5:4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. 1
They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. 2
They do not know what their God requires of them. 3
5:5 I will go to the leaders 4
and speak with them.
Surely they know what the Lord demands. 5
Surely they know what their God requires of them.” 6
Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority
and refuse to submit to him. 7
5:21 Tell them: ‘Hear this,
you foolish people who have no understanding,
who have eyes but do not discern,
who have ears but do not perceive: 8
5:22 “You should fear me!” says the Lord.
“You should tremble in awe before me! 9
I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea,
a permanent barrier that it can never cross.
Its waves may roll, but they can never prevail.
They may roar, but they can never cross beyond that boundary.” 10
1 tn Heb “Surely they are poor.” The translation is intended to make clear the explicit contrasts and qualifications drawn in this verse and the next.
2 tn Heb “the way of the
3 tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”
4 tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”
5 tn Heb “the way of the
6 tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”
7 tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.
8 tn Heb “they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear.”
9 tn Heb “Should you not fear me? Should you not tremble in awe before me?” The rhetorical questions expect the answer explicit in the translation.
10 tn Heb “it.” The referent is made explicit to avoid any possible confusion.