28:7 Even these men 1 stagger because of wine,
they stumble around because of beer –
priests and prophets stagger because of beer,
they are confused 2 because of wine,
they stumble around because of beer;
they stagger while seeing prophetic visions, 3
they totter while making legal decisions. 4
28:8 Indeed, all the tables are covered with vomit;
no place is untouched. 5
7:5 At the celebration 6 of their king, 7
his princes become inflamed 8 with wine;
they conspire 9 with evildoers.
1 tn Heb “these.” The demonstrative pronoun anticipates “priests and prophets” two lines later.
2 tn According to HALOT 135 s.v. III בלע, the verb form is derived from בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”), not the more common בָּלַע (“swallow”). See earlier notes at 3:12 and 9:16.
3 tn Heb “in the seeing.”
4 tn Heb “[in] giving a decision.”
5 tn Heb “vomit, without a place.” For the meaning of the phrase בְּלִי מָקוֹם (bÿli maqom, “without a place”), see HALOT 133 s.v. בְּלִי.
6 tn Heb “the day of” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “On the day of the festival of our king”; NLT “On royal holidays.”
7 tc The MT preserves the awkward 1st person common plural suffix reading מַלְכֵּנוּ (malakenu, “our king”). The BHS editors suggest reading the 3rd person masculine plural suffix מַלְכָּם (malkam, “their king”; so CEV), as reflected in the Aramaic Targum.
8 tc The MT vocalizes the consonants החלו as הֶחֱלוּ a Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from I חָלָה (“to become sick”). However, this is syntactically awkward. The BHS editors suggest revocalizing it as Hiphil infinitive construct + 3rd person masculine singular suffix from חָלַל (khalal, “to begin”) or Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from חָלַל. For a discussion of this textual problem, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:240.
9 tn Heb “he joined hands”; NCV “make agreements.”