard Bible):
22a For they will bring sudden destruction.
22b Who knows what ruin they can bring ?
In Hebrew, these two lines are more literally:
22a for their disaster will arise suddenly,
22b and who knows the ruin of both of them ?
By itself, the first line is ambiguous. The pronoun “their” could refer to the LORD and the king (the disaster comes from them). It could also refer to the rebels (the disaster happens to the rebels). But the pronoun “both of them” in the second line is not ambiguous. It clearly refers to the LORD and the king, so the overall meaning of the parallel lines is clear.
24:22a–b
sudden destruction…ruin: In Hebrew, both these terms are singular. They refer to the same disaster. The verse does not specify what kind of disaster will happen. From the context, it is clearly a punishment that is caused by the LORD and/or the king. The New Living Translation (2004) makes this explicit in 24:22b. It has:
Who knows what punishment will come from the Lord and the king?
24:22a
For they will bring sudden destruction: As mentioned in the previous note, the pronoun they here refers to the LORD and the king. Some translations clarify who sends the disaster and who experiences it. For example:
Locust
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locust
30:27b
yet they all advance in formation: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as in formation is literally “dividing.” When locusts fly somewhere, they divide into orderly swarms similar to the formation or columns of marching soldiers in an army. Some other ways to translate this line are:
they all know how to move in formation (The Voice)
-or-
yet all of them go out in ranks (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
yet all of them divide into swarms by instinct (God’s Word)
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