1:6 Look, I am about to empower 1 the Babylonians,
that ruthless 2 and greedy 3 nation.
They sweep across the surface 4 of the earth,
seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.
3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; 5
I am awed, 6 Lord, by what you accomplished. 7
In our time 8 repeat those deeds; 9
in our time reveal them again. 10
But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! 11
1 tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).
2 tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”
3 tn Heb “hasty, quick.” Some translate here “impetuous” (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “rash,” but in this context greed may very well be the idea. The Babylonians move quickly and recklessly ahead in their greedy quest to expand their empire.
4 tn Heb “the open spaces.”
5 tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”
6 tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw,
7 tn Heb “your work.”
8 tn Heb “in the midst of years.” The meaning of the phrase, which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain (cf. NIV “in our day”; NEB, NASB “in the midst of the years”).
9 tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).
10 tn Heb “make known.” The implied object is “your deeds”; the pronoun “them,” referring to “deeds” in the previous line, was employed in the translation to avoid redundancy. The suffix on the form חַיֵּיהוּ (khayyehu, “revive it”) does double duty in the parallelism.
11 tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”