¹ tn Heb “bad.”

² tn Or “whether good or bad.”

¹ tn Or “bad news” (NAB, NCV).

² tn Heb “would have a bad name.”

² tn Heb “brought forth a bad name.”

¹ tn Heb “it was bad in his eyes.”

² tn Heb “brings against her a bad name”; NIV “gives her a bad name.”

² tn Or “badly hurt.” It is possible to interpret καταβαλλόμενοι (kataballomenoi) here as “badly hurt”: “[we are] badly hurt, but not destroyed” (L&N 20.21).

¹ tn Or “do not stand up for a bad cause.”

¹ tn Heb “if it is bad in your eyes.”

³ tc The LXX adds “those knowing bad and good.”

¹ tn Heb “[It is] bad, [it is] bad.” Since “bad” can be understood in some modern contexts as a descriptive adjective meaning “good,” the translation uses “worthless” instead—the real point of the prospective buyer’s exclamation.

⁵ tn Heb “their bad report.” The pronoun is an objective genitive, specifying that the bad or damaging report was about the brothers.

¹ tn Heb “like a sign [i.e., portent or bad omen] I am to many.”

¹ tn object lesson is מוֹפֵת (mofet, “wonder, sign”), which here refers to a sign or portent of bad things to come.

³ tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”

¹ tn Heb “after his falling”; NAB “could not survive his wound”; CEV “was too badly wounded to live much longer.”

¹ tn Or “through a bad business deal.” The basic meaning of עִנְיַן (ʿinyan) is “business; affair” (HALOT 857 s.v. עִנְיָן) or “occupation; task” (BDB 775 s.v. עִנְיָן). The term is used in a specific sense in reference to business activity (Eccl 8:16), as well as in a more general sense in reference to events that occur on earth (Eccl 1:13; 4:8). BDB suggests that the phrase עִנְיַן רָע (ʿinyan raʿ) in 5:13 refers to a bad business deal (BDB 775 s.v. עִנְיָן); however, HALOT suggests that it means “bad luck” (HALOT 857 s.v. עִנְיָן). The English versions reflect the same two approaches: (1) bad luck: “some misfortune” (NAB, NIV) and (2) a bad business deal: “a bad investment” (NASB), “a bad venture” (RSV, NRSV, MLB), “some unlucky venture” (Moffatt, NJPS), “an unlucky venture” (NEB), “an evil adventure” (ASV).

² sn Normally barrenness is a sign of judgment because birth would be seen as a sign of blessing. The reversal of imagery indicates that something was badly wrong.

¹ tn The Hebrew word carries the basic idea of “bad, displeasing, injurious” but has the nuance “deadly” when used of weapons (see Ps 144:10).