15:9 Indeed, the waters of Dimon 1 are full of blood!
Indeed, I will heap even more trouble on Dimon. 2
A lion will attack 3 the Moabite fugitives
and the people left in the land.
16:4 Please let the Moabite fugitives live 4 among you.
Hide them 5 from the destroyer!”
Certainly 6 the one who applies pressure will cease, 7
the destroyer will come to an end,
those who trample will disappear 8 from the earth.
1 tc The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads “Dibon” instead of “Dimon” in this verse.
2 tn Heb “Indeed I will place on Dimon added things.” Apparently the Lord is speaking.
3 tn The words “will attack” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
4 tn That is, “live as resident foreigners.”
5 tn Heb “Be a hiding place for them.”
6 tn The present translation understands כִּי (ki) as asseverative, but one could take it as explanatory (“for,” KJV, NASB) or temporal (“when,” NAB, NRSV). In the latter case, v. 4b would be logically connected to v. 5.
7 tn A perfect verbal form is used here and in the next two lines for rhetorical effect; the demise of the oppressor(s) is described as if it had already occurred.
8 tc The Hebrew text has, “they will be finished, the one who tramples, from the earth.” The plural verb form תַּמּוּ, (tammu, “disappear”) could be emended to agree with the singular subject רֹמֵס (romes, “the one who tramples”) or the participle can be emended to a plural (רֹמֵסִם, romesim) to agree with the verb. The translation assumes the latter. Haplography of mem (ם) seems likely; note that the word after רֹמֵס begins with a mem.