73:23 But I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
The Maidens about His Beloved:
8:5 Who is this coming up from the desert,
leaning on her beloved?
The Beloved to Her Lover:
Under the apple tree I aroused you; 2
there your mother conceived you,
there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth. 3
41:13 For I am the Lord your God,
the one who takes hold of your right hand,
who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’
63:12 the one who made his majestic power available to Moses, 4
who divided the water before them,
gaining for himself a lasting reputation, 5
63:13 who led them through the deep water?
Like a horse running on flat land 6 they did not stumble.
63:14 Like an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, 7
so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest.
In this way 8 you guided your people,
gaining for yourself an honored reputation. 9
11:1 When Israel was a young man, I loved him like a son, 10
and I summoned my son 11 out of Egypt.
11:3 Yet it was I who led 12 Ephraim,
I took them by the arm;
but they did not acknowledge
that I had healed them. 13
11:4 I led them with leather 14 cords,
with leather 15 ropes;
I lifted the yoke 16 from their neck, 17
and gently fed them. 18
1 tn Heb “the
2 sn The imagery of v. 6 is romantic: (1) His mother originally conceived him with his father under the apple tree, (2) his mother gave birth to him under the apple tree, and (3) the Beloved had now awakened him to love under the same apple tree. The cycle of life and love had come around full circle under the apple tree. While his mother had awakened his eyes to life, the Beloved had awakened him to love. His parents had made love under the apple tree to conceive him in love, and now Solomon and his Beloved were making love under the same apple tree of love.
3 tn Or “went into labor.” The verb חָבַל (khaval, “become pregnant”) is repeated in 8:6b and 8:6c, and has a two-fold range of meaning: (1) transitive: “to conceive [a child]” and (2) intransitive: “to be in travail [of childbirth]” (HALOT 286 s.v. IV חבל). In 8:6b it denotes “to conceive,” and in 8:6c it is “to be in travail [of childbirth].”
4 tn Heb “who caused to go at the right hand of Moses the arm of his splendor.”
5 tn Heb “making for himself a lasting name.”
6 tn Heb “in the desert [or “steppe”].”
7 tn The words “to graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
8 tn Or “so” (KJV, ASV), or “thus” (NAB, NRSV).
9 tn Heb “making for yourself a majestic name.”
10 tn The words “like a son” are not in the Hebrew text, but are necessary to clarify what sort of love is intended (cf. also NLT).
11 tc The MT reads בְנִי (vÿni, “My son”); however, the LXX reflects בָנָיו (vanav, “his sons”). The MT should be retained as original here because of internal evidence; it is much more appropriate to the context.
12 tn Or “taught Ephraim to walk” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). The verb תִרְגַּלְתִּי (tirgalti, “I taught [him] to walk, I led [him]”; Tiphil perfect 1st person common singular from רָגַל, ragal, “to walk”) is an unusual verb stem: the Tiphil (properly Taphel) is attested three times in Biblical Hebrew (Hos 11:3; Jer 12:5; 22:15) and once in Biblical Aramaic (Ezra 4:7; see GKC 153 §55.h).
13 tn Or “that it was I who had healed them” (NIV, NLT similar).
14 tn Or “humane cords” or “cords of human kindness.” The noun אָדָם (’adam) is traditionally related to I אָדָם (“man”) and translated either literally or figuratively (as a metonymy of association for humane compassion): “cords of a man” (KJV, RSV margin, NASB), “cords of human kindness” (NIV, NCV), “human ties” (NJPS), “cords of compassion” (RSV). It is better to relate it to II אָדָם (“leather”; HALOT 14 s.v. אָדָם), as the parallelism with II אַהֲבָה (’ahavah, “leather”) suggests (see below). This homonymic root is well attested in Arabic ’adam (“skin”) and ’adim (“tanned skin; leather”). This better fits the context of 11:4 which compares Israel to a heifer: the
15 tn Or “ropes of love.” The noun אַהֲבָה (’ahava) is traditionally related to I אַהֲבָה (“love”; BDB 13 s.v. אַהֲבָה 2). This approach is adopted by most English translations: “bands of love” (KJV, RSV), “bonds of love” (NASB), “ties of love” (NIV), “cords of love” (NJPS). However, it is probably better to derive אַהֲבָה from the homonymic root II אַהֲבָה (“leather”; HALOT 18 s.v. II אַהֲבָה). This root is attested in Arabic and Ugaritic. It probably occurs in the description of Solomon’s sedan chair: “upholstered with purple linen, and lined with leather” (Song 3:10). This fits the context of 11:4 which compares Israel to a young heifer: the
16 tn Heb “And I was to them like those who lift a yoke.”
17 tn Heb “their jaws” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).
18 tn Heb “him.” This is regarded as a collective singular by most English versions and thus translated as a plural pronoun.
19 tn Grk “village, and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
20 tn Grk “on him,” but the word πάλιν in v. 25 implies that Jesus touched the man’s eyes at this point.