7:25 He will speak words against the Most High.
He will harass 1 the holy ones of the Most High continually.
His intention 2 will be to change times established by law. 3
They will be delivered into his hand
For a time, times, 4 and half a time.
23:7 for he is 5 like someone calculating the cost 6 in his mind. 7
“Eat and drink,” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you;
38:10 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, 8 and you will devise an evil plan.
1 tn Aram “wear out” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB, NLT “wear down.” The word is a hapax legomenon in biblical Aramaic, but in biblical Hebrew it especially refers to wearing out such things as garments. Here it is translated “harass…continually.”
2 tn Aram “he will think.”
3 tn Aram “times and law.” The present translation is based on the understanding that the expression is a hendiadys.
4 sn Although the word times is vocalized in the MT as a plural, it probably should be regarded as a dual. The Masoretes may have been influenced here by the fact that in late Aramaic (and Syriac) the dual forms fall out of use. The meaning would thus be three and a half “times.”
5 tc The line is difficult; it appears to mean that the miser is the kind of person who has calculated the cost of everything in his mind as he offers the food. The LXX has: “Eating and drinking with him is as if one should swallow a hair; do not introduce him to your company nor eat bread with him.” The Hebrew verb “to calculate” (שָׁעַר, sha’ar) with a change of vocalization and of sibilant would yield “hair” (שֵׂעָר, se’ar) – “like a hair in the throat [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh], so is he.” This would picture an irritating experience. The Instruction of Amenemope uses “blocking the throat” in a similar saying (chapt. 11, 14:7 [ANET 423]). The suggested change is plausible and is followed by NRSV; but the rare verb “to calculate” in the MT would be easier to defend on the basis of the canons of textual criticism because it is the more difficult reading.
6 tn The phrase “the cost” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the verb; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
7 tn Heb “soul.”
8 tn Heb “words will go up upon your heart.”