14:14 I will climb up to the tops 1 of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High!” 2
16:11 So my heart constantly sighs for Moab, like the strumming of a harp, 3
my inner being sighs 4 for Kir Hareseth. 5
29:2 I will threaten Ariel,
and she will mourn intensely
and become like an altar hearth 6 before me.
35:1 Let the desert and dry region be happy; 7
let the wilderness 8 rejoice and bloom like a lily!
63:2 Why are your clothes red?
Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat? 9
63:13 who led them through the deep water?
Like a horse running on flat land 10 they did not stumble.
1 tn Heb “the high places.” This word often refers to the high places where pagan worship was conducted, but here it probably refers to the “backs” or tops of the clouds. See HALOT 136 s.v. בָּמָה.
2 sn Normally in the OT the title “Most High” belongs to the God of Israel, but in this context, where the mythological overtones are so strong, it probably refers to the Canaanite high god El.
3 tn Heb “so my intestines sigh for Moab like a harp.” The word מֵעַי (me’ay, “intestines”) is used here of the seat of the emotions. English idiom requires the word “heart.” The point of the comparison to a harp is not entirely clear. Perhaps his sighs of mourning resemble a harp in sound, or his constant sighing is like the repetitive strumming of a harp.
4 tn The verb is supplied in the translation; “sighs” in the preceding line does double duty in the parallel structure.
5 tn Heb “Kir Heres” (so ASV, NRSV, TEV, CEV), a variant name for “Kir Hareseth” (see v. 7).
6 tn The term אֲרִיאֵל (’ari’el, “Ariel”) is the word translated “altar hearth” here. The point of the simile is not entirely clear. Perhaps the image likens Jerusalem’s coming crisis to a sacrificial fire.
7 tn The final mem (ם) on the verb יְשֻׂשׂוּם (yÿsusum) is dittographic (note the initial mem on the following noun מִדְבָּר [midbar]). The ambiguous verbal form is translated as a jussive because it is parallel to the jussive form תָגֵל (tagel). The jussive is used rhetorically here, not as a literal command or prayer.
8 tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); NAB, NIV, TEV “desert.”
9 tn Heb “and your garments like one who treads in a vat?”
10 tn Heb “in the desert [or “steppe”].”