14:10 All of them respond to you, saying:
‘You too have become weak like us!
You have become just like us!
21:12 The watchman replies,
“Morning is coming, but then night. 1
If you want to ask, ask;
come back again.” 2
48:4 I did this 5 because I know how stubborn you are.
Your neck muscles are like iron
and your forehead like bronze. 6
64:8 Yet, 7 Lord, you are our father.
We are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the product of your labor. 8
1 sn Dumah will experience some relief, but it will be short-lived as night returns.
2 sn The point of the watchman’s final instructions (“if you want to ask, ask; come again”) is unclear. Perhaps they are included to add realism to the dramatic portrayal. The watchman sends the questioner away with the words, “Feel free to come back and ask again.”
1 tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”
2 tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”
1 tn The words “I did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 4 is subordinated to v. 3.
2 sn The image is that of a person who has tensed the muscles of the face and neck as a sign of resolute refusal.
1 tn On the force of וְעַתָּה (vÿ’attah) here, see HALOT 902 s.v. עַתָּה.
2 tn Heb “the work of your hand.”