2 Chronicles 23:10

23:10 He placed the men at their posts, each holding his weapon in his hand. They lined up from the south side of the temple to the north side and stood near the altar and the temple, surrounding the king. ¹ 

2 Chronicles 32:5

32:5 Hezekiah ²  energetically rebuilt ³  every broken wall. He erected towers and an outer wall, ⁴  and fortified the terrace of the City of David. ⁵  He made many weapons and shields.

Nehemiah 4:17

4:17 who were rebuilding the wall. ⁶  Those who were carrying loads did so ⁷  by keeping one hand on the work and the other on their weapon.

Nehemiah 4:23

4:23 We did not change clothes ⁸  – not I, nor my relatives, nor my workers, nor the watchmen who were with me. Each had his weapon, even when getting a drink of water. ⁹ 

Job 33:18

33:18 He spares a person’s life from corruption, ¹⁰ 

his very life from crossing over ¹¹  the river.

Job 36:12

36:12 But if they refuse to listen,

they pass over the river of death, ¹² 

and expire without knowledge.

The Song of Songs 4:13

4:13 Your shoots are a royal garden ¹³  full of pomegranates

with choice fruits:

henna with nard,

¹ tn Heb “and he stationed all the people, each with his weapon in his hand, from the south shoulder of the house to the north shoulder of the house, at the altar and at the house, near the king all around.”

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hezekiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “strengthened himself and built.”

⁴ tn Heb “and outside the wall another one.”

⁵ sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.

⁶ tn The first words of v. 17, “who were rebuilding the wall,” should be taken with the latter part of v. 16.

⁷ tn Heb “were carrying loads.” The LXX reads ἐν ὅπλοις (en hoplois, “with weapons”).

⁸ tn Heb “strip off our garments.”

⁹ tc Heb “a man, his weapon, the waters.” The MT, if in fact it is correct, is elliptical and difficult. Some scholars emend the MT reading הַמָּיִם (hammayim, “the waters”) to בִּמִנוֹ (bimino, “in his right hand”; cf. NAB, NRSV) or מִינוּ(י)הֵ (heminu, “they held on the right side”).

¹⁰ tn A number of interpreters and translations take this as “the pit” (see Job 17:14; cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

¹¹ tc Here is another difficult line. The verb normally means “to pass through; to pass over,” and so this word would normally mean “from passing through [or over].” The word שֶׁלַח (shelakh) does at times refer to a weapon, but most commentators look for a parallel with “the pit [or corruption].” One suggestion is שְׁאוֹלָה (shÿ’olah, “to Sheol”), proposed by Duhm. Dhorme thought it was שַׁלַח (shalakh) and referred to the passageway to the underworld (see M. Tsevat, VT 4 [1954]: 43; and Svi Rin, BZ 7 [1963]: 25). See discussion of options in HALOT 1517-18 s.v. IV שֶׁלַח. The idea of crossing the river of death fits the idea of the passage well, although the reading “to perish by the sword” makes sense and was followed by the NIV.

¹² tn This is a similar expression to the one in Job 33:18, where the suggestion was made by many that it means crossing over the canal or river of death. Some retain the earlier interpretation of “perish by the sword” (cf. NIV).

¹³ sn The noun פַּרְדֵּס (pardes, “garden, parkland, forest”) is a foreign loanword that occurs only 3 times in the Hebrew Bible (Song 4:13; Eccl 2:5; Neh 2:8). The original Old Persian (Avestan) term pairidaeza designated the enclosed parks and pleasure-grounds which were the exclusive domain of the Persian kings and nobility in the Achaemenid period (HALOT 963 s.v. פַּרְדֵּס; LSJ 1308). The Babylonian term pardesu means “marvelous garden,” in reference to the enclosed parks of the kings (AHw 2:833.a and 3:1582.a). The term passed into Greek as παραδείσος (paradeisos, “enclosed park, pleasure-ground”), referring to the enclosed parks and gardens of the Persian kings (LSJ 1308). The Greek term was transliterated into English as “paradise.”