30:6 This is a message 1 about the animals in the Negev:
Through a land of distress and danger,
inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, 2
by snakes and darting adders, 3
they transport 4 their wealth on the backs of donkeys,
their riches on the humps of camels,
to a nation that cannot help them. 5
30:14 It shatters in pieces like a clay jar,
so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. 6
Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough 7
to scoop a hot coal from a fire 8
or to skim off water from a cistern.” 9
1 tn Traditionally, “burden” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “oracle.”
2 tc Heb “[a land of] a lioness and a lion, from them.” Some emend מֵהֶם (mehem, “from them”) to מֵהֵם (mehem), an otherwise unattested Hiphil participle from הָמַם (hamam, “move noisily”). Perhaps it would be better to take the initial mem (מ) as enclitic and emend the form to הֹמֶה (homeh), a Qal active participle from הָמָה (hamah, “to make a noise”); cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:542, n. 9.
3 tn Heb “flying fiery one.” See the note at 14:29.
4 tn Or “carry” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
5 sn This verse describes messengers from Judah transporting wealth to Egypt in order to buy Pharaoh’s protection through a treaty.
6 tn Heb “Its shattering is like the shattering of a jug of [i.e., “made by”] potters, [so] shattered one cannot save [any of it].”
7 tn The words “large enough” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
8 tn Heb “to remove fire from the place of kindling.”
9 tn On the meaning of גֶבֶא (geveh, “cistern”) see HALOT 170 s.v.