3:7 I see the tents of Cushan overwhelmed by trouble; 1
the tent curtains of the land of Midian are shaking. 2
3:16 I listened and my stomach churned; 3
the sound made my lips quiver.
My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, 4
and I shook as I tried to walk. 5
I long 6 for the day of distress
to come upon 7 the people who attack us.
1 tn Heb “under trouble I saw the tents of Cushan.”
2 tn R. D. Patterson takes תַּחַת אֲוֶן (takhat ’aven) in the first line as a place name, “Tahath-Aven.” (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah [WEC], 237.) In this case one may translate the verse as a tricolon: “I look at Tahath-Aven. The tents of Cushan are shaking, the tent curtains of the land of Midian.”
3 tn Heb “my insides trembled.”
4 tn Heb “decay entered my bones.”
5 tc Heb “beneath me I shook, which….” The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher) appears to be a relative pronoun, but a relative pronoun does not fit here. The translation assumes a reading אֲשֻׁרָי (’ashuray, “my steps”) as well as an emendation of the preceding verb to a third plural form.
6 tn The translation assumes that אָנוּחַ (’anuakh) is from the otherwise unattested verb נָוָח (navakh, “sigh”; see HALOT 680 s.v. II נוח; so also NEB). Most take this verb as נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”) and translate, “I wait patiently” (cf. NIV).
7 tn Heb “to come up toward.”