¹ tn Or “be burned” (NRSV); NIV “laid waste.”

¹ tn Or “languish” (so KJV, NRSV); cf. NIV “waste away.”

¹ tn Heb “are waste places”; cf. NRSV “are a desolation.”

³ tn Or “wasted.” This verb is graphic; it means to scatter (L&N 57.151).

¹ tn Heb “and the spirit of Egypt will be laid waste in its midst.”

² tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”

¹ tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”

² tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

⁵ tn The words “are laid waste” are not in the Hebrew text, but are an implied repetition from the previous line.

¹ sn Human waste was to remain outside the camp of the Israelites according to Deut 23:15.

¹ tn Heb “and she arose and left,” the first verb in the pair emphasizing that she wasted no time.

² tn Heb “he arose and crossed.” The first verb emphasizes that he wasted no time in getting across.

² tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See BDB 651 s.v. I נָסַס and HALOT 703 s.v. I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. NRSV “as when an invalid wastes away”).

² sn Saying number nine indicates that wisdom is wasted on a fool. The literature of Egypt has no specific parallel to this one.

³ sn By means of the parallelism, one who rejects discretion is like a swine. If that person has beauty, its value is wasted on and overshadowed by their “piggishness.”

³ tn The word תֹּהוּ (tohu) was used in Genesis for “waste,” meaning without shape or structure. Here the term refers to the trackless, unending wilderness (cf. 12:24).

¹ tn The verb לַהַה (lahah, = לָאָה, laʾah) means “to faint, to languish”; it figuratively describes the land as wasting away, drooping, being worn out.

⁵ tn Heb “plunderers have plundered them.” The Hebrew root בָּקַק (baqaq, “to lay waste, to empty”) is repeated for emphasis: בְקָקוּם בֹּקְקִים (v^eqaqum boq^eqim, “plunderers have plundered them”). Similar repetition of the root בָּקַק occurs in Isa 24:3: “[The earth] will be completely laid waste” (הִבּוֹק תִּבּוֹק, hibboq tibboq).

⁵ tn Heb “strength.” The term וַחֲיָלִים (vakhayalim, conjunction + plural noun from חַיִל, khayil, “strength; efficiency”) is an example of a plural of intensification (GKC 397-98 §124.e). The point is that it is a waste of a great deal of strength and energy. If a person is not smart, he will have to use a lot of energy and waste his efficiency.

² sn The tomb was nearby. The Passover and the Sabbath would begin at 6 p.m., so those who had come to prepare and bury the body could not afford to waste time.