4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. 1
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with the horses you had captured.
I made the stench from the corpses 2 rise up into your nostrils.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. 3
The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:
“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;
I hate their 4 fortresses.
I will hand over to their enemies 5 the city of Samaria 6 and everything in it.”
8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, 7
and all your songs into funeral dirges.
I will make everyone wear funeral clothes 8
and cause every head to be shaved bald. 9
I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; 10
when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. 11
1 tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”
2 tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”
3 tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”
4 tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.
5 tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
6 tn Heb “the city”; this probably refers to the city of Samaria (cf. 6:1), which in turn, by metonymy, represents the entire northern kingdom.
7 tn Heb “mourning.”
8 tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”
sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief.
9 tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).
sn Shaving the head or tearing out one’s hair was a ritual act of mourning. See Lev 21:5; Deut 14:1; Isa 3:24; 15:2; Jer 47:5; 48:37; Ezek 7:18; 27:31; Mic 1:16.
10 tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”
11 tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.