4:12 Its foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful;
on it there was food enough for all.
Under it the wild animals 6 used to seek shade,
and in its branches the birds of the sky used to nest.
All creatures 7 used to feed themselves from it.
1 tn Heb “The overseer of the court officials.” The subject has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.
2 tn Heb “assigned.” See v. 5.
3 tn Heb “Why should he see your faces thin from the young men who are according to your age?” The term translated “thin” occurs only here and in Gen 40:6, where it appears to refer to a dejected facial expression. The word is related to an Arabic root meaning “be weak.” See HALOT 277 s.v. II זעף.
4 tn The words “if that happened” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “my head.” Presumably this is an implicit reference to capital punishment (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT), although this is not entirely clear.
6 tn Aram “the beasts of the field.”
7 tn Aram “all flesh.”