Discovery Box| (0.20) | (Lam 3:39) | 1 tn The Hebrew word here is אָדָם (ʾadam), which can mean “man” or “person.” The second half of the line is more personalized to the speaking voice of the defeated soldier by using גֶּבֶר (gever, “man”). See the note at 3:1. |
| (0.20) | (Lam 3:40) | 1 tn Heb “Let us test our ways and examine.” The two verbs וְנַחְקֹרָה…נַחְפְּשָׂה (nakhpesah…venakhqorah, “Let us test and let us examine”) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal force: “Let us carefully examine our ways.” |
| (0.20) | (Lam 3:13) | 3 tn Heb “my kidneys.” In Hebrew anthropology, the kidneys are often portrayed as the most sensitive and vital part of man. Poetic texts sometimes portray a person being fatally wounded by the Lord shooting arrows in his kidneys (Job 16:13; here in Lam 3:13). The equivalent English idiomatic counterpart is the heart, which is employed in the present translation. |
| (0.20) | (Lam 2:17) | 5 tn Heb “He has overthrown and has not shown mercy.” The two verbs חָרַס וְלֹא חָמָל (kharas veloʾ khamal) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its verbal sense and the second functions adverbially: “He has overthrown you without mercy.” וְלֹא חָמָל (veloʾ khamal) alludes to 2:2. |
| (0.20) | (Lam 2:14) | 3 tn Heb “worthless and enticements.” The words שָׁוְא וּמַדּוּחִים (shavʾ umaddukhim) form a nominal hendiadys meaning “worthless enticements” or “misleading falsehoods.” The noun מַדּוּחַ (madduakh), meaning “enticement” or “transgression,” is a hapax legomenon (term that appears only once in the Hebrew OT). It is related to the verb נָדָח (nadakh, “to entice, lead astray”), which often refers to idolatry. |
| (0.20) | (Lam 2:6) | 2 tc The MT reads כַּגַּן (kaggan, “like a garden”). The LXX reads ὡς ἄμπελον (hōs ampelon), which reflects כְּגֶפֶן (kegefen, “like a vineyard”). Internal evidence favors כְּגֶפֶן (kegefen) because God’s judgment is often compared to the destruction of a vineyard (e.g., Job 15:33; Isa 34:4; Ezek 15:2, 6). |
| (0.20) | (Lam 1:1) | 9 tn Heb “princess among the provinces.” The noun מְדִינָה (medinah) is an Aramaic loanword which refers to an administrative district or province in the empire (e.g., Ezek 19:8; Dan 8:2) (BDB 193 s.v. 2; HALOT 549 s.v.). |
| (0.20) | (Jer 52:20) | 1 tc The translation follows the LXX (Greek version), which reflects the description in 1 Kgs 7:25-26. The Hebrew text reads, “the 12 bronze bulls under the movable stands.” הַיָּם (hayyam, “The Sea”) has been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton; note that the following form, הַמְּכֹנוֹת (hammekhonot, “the movable stands”), also begins with the article. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 51:56) | 4 tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “he certainly pays one back.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form here describes the Lord’s characteristic actions. Another option is to take it as referring specifically to his judgment on Babylon, in which case one should translate, “he will pay (Babylon) back in full.” |
| (0.20) | (Jer 51:20) | 2 tn This Hebrew word (מַפֵּץ, mappets) only occurs here in the Hebrew Bible, but its meaning is assured from the use of the verbs that follow, which are from the same root (נָפַץ, nafats), and there is a cognate noun מַפָּץ (mappats) that occurs in Ezek 9:2 in the sense of weapon of “smashing.” |
| (0.20) | (Jer 51:7) | 1 sn The figure of the cup of the Lord’s wrath, invoked in Jer 25:15-29, is invoked again here, and Babylon is identified as the agent through which the wrath of the Lord is visited on the other nations. See the study note on 25:15 for explanation and further references. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 51:9) | 1 tn The words “Foreigners living there will say” are not in the text but are implicit from the third line. These words are generally assumed by the commentaries and are explicitly added in TEV and NCV, which are attempting to clarify the text for the average reader. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 50:31) | 1 tn Heb “Behold, I am against you, proud one.” The word “city” is not in the text, but it is generally agreed that the word is being used as a personification of the city, which had “proudly defied” the Lord (v. 29). The word “city” is supplied in the translation for clarity. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 50:11) | 1 tn The words “People of Babylonia” are not in the text, but they are implicit in the reference in the next verse to “your mother,” which refers to the city and the land as the mother of its people. These words have been supplied in the translation to identify the referent of “you” and have been added for clarity. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 50:5) | 1 tc The translation here assumes that the Hebrew בֹּאוּ (boʾu; a Qal imperative masculine plural) should be read בָּאוּ (baʾu; a Qal perfect third plural). This reading is presupposed by the Greek version of Aquila, the Latin version, and the Targum (see BHS note a, which mistakenly assumes that the form must be imperfect). |
| (0.20) | (Jer 48:33) | 1 tn Heb “from the garden land, even from the land of Moab.” Comparison with the parallel passage in Isa 16:10, and the translation of the Greek text here (which has only “the land of Moab”), suggest that the second phrase is appositional to the first. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 48:44) | 1 sn Jer 48:43-44a are in the main the same as Isa 24:17-18, which shows that the judgment was somewhat proverbial. For a very similar kind of argumentation see Amos 5:19; judgment is unavoidable. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 48:43) | 2 tn Heb “are upon you, inhabitant of Moab.” This is another example of the rapid switch in person, or direct address (apostrophe) in the midst of a third person description or prediction, which the present translation typically keeps in the third person for smoother English style. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 48:17) | 2 tn Heb “How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!” “How” introduces a lament that is here rendered by “Alas.” The staff and rod refer to the support that Moab gave to others, not to the fact that she ruled over others, which was never the case. According to BDB 739 s.v. עוֹז 1, the “strong staff” is figurative of political power. |
| (0.20) | (Jer 48:2) | 3 tn Heb “In Heshbon they plot evil against her [i.e., Moab].” The “they” is undefined, but it would scarcely be Moabites living in Heshbon. Hence TEV and CEV are probably correct in seeing a reference to the enemy, which would imply the conquest of this city that lay on the northern border of Moab. |
