17:14 Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Arkite sounds better than the advice of Ahithophel.” Now the Lord had decided 3 to frustrate the sound advice of Ahithophel, so that the Lord could bring disaster on Absalom.
47:10 You were complacent in your evil deeds; 6
you thought, 7 ‘No one sees me.’
Your self-professed 8 wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,
when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’ 9
47:11 Disaster will overtake you;
you will not know how to charm it away. 10
Destruction will fall on you;
you will not be able to appease it.
Calamity will strike you suddenly,
before you recognize it. 11
47:12 Persist 12 in trusting 13 your amulets
and your many incantations,
which you have faithfully recited 14 since your youth!
Maybe you will be successful 15 –
maybe you will scare away disaster. 16
47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice. 17
Let them take their stand –
the ones who see omens in the sky,
who gaze at the stars,
who make monthly predictions –
let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! 18
47:14 Look, they are like straw,
which the fire burns up;
they cannot rescue themselves
from the heat 19 of the flames.
There are no coals to warm them,
no firelight to enjoy. 20
47:15 They will disappoint you, 21
those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth. 22
Each strays off in his own direction, 23
leaving no one to rescue you.”
47:1 “Fall down! Sit in the dirt,
O virgin 24 daughter Babylon!
Sit on the ground, not on a throne,
O daughter of the Babylonians!
Indeed, 25 you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.
1 tc The translation follows 4QSama, part of the Greek tradition, the Syriac Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate uldavid in reading “and to David,” rather than MT וְדָוִד (vÿdavid, “and David”). As Driver points out, the Hebrew verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he related”) never uses the accusative for the person to whom something is told (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 316).
2 tn Heb “said.”
3 tn Heb “commanded.”
4 tn Heb “and I will come upon him.”
5 tn Heb “exhausted and slack of hands.”
6 tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”
7 tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”
8 tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
9 tn See the note at v. 8.
10 tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.
11 tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”
12 tn Heb “stand” (so KJV, ASV); NASB, NRSV “Stand fast.”
13 tn The word “trusting” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See v. 9.
14 tn Heb “in that which you have toiled.”
15 tn Heb “maybe you will be able to profit.”
16 tn Heb “maybe you will cause to tremble.” The object “disaster” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See the note at v. 9.
17 tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”
18 tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months – from those things which are coming upon you.”
19 tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.
20 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “there is no coal [for?] their food, light to sit before it.” Some emend לַחְמָם (lakhmam, “their food”) to לְחֻמָּם (lÿkhummam, “to warm them”; see HALOT 328 s.v. חמם). This statement may allude to Isa 44:16, where idolaters are depicted warming themselves over a fire made from wood, part of which was used to form idols. The fire of divine judgment will be no such campfire; its flames will devour and destroy.
21 tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”
22 tn Heb “that for which you toiled, your traders from your youth.” The omen readers and star gazers are likened to merchants with whom Babylon has had an ongoing economic relationship.
23 tn Heb “each to his own side, they err.”
24 tn בְּתוּלַה (bÿtulah) often refers to a virgin, but the phrase “virgin daughter” is apparently stylized (see also 23:12; 37:22). In the extended metaphor of this chapter, where Babylon is personified as a queen (vv. 5, 7), she is depicted as being both a wife and mother (vv. 8-9).
25 tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).
26 tn On the phrase אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים (’ammot hassippim, “pivots of the frames”) see HALOT 763 s.v. סַף.