14:13 You said to yourself, 9
“I will climb up to the sky.
Above the stars of El 10
I will set up my throne.
I will rule on the mountain of assembly
on the remote slopes of Zaphon. 11
47:8 So now, listen to this,
O one who lives so lavishly, 12
who lives securely,
who says to herself, 13
‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! 14
I will never have to live as a widow;
I will never lose my children.’ 15
49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 16
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced. 17
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”
13:22 You will probably ask yourself, 18
‘Why have these things happened to me?
Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress
whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ 19
It is because you have sinned so much. 20
1 tn For stylistic reasons a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 17 in the translation and the words “be careful” supplied to indicate the connection.
2 tn Heb “my strength and the might of my hand.”
3 tn Heb “your eye.”
4 tn Heb “your needy brother.”
5 tn Heb “give” (likewise in v. 10).
6 tn Heb “it will be a sin to you.”
7 tn Heb “in your heart.”
8 tn Heb “know the word which the Lord has not spoken.” The issue here is not understanding the meaning of the message, but distinguishing a genuine prophetic word from a false one.
9 tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”
10 sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.
11 sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.
12 tn Or perhaps, “voluptuous one” (NAB); NAB “you sensual one”; NLT “You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom.”
13 tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”
14 tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.” See Zeph 2:15.
15 tn Heb “I will not live [as] a widow, and I will not know loss of children.”
16 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
17 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
18 tn Heb “say in your heart.”
19 tn Heb “Your skirt has been uncovered and your heels have been treated with violence.” This is the generally accepted interpretation of these phrases. See, e.g., BDB 784 s.v. עָקֵב a and HALOT 329 s.v. I חָמַס Nif. The significance of the actions here are part of the metaphor (i.e., personification) of Jerusalem as an adulteress having left her husband and have been explained in the translation for the sake of readers unfamiliar with the metaphor.
20 tn The translation has been restructured to break up a long sentence involving a conditional clause and an elliptical consequential clause. It has also been restructured to define more clearly what “these things” are. The Hebrew text reads: “And if you say, ‘Why have these things happened to me?’ Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts [= what your skirt covers] have been uncovered and your heels have been treated with violence.”
21 tn Grk “knowing the thoughts of their hearts” (an idiom).
22 tn On this use of παρά (para), see BDF §239.1.1.