3:44 You shrouded yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through.
ע (Ayin)
3:49 Tears flow from my eyes 1 and will not stop;
there will be no break 2
צ (Tsade)
3:52 For no good reason 3 my enemies
hunted me down 4 like a bird.
5:5 We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks; 5
we are weary and have no rest. 6
5:8 Slaves 7 rule over us;
there is no one to rescue us from their power. 8
5:15 Our hearts no longer have any joy; 9
our dancing is turned to mourning.
1 tn Heb “my eye flows.” The term “eye” is a metonymy of association, standing for the “tears” which flow from one’s eyes.
2 tn Heb “without stopping.” The noun הַפוּגָה (hafugah, “stop”) is a hapax legomenon (word that occurs only once in Hebrew scriptures). The form of the noun is unusual, probably being derived from the denominative Hiphil verbal stem of the root פּוּג (pug, “to grow weary, ineffective; numb, become cold”).
3 tn Heb “without cause.”
4 tn The construction צוֹד צָדוּנִי (tsod tsaduni, “they have hunted me down”) is emphatic: Qal infinitive absolute of the same root of Qal perfect 3rd person common plural + 1st person common singular suffix.
5 tn Heb “We are hard-driven on our necks”
6 sn For the theological allusion that goes beyond physical rest, see, e.g., Deut 12:10; 25:19; Josh 1:13; 11:23; 2 Sam 7:1, 11; 1 Chron 22:18; 2 Chron 14:6-7
7 tn Heb “slaves.” While indicating that social structures are awry, the expression “slaves rule over us” might be an idiom for “tyrants rule over us.” This might find its counterpart in the gnomic truth that the most ruthless rulers are made of former slaves: “Under three things the earth quakes, under four it cannot bear up: under a slave when he becomes king” (Prov 30:21-22a).
8 tn Heb “hand.”
9 tn Heb “the joy of our heart has ceased.”