¹ tn Heb “and Jacob pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban pitched with his brothers in the hill country of Gilead.” The juxtaposition of disjunctive clauses (note the pattern vav plus subject plus verb in both clauses) indicates synchronism of action.

³ sn Go out to the highways and country roads. This suggests the inclusion of people outside the town, even beyond the needy (poor, crippled, blind, and lame) in the town, and so is an allusion to the inclusion of the Gentiles.

² tn Heb “inhabitant of Daughter Dibon.” “Daughter” is used here, as often in Jeremiah, for the personification of a city, a country, or its inhabitants. The word “inhabitant” is to be understood as a collective, as also in v. 19.

³ tn Heb “Let us die there.” The words “at least” and “fighting” are intended to bring out the contrast of passive surrender to death in the open country and active resistance to the death implicit in the context.

³ tn Heb “of the field.” The Hebrew term refers to open fields or open country as the home of wild animals; if taken adjectivally this could modify the previous term: “wild young does” (cf. NRSV).

¹ sn The “stranger” could refer to a person from another country or culture, as it often does, but it could also refer to an unknown Israelite, with the idea that the individual stands outside the known and respectable community.

² tn Heb “in the region of Moab”; KJV, NRSV “in the country of Moab.” Since this is a repetition of the phrase found earlier in the verse, it has been shortened to “in Moab” in the present translation for stylistic reasons.

¹ sn Dan was located in the far north of the country, while Beer Sheba was located in the far south. This encompassed all the territory of the land of Canaan occupied by the Israelites.

² tn Heb “The lot went out to the sons of Joseph from the Jordan [at] Jericho to the waters of Jericho to the east, the desert going up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel.”

¹ sn The foothills (שְׁפֵלָה, sh^ephelah) are the transition region between the Judean hill country and the Mediterranean coastal plain. These are areas of eocene limestone with a distinct pattern of erosion, soil, and vegetation cover.

³ sn In contrast to the foothills on the western side of the hill country, the slopes are on the eastern side leading down to the rift valley of the Dead Sea and Jordan river.

⁷ sn Jebusite. These people inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

² sn Bashan. This plateau country, famous for its oaks (Isa 2:13) and cattle (Deut 32:14; Amos 4:1), was north of Gilead along the Yarmuk River.

³ tn The שְׁפֵלָה (sh^ephelah) is the geographical region between the Mediterranean coastal plain and the hill country, sometimes called the “western foothills” (NIV, CEV, NLT), “Judean foothills” (Holman), “lowland” (NASB, ESV), or by the Hebrew “Shephelah” (NRSV).

⁴ sn Mount Seir is synonymous with Edom. “By way of Mount Seir” refers to the route from Horeb that ended up in Edom Cf. CEV “by way of the Mount Seir Road”; TEV “by way of the hill country of Edom.”

² tn The instructions had them first go up into the southern desert of the land, and after passing through that, into the hill country of the Canaanites. The text could be rendered “into the Negev” as well as “through the Negev.”

¹ tn This verb is a prophetic perfect, assuming that the text means what it said and this song was sung at the Sea. So all these countries were yet to hear of the victory.

¹ tn The text reads יִסּוֹב (yissov) from the root סָבַב (savav). Usually this verb means “to turn, to go around,” which does not seem to make sense in this context. Based on Ugaritic use of the term with the preposition כ (kaf), it is suggested that here it means to change into (HALOT 739 s.v.). But the term may also mean “to surround” perhaps referring to the land around Jerusalem. Either way the picture is of an exalted Jerusalem high above the rest of the country, as the hill country is already high above the rift valley.

¹ tn Or “subjects.” Technically these people were not his subjects yet, but would be upon his return. They were citizens of his country who opposed his appointment as their king; later the newly-appointed king will refer to them as his “enemies” (v. 27).

⁴ tn The Greek word φραγμός (phragmos) refers to a fence, wall, or hedge surrounding a vineyard (BDAG 1064 s.v. 1). “Highways” and “country roads” probably refer not to separate places, but to the situation outside the town where the rural roads run right alongside the hedges or fences surrounding the fields (cf. J. A. Fitzmyer, Luke [AB], 1057).