Isaiah 30:6

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 

Isaiah 36:12

36:12 But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. ⁶  His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!” ⁷ 

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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 “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

⁷ tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”

sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.