Deuteronomy 28:12-13

28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; ¹  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his ²  commandments which I am urging ³  you today to be careful to do.

Lamentations 1:5

ה (He)

1:5 Her foes subjugated her; ⁴ 

her enemies are at ease. ⁵ 

For the Lord afflicted her

because of her many acts of rebellion. ⁶ 

Her children went away

captive ⁷  before the enemy.

¹ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

² tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

³ tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”

⁴ tn Heb “her foes became [her] head” (הָיוּ צָרֶיהָ לְרֹאשׁ, hayu tsareha lÿro’sh) or more idiomatically “have come out on top.” This is a Semitic idiom for domination or subjugation, with “head” as a metaphor for leader.

⁵ tn The nuance expressed in the LXX is that her enemies prosper (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

⁶ tn Heb “because of her many rebellions.” The plural פְּשָׁעֶיהָ (pÿsha’eha, “her rebellions”) is an example of the plural of repeated action or characteristic behavior (see IBHS 121 §7.4.2c). The 3rd person feminine singular suffix (“her”) probably functions as a subjective genitive: “her rebellions” = “she has rebelled.”

⁷ tn The singular noun שְׁבִי (shÿvi) is a collective singular, meaning “captives, prisoners.” It functions as an adverbial accusative of state: “[they] went away as captives.”