1:10 They mock kings
and laugh at rulers.
They laugh at every fortified city;
they build siege ramps 1 and capture them.
2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead 2 –
he who says 3 to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’
Can it give reliable guidance? 4
It is overlaid with gold and silver;
it has no life’s breath inside it.
1 tn Heb “they heap up dirt.” This is a reference to the piling up of earthen ramps in the process of laying siege to a fortified city.
2 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.
3 tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.
4 tn Though the Hebrew text has no formal interrogative marker here, the context indicates that the statement should be taken as a rhetorical question anticipating the answer, “Of course not!” (so also NIV, NRSV).