1:3 Look, 1 the Lord is coming out of his dwelling place!
He will descend and march on the earth’s mountaintops! 2
1:12 Indeed, the residents of Maroth 3 hope for something good to happen, 4
though the Lord has sent disaster against the city of Jerusalem. 5
4:4 Each will sit under his own grapevine
or under his own fig tree without any fear. 6
The Lord who commands armies has decreed it. 7
7:7 But I will keep watching for the Lord;
I will wait for the God who delivers me.
My God will hear my lament. 8
7:8 My enemies, 9 do not gloat 10 over me!
Though I have fallen, I will get up.
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. 11
1 tn Or “For look.” The expression כִּי־הִנֵּה (ki-hinneh) may function as an explanatory introduction (“For look!”; Isa 26:21; 60:2; 65:17, 18: 66:15; Jer 1:15; 25:29; 30:10; 45:5; 46:27; 50:9; Ezek 30:9; 36:9; Zech 2:10; 3:8), or as an emphatic introduction (“Look!”; Jdgs 3:15; Isa 3:1; Jer 8:17; 30:3; 49:15; Hos 9:6; Joel 3:1 [HT 4:1]; Amos 4:2, 13; 6:11, 14; 9:9; Hab 1:6; Zech 2:9 [HT 2:13]; Zech 3:9; 11:16).
2 tn Or “high places” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
3 sn The place name Maroth sounds like the Hebrew word for “bitter.”
4 tc The translation assumes an emendation of חָלָה (khalah; from חִיל, khil, “to writhe”) to יִחֲלָה (yikhalah; from יָחַל, yakhal, “to wait”).
tn Heb “[the residents of Maroth] writhe [= “anxiously long for”?] good.”
5 tn Heb “though disaster has come down from the
6 tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”
7 tn Heb “for the mouth of the
8 tn Heb “me.” In the interest of clarity the nature of the prophet’s cry has been specified as “my lament” in the translation.
9 tn The singular form is understood as collective.
10 tn Or “rejoice” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “don’t laugh at me.”
11 sn Darkness represents judgment; light (also in v. 9) symbolizes deliverance. The