43:1 Now the famine was severe in the land. 3
3:1 Now 4 the serpent 5 was more shrewd 6
than any of the wild animals 7 that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that 8 God 9 said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” 10
26:8 Yes, as your judgments unfold, 11
O Lord, we wait for you.
We desire your fame and reputation to grow. 12
26:9 I 13 look for 14 you during the night,
my spirit within me seeks you at dawn,
for when your judgments come upon the earth,
those who live in the world learn about justice. 15
26:1 At that time 16 this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city!
The Lord’s 17 deliverance, like walls and a rampart, makes it secure. 18
3:16 The Lord says,
“The women 19 of Zion are proud.
They walk with their heads high 20
and flirt with their eyes.
They skip along 21
and the jewelry on their ankles jingles. 22
3:17 So 23 the sovereign master 24 will afflict the foreheads of Zion’s women 25 with skin diseases, 26
the Lord will make the front of their heads bald.” 27
1 tn Heb “for his affection boiled up concerning his brother.” The same expression is used in 1 Kgs 3:26 for the mother’s feelings for her endangered child.
2 tn Heb “and he sought to weep.”
3 tn The disjunctive clause gives supplemental information that is important to the storyline.
4 tn The chapter begins with a disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + predicate) that introduces a new character and a new scene in the story.
5 sn Many theologians identify or associate the serpent with Satan. In this view Satan comes in the disguise of a serpent or speaks through a serpent. This explains the serpent’s capacity to speak. While later passages in the Bible may indicate there was a satanic presence behind the serpent (see, for example, Rev 12:9), the immediate context pictures the serpent as simply one of the animals of the field created by God (see vv. 1, 14). An ancient Jewish interpretation explains the reference to the serpent in a literal manner, attributing the capacity to speak to all the animals in the orchard. This text (Jub. 3:28) states, “On that day [the day the man and woman were expelled from the orchard] the mouth of all the beasts and cattle and birds and whatever walked or moved was stopped from speaking because all of them used to speak to one another with one speech and one language [presumed to be Hebrew, see 12:26].” Josephus, Ant. 1.1.4 (1.41) attributes the serpent’s actions to jealousy. He writes that “the serpent, living in the company of Adam and his wife, grew jealous of the blessings which he supposed were destined for them if they obeyed God’s behests, and, believing that disobedience would bring trouble on them, he maliciously persuaded the woman to taste of the tree of wisdom.”
6 tn The Hebrew word עָרוּם (’arum) basically means “clever.” This idea then polarizes into the nuances “cunning” (in a negative sense, see Job 5:12; 15:5), and “prudent” in a positive sense (Prov 12:16, 23; 13:16; 14:8, 15, 18; 22:3; 27:12). This same polarization of meaning can be detected in related words derived from the same root (see Exod 21:14; Josh 9:4; 1 Sam 23:22; Job 5:13; Ps 83:3). The negative nuance obviously applies in Gen 3, where the snake attempts to talk the woman into disobeying God by using half-truths and lies.
7 tn Heb “animals of the field.”
8 tn Heb “Indeed that God said.” The beginning of the quotation is elliptical and therefore difficult to translate. One must supply a phrase like “is it true”: “Indeed, [is it true] that God said.”
9 sn God. The serpent does not use the expression “Yahweh God” [
10 tn Heb “you must not eat from all the tree[s] of the orchard.” After the negated prohibitive verb, מִכֹּל (mikkol, “from all”) has the meaning “from any.” Note the construction in Lev 18:26, where the statement “you must not do from all these abominable things” means “you must not do any of these abominable things.” See Lev 22:25 and Deut 28:14 as well.
11 tn The Hebrew text has, “yes, the way of your judgments.” The translation assumes that “way” is related to the verb “we wait” as an adverbial accusative (“in the way of your judgments we wait”). מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ (mishpatekha, “your judgments”) could refer to the Lord’s commandments, in which case one might translate, “as we obey your commands.” However, in verse 9 the same form refers to divine acts of judgment on evildoers.
12 tn Heb “your name and your remembrance [is] the desire of [our?] being.”
13 tn Heb “with my soul I.” This is a figure for the speaker himself (“I”).
14 tn Or “long for, desire.” The speaker acknowledges that he is eager to see God come in judgment (see vv. 8, 9b).
15 tn The translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “those who live in the world learn to live in a righteous manner” (cf. NCV).
16 tn Heb “In that day” (so KJV).
17 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “deliverance he makes walls and a rampart.”
19 tn Heb “daughters” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).
20 tn Heb “with an outstretched neck.” They proudly hold their heads high so that others can see the jewelry around their necks.
21 tn Heb “walking and skipping, they walk.”
22 tn Heb “and with their feet they jingle.”
23 tn In the Hebrew text vv. 16-17 and one long sentence, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk…, the sovereign master will afflict….” In v. 17 the Lord refers to himself in the third person.
24 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
25 tn Heb “the daughters of Zion.”
26 tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”
27 tn The precise meaning of this line is unclear because of the presence of the rare word פֹּת (pot). Since the verb in the line means “lay bare, make naked,” some take פֹּת as a reference to the genitals (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV, CEV). (In 1 Kgs 7:50 a noun פֹּת appears, with the apparent meaning “socket.”) J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:139, n. 2), basing his argument on alleged Akkadian evidence and the parallelism of the verse, takes פֹּת as “forehead.”