39:1 At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been ill and had recovered.
4:10 Twist and strain, 3 Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!
For you will leave the city
and live in the open field.
You will go to Babylon,
but there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will deliver 4 you
from the power 5 of your enemies.
1 tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.
2 sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).
3 tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.”
4 tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
5 tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control.