2:6 “But all these nations will someday taunt him 1
and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: 2
‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead 3
(How long will this go on?) 4 –
he who gets rich by extortion!’ 5
3:17 When 6 the fig tree does not bud,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
when the olive trees do not produce, 7
and the fields yield no crops; 8
when the sheep disappear 9 from the pen,
and there are no cattle in the stalls,
1 tn Heb “Will not these, all of them, take up a taunt against him…?” The rhetorical question assumes the response, “Yes, they will.” The present translation brings out the rhetorical force of the question by rendering it as an affirmation.
2 tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”
3 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who increases [what is] not his.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe,” “ah”) was used in funeral laments and carries the connotation of death.
4 tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.
5 tn Heb “and the one who makes himself heavy [i.e., wealthy] [by] debts.” Though only appearing in the first line, the term הוֹי (hoy) is to be understood as elliptical in the second line.
6 tn Or “though.”
7 tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”
8 tn Heb “food.”
9 tn Or “are cut off.”