13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,
and people more scarce 1 than gold from Ophir.
33:8 Highways are empty, 2
there are no travelers. 3
Treaties are broken, 4
witnesses are despised, 5
human life is treated with disrespect. 6
1 tn The verb is supplied in the translation from the first line. The verb in the first line (“I will make scarce”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.
2 tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”
3 tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”
4 tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”
5 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.
6 tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”