1:18 Listen to the cattle groan! 1
The herds of livestock wander around in confusion 2
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
2:5 They sound like 3 chariots rumbling 4 over mountain tops,
like the crackling 5 of blazing fire consuming stubble,
like the noise of 6 a mighty army 7 being drawn up for battle. 8
3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters to 9 the people of Judah. 10
They will sell them to the Sabeans, 11 a nation far away.
Indeed, the Lord has spoken!
1 tn Heb “how the cattle groan!”
2 tn Heb “the herds of cattle are confused.” The verb בּוּךְ (bukh, “be confused”) sometimes refers to wandering aimlessly in confusion (cf. Exod 14:3).
3 tn Heb “like the sound of.”
sn The repetition of the word of comparison (“like”) in vv. 4-7 should not go unnoticed. The author is comparing the locust invasion to familiar aspects of human invasion. If the preposition has its normal force here, it is similarity and not identity that is intended. In other words, locusts are being likened to human armies, but human armies are not actually present. On the other hand, this Hebrew preposition is also on occasion used to indicate exactitude, a function described by grammarians as kaph veritatis.
4 tn Heb “jostling” or “leaping.” There is question whether this pictures chariots rumbling over the mountains (e.g., 2 Sam 6:14,16; 1 Chr 15:29; Nah 3:2) or the locusts flying – or “leaping” – over the mountains (e.g., Job 21:11); see BDB 955 s.v. רָקַד.
5 tn Heb “sound.”
6 tn The phrase “the noise of” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is implied by the parallelism, so it has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
7 tn Heb “people.”
8 tn Heb “being arrayed of battle.”
9 tn Heb “into the hand of.”
10 tn Heb “the sons of Judah.”
11 sn The Sabeans were Arabian merchants who were influential along the ancient caravan routes that traveled through Arabia. See also Job 1:15; Isa 43:3; 45:14; Ps 72:10.