20:16 May that man be like the cities 3
that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy.
May he hear a cry of distress in the morning
and a battle cry at noon.
1 tn Or “children along with their parents”; Heb “fathers and children together.”
2 tn Heb “I will not show…so as not to destroy them.”
3 sn The cities alluded to are Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the Jordan plain which had become proverbial for their wickedness and for the destruction that the
4 tn Heb “will turn each one from his wicked way.”
5 tn Heb “For great is the anger and the wrath which the
6 tn Heb “My lord, the king.”
7 tn Heb “let my plea for mercy fall before you.” I.e., let it come before you and be favorably received (= granted; by metonymical extension).
8 tn Or “So that I will not die there,” or “or I will die there”; Heb “and I will not die there.” The particle that introduces this clause (וְלֹא) regularly introduces negative purpose clauses after the volitive sequence (אַל [’al] + jussive here) according to GKC 323 §109.g. However, purpose and result clauses in Hebrew (and Greek) are often indistinguishable. Here the clause is more in the nature of a negative result.