16:8 In the twenty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha’s son Elah became king over Israel; he ruled in Tirzah for two years.
9:1 After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the other construction projects he had planned, 4
20:5 that the elation of the wicked is brief, 5
the joy of the godless 6 lasts but a moment. 7
37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men 8
growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. 9
1 tn The Hebrew text has “because” at the beginning of the sentence. In the Hebrew text vv. 2-3 are one sentence comprised of a causal clause giving the reason for divine punishment (v. 2) and the main clause announcing the punishment (v. 3). The translation divides this sentence for stylistic reasons.
2 tn Heb “walked in the way of Jeroboam.”
3 tn Heb “angering me by their sins.”
4 tn Heb “and all the desire of Solomon which he wanted to do.”
5 tn The expression in the text is “quite near.” This indicates that it is easily attained, and that its end is near.
6 tn For the discussion of חָנֵף (khanef, “godless”) see Job 8:13.
7 tn The phrase is “until a moment,” meaning it is short-lived. But see J. Barr, “Hebrew ’ad, especially at Job 1:18 and Neh 7:3,” JSS 27 (1982): 177-88.
8 tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.
9 tn Heb “being exposed [?] like a native, luxuriant.” The Hebrew form מִתְעָרֶה (mit’areh) appears to be a Hitpael participle from עָרָה (’arah, “be exposed”), but this makes no sense in this context. Perhaps the form is a dialectal variant of מִתְעָלָה (“giving oneself an air of importance”; see Jer 51:3), from עָלָה (’alah, “go up”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 296). The noun אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh, “native, full citizen”) refers elsewhere to people, but here, where it is collocated with “luxuriant, green,” it probably refers to a tree growing in native soil.