13:20 No one will live there again;
no one will ever reside there again. 1
No bedouin 2 will camp 3 there,
no shepherds will rest their flocks 4 there.
1:4 Edom 9 says, “Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.” So the Lord who rules over all 10 responds, “They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as 11 the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased.
1 tn Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.
2 tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”
3 tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל (ye’ehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.
4 tn The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12.
5 tn Heb “and I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.” The context indicates this is technical covenant vocabulary in which “love” and “hate” are synonymous with “choose” and “reject” respectively (see Deut 7:8; Jer 31:3; Hos 3:1; 9:15; 11:1).
6 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “I set his mountains as a desolation.”
8 tn Or “inheritance” (so NIV, NLT).
9 sn Edom, a “brother” nation to Israel, became almost paradigmatic of hostility toward Israel and God (see Num 20:14-21; Deut 2:8; Jer 49:7-22; Ezek 25:12-14; Amos 1:11-12; Obad 10-12).
10 sn The epithet
11 tn Heb “and they will call them.” The third person plural subject is indefinite; one could translate, “and people will call them.”