5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, 5
those who also accumulate landed property 6
until there is no land left, 7
and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. 8
5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: 9
“Many houses will certainly become desolate,
large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. 10
65:21 They will build houses and live in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
65:22 No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, 11
or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, 12
for my people will live as long as trees, 13
and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. 14
5:11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their crops 15
and exact a grain tax from them,
you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone,
nor will you drink the wine from the fine 16 vineyards you planted. 17
6:15 You will plant crops, but will not harvest them;
you will squeeze oil from the olives, 18 but you will have no oil to rub on your bodies; 19
you will squeeze juice from the grapes, but you will have no wine to drink. 20
1 tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.
2 tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).
3 tn Heb “increase of herds.”
4 tn Heb “growth of flocks.”
5 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.
6 tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”
7 tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”
8 tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”
9 tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”
10 tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”
11 tn Heb “they will not build, and another live [in it].”
12 tn Heb “they will not plant, and another eat.”
13 tn Heb “for like the days of the tree [will be] the days of my people.”
14 tn Heb “the work of their hands” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “their hard-won gains.”
15 tn Traditionally, “because you trample on the poor” (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The traditional view derives the verb from בּוּס (bus, “to trample”; cf. Isa. 14:25), but more likely it is cognate to an Akkadian verb meaning “to exact an agricultural tax” (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 172-73).
16 tn Or “lovely”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “pleasant”; NAB “choice”; NIV “lush.”
17 tn Heb “Houses of chiseled stone you built, but you will not live in them. Fine vineyards you planted, but you will not drink their wine.”
18 tn Heb “you will tread olives.” Literally treading on olives with one’s feet could be harmful and would not supply the necessary pressure to release the oil. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 119. The Hebrew term דָּרַךְ (darakh) may have an idiomatic sense of “press” here, or perhaps the imagery of the following parallel line (referring to treading grapes) has dictated the word choice.
19 tn Heb “but you will not rub yourselves with oil.”
20 tn Heb “and juice, but you will not drink wine.” The verb תִדְרֹךְ (tidrokh, “you will tread”) must be supplied from the preceding line.