² tn Heb “But there is no man laying it to heart.” For the idiom here see BDB 525 s.v. לֵב II.3.d and compare the usage in Isa 42:25; 47:7.

² tn Heb “they grow and produce fruit.” For the nuance “grow” for the verb, which normally means “go, walk,” see BDB 232 s.v. חָלַךְ Qal.I.3 and compare Hos 14:7.

¹ tn The verb here is often translated “mourn.” However, this verb is from a homonymic root meaning “to be dry” (cf. HALOT 7 s.v. II אָבַל and compare Hos 4:3 for usage).

¹ tn Heb “Do not learn the way of the nations.” For this use of the word “ways” (דֶּרֶךְ, derekh) compare, for example, Jer 12:16 and Isa 2:6.

¹ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom see BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and compare the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

¹ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom see BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and compare the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

² tn Heb “are filled with deceit.” The translation assumes a figure of speech of cause for effect (metonymy). Compare the same word in the same figure in Zeph 1:9.

¹ sn Compare and contrast Jer 4:6. There people in the outlying areas were warned to seek safety in the fortified city of Jerusalem. Here they are told to flee it because it was about to be destroyed.

³ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” The term “daughter of” is appositional to “my people” and is supplied in the translation as a term of sympathy and endearment. Compare the common expression “daughter of Zion.”

² sn The allusion is, of course, to the destructive forces of the enemy armies of Babylon, compared above in 4:7 to a destructive lion and here to the destructive desert winds of the Near Eastern sirocco.

⁶ tn Heb “touches the throat/soul.” For this use of the word usually translated “soul” or “life,” see HALOT 672 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 1-2, and compare the use in Ps 105:18.

³ tn Heb “and destroy her branches.” The city is the antecedent of the third feminine singular pronominal suffix. Apparently the city is here compared to a tree. See also v. 11.

³ tn Heb “his.” In vv. 17-19 the Assyrian king and his empire are compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).

⁵ tn Heb “from, among.” The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to רְבָבָה (r^evavah, “ten thousand”) is taken in a comparative, locative sense: “outstanding among ten thousand” (e.g., KJV, RSV, NASB, NIV, NJPS).

³ tn The vav prefixed to וִיאַבֵּד (viʾabbed, “corrupts”) may function in a comparative sense, e.g., Job 5:7; 12:11; 16:21; Prov 25:25 (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §437).

⁵ tn The vav prefixed to the form וְיוֹם (v^eyom) functions in a comparative sense, e.g., Job 5:7; 12:11; 16:21; Prov 25:25 (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §437).

² tn The comparative term טוֹב (tov, “better”) is repeated throughout 7:1-12. It introduces a series of “Better-than sayings,” particularly in 7:1-6 in which every poetic unit is introduced by טוֹב.

³ sn The Hebrew word translated “lowly” forms an implied comparison: To be humble is like being low, base, earthbound; whereas pride is often compared to being high, lofty—at least in one’s own eyes.

¹ tn The comparative “like” and the following “so” are not in the Hebrew text, but supplied from context in the translation. The Hebrew is a metaphor with the predicate first, rendered here as a simile to preserve the order.

² sn The point of these similes is to compare being drunk with being seasick. One who tries to sleep when at sea, or even worse, when up on the ropes of the mast, will be tossed back and forth.