34:17 He assigns them their allotment; 1
he measures out their assigned place. 2
They will live there 3 permanently;
they will settle in it through successive generations.
41:4 Who acts and carries out decrees? 4
Who 5 summons the successive generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning,
and at the very end – I am the one. 6
1 tn Heb “and he causes the lot to fall for them.” Once again the pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).
2 tn Heb “and his hand divides for them with a measuring line.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) now switches to masculine plural, referring to all the animals and birds mentioned in vv. 11-15, some of which were identified with masculine nouns. This signals closure for this portion of the speech, which began in v. 11. The following couplet (v. 17b) forms an inclusio with v. 11a through verbal repetition.
3 tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV); NCV “they will own that land forever.”
4 tn Heb “Who acts and accomplishes?”; NASB “Who has performed and accomplished it.”
5 tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
6 tn Heb “I, the Lord, [am with] the first, and with the last ones I [am] he.”