24:6 So a treaty curse 1 devours the earth;
its inhabitants pay for their guilt. 2
This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, 3
and are reduced to just a handful of people. 4
24:19 The earth is broken in pieces,
the earth is ripped to shreds,
the earth shakes violently. 5
24:20 The earth will stagger around 6 like a drunk;
it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm. 7
Its sin will weigh it down,
and it will fall and never get up again.
1 sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.
2 tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).
3 tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).
4 tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”
5 tn Once more repetition is used to draw attention to a statement. In the Hebrew text each lines ends with אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”). Each line also uses a Hitpolel verb form from a geminate root preceded by an emphatic infinitive absolute.
6 tn Heb “staggering, staggers.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb for emphasis and sound play.
7 tn The words “in a windstorm” are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.