¹ tn Heb “swallowed.”

⁵ tn Or “swallow up.”

² tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

² tn Heb “swallowed up.”

³ tn Heb “swallowed up.”

² tn Heb “has swallowed up.”

⁴ tn Heb “swallowed up.”

³ tn Heb “he swallows it.” The imagery compares swallowing food with consuming one’s substance. The fool does not prepare for the future.

¹ tn Grk “Blind guides who strain out a gnat yet who swallow a camel!”

¹ tn Heb “which the one seeing sees, while still it is in his hand he swallows it.”

¹ tn The word translated “swallow” occurs only here and in Prov 26:2.

¹ sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

¹ tn Heb “and the ones being led were swallowed up.” Instead of taking מְבֻלָּעִים (m^ebullaʿim) from בָּלַע (balaʿ, “to swallow”), HALOT 134 s.v. בלע proposes a rare homonymic root בלע (“confuse”) here.

² tn Heb “He did not return His hand from swallowing.” That is, he persisted until it was destroyed.

² tn Heb “even a bird finds a home, and a swallow a nest for herself, [in] which she places her young.”

² tn The verb בָּלַע (balaʿ, “confuse”) is a homonym of the more common בָּלַע (balaʿ, “swallow”); see HALOT 135 s.v. I בלע.

¹ tn “Swallow the ground” is a metaphor for the horse’s running. Gray renders the line: “quivering and excited he dashes into the fray.”

² tn Heb “and he does not swallow.” In the context this means “consume” for his own pleasure and prosperity. The verbal clause is here taken adverbially.

² tn The figures are personifications, but they vividly describe the catastrophe to follow—which was very much like a mouth swallowing them.

⁵ tn Heb “consume him”; or “engulf him.” The verb I בָּלַע (balaʿ, “to swallow”) creates a striking wordplay on the homonymic root II בָּלַע (“to speak eloquently”; HALOT 134-35 s.v בלע). Rather than speaking eloquently (II בלע, “to speak eloquently”), the fool utters words that are self-destructive (I בָּלַע, “to swallow, engulf”).