¹ tn Aram “wear out” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB, NLT “wear down.” The word is a hapax legomenon in biblical Aramaic, but in biblical Hebrew it especially refers to wearing out such things as garments. Here it is translated “harass…continually.”

² tn Aram “he will think.”

³ tn Aram “times and law.” The present translation is based on the understanding that the expression is a hendiadys.

⁴ sn Although the word times is vocalized in the MT as a plural, it probably should be regarded as a dual. The Masoretes may have been influenced here by the fact that in late Aramaic (and Syriac) the dual forms fall out of use. The meaning would thus be three and a half “times.”

⁵ tn Or “a treasured person”; KJV “a man greatly beloved”; NASB “man of high esteem.”

⁶ tn The Hebrew participle is often used, as here, to refer to the imminent future.

⁷ tn Heb “stand upon your standing.”

⁸ tn Heb “spoke this word.”

⁹ tn Heb “Behold.”

¹⁰ tc So most Hebrew MSS; one Hebrew MS along with the Dead Sea Scrolls and LXX read “something that looked like a man’s hand.”

¹¹ tn Heb “my lord,” here a title of polite address. Cf. v. 19.

¹² tn Heb “treasured man.”

¹³ tn Heb “my lord may speak.”