4:9 “I destroyed your crops 1 with blight and disease.
Locusts kept 2 devouring your orchards, 3 vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
9:14 I will bring back my people, Israel; 4
they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble 5 and settle down. 6
They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce; 7
they will grow orchards 8 and eat the fruit they produce. 9
1 tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.
2 tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).
3 tn Or “gardens.”
4 tn This line can also be translated “I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel” and is a common idiom (e.g., Deut 30:3; Jer 30:3; Hos 6:11; Zeph 3:20). This rendering is followed by several modern English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, NJPS).
5 tn Or “the ruined [or “desolate”] cities.”
6 tn Or “and live [in them].”
7 tn Heb “drink their wine.”
8 tn Or “gardens.”
9 tn Heb “eat their fruit.”