21:8 Then the guard 1 cries out:
“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, 2
I stand all day long;
at my post
I am stationed every night.
32:14 For the fortress is neglected;
the once-crowded 3 city is abandoned.
Hill 4 and watchtower
are permanently uninhabited. 5
Wild donkeys love to go there,
and flocks graze there. 6
1 tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.
2 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).
3 tn Or “noisy” (NAB, NIV, NCV).
4 tn Hebrew עֹפֶל (’ofel), probably refers here to a specific area within the city of Jerusalem. See HALOT 861 s.v. II עֹפֶל.
5 tn The Hebrew text has בְעַד מְעָרוֹת (vÿ’ad mÿ’arot). The force of בְעַד, which usually means “behind, through, round about,” or “for the benefit of,” is uncertain here. HALOT 616 s.v. *מְעָרָה takes מְעָרוֹת (mÿ’arot) as a homonym of “cave” and define it here as “cleared field.” Despite these lexical problems, the general point of the statement seems clear – the city will be uninhabited.
6 tn Heb “the joy of wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks.”