5:11 Those who get up early to drink beer are as good as dead, 1
those who keep drinking long after dark
until they are intoxicated with wine. 2
6:11 I replied, “How long, sovereign master?” He said,
“Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated,
and houses are uninhabited,
and the land is ruined and devastated,
21:8 Then the guard 3 cries out:
“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, 4
I stand all day long;
at my post
I am stationed every night.
24:22 They will be imprisoned in a pit, 5
locked up in a prison,
and after staying there for a long time, 6 they will be punished. 7
42:14 “I have been inactive 8 for a long time;
I kept quiet and held back.
Like a woman in labor I groan;
I pant and gasp. 9
65:2 I spread out my hands all day long
to my rebellious people,
who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable,
and who did what they desired. 10
65:4 They sit among the tombs 11
and keep watch all night long. 12
They eat pork, 13
and broth 14 from unclean sacrificial meat is in their pans.
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who arise early in the morning, [who] chase beer.”
2 tn Heb “[who] delay until dark, [until] wine enflames them.”
sn This verse does not condemn drinking per se, but refers to the carousing lifestyle of the rich bureaucrats, made possible by wealth taken from the poor. Their carousing is not the fundamental problem, but a disgusting symptom of the real disease – their social injustice.
3 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.
4 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).
5 tn Heb “they will be gathered [in] a gathering [as] a prisoner in a cistern.” It is tempting to eliminate אֲסֵפָה (’asefah, “a gathering”) as dittographic or as a gloss, but sound repetition is one of the main characteristics of the style of this section of the chapter.
6 tn Heb “and after a multitude of days.”
7 tn Heb “visited” (so KJV, ASV). This verse can mean to visit for good or for evil. The translation assumes the latter, based on v. 21a. However, BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד B.Niph.2 suggests the meaning “visit graciously” here, in which case one might translate “they will be released.”
8 tn Heb “silent” (so NASB, NIV, TEV, NLT); CEV “have held my temper.”
9 sn The imagery depicts the Lord as a warrior who is eager to fight and can no longer hold himself back from the attack.
10 tn Heb “who walked [in] the way that is not good, after their thoughts.”
11 sn Perhaps the worship of underworld deities or dead spirits is in view.
12 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and in the watches they spend the night.” Some understand נְּצוּרִים (nÿtsurim) as referring to “secret places” or “caves,” while others emend the text to וּבֵין צוּרִים (uven tsurim, “between the rocky cliffs”).
13 tn Heb “the flesh of the pig”; KJV, NAB, NASB “swine’s flesh.”
14 tc The marginal reading (Qere), supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa, reads מְרַק (mÿraq, “broth”), while the consonantal text (Kethib) has פְרַק (feraq, “fragment”).