18:3 All you who live in the world,
who reside on the earth,
you will see a signal flag raised on the mountains;
you will hear a trumpet being blown.
18:1 The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead, 1
the one beyond the rivers of Cush,
‘Listen continually, but don’t understand!
Look continually, but don’t perceive!’
34:27 because they have turned away from following him,
and have not understood 2 any of his ways,
5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. 3
But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. 4
Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.
They have become as hardheaded as a rock. 5
They refuse to change their ways. 6
28:27 For the heart of this people has become dull, 7
and their ears are hard of hearing, 8
and they have closed their eyes,
so that they would not see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, 9 and I would heal them.”’ 10
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the land of buzzing wings.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
2 tn The verb הִשְׂכִּילוּ (hiskilu) means “to be prudent; to be wise.” From this is derived the idea of “be wise in understanding God’s will,” and “be successful because of prudence” – i.e., successful with God.
3 tn Heb “O
4 tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.
5 tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”
6 tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”
7 tn Or “insensitive.”
8 tn Grk “they hear heavily with their ears” (an idiom for slow comprehension).
9 sn Note how the failure to respond to the message of the gospel is seen as a failure to turn.
10 sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10.