12:2 Many of those who sleep
in the dusty ground will awake –
some to everlasting life,
and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. 5
1 tn The meaning of Aramaic דַּחֲוָה (dakhavah) is a crux interpretum. Suggestions include “music,” “dancing girls,” “concubines,” “table,” “food” – all of which are uncertain. The translation employed here, suggested by earlier scholars, is deliberately vague. A number of recent English versions follow a similar approach with “entertainment” (e.g., NASB, NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). On this word see further, HALOT 1849-50 s.v.; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 37.
2 tn Aram “his sleep fled from him.”
3 tc Heb “I heard the sound of his words.” These words are absent in the LXX and the Syriac.
4 tn Heb “as I listened to the sound of his words.”
5 sn This verse is the only undisputed reference to a literal resurrection found in the Hebrew Bible.