3:26 Her gates will mourn and lament;
deprived of her people, she will sit on the ground. 1
28:1 The splendid crown of Ephraim’s drunkards is doomed, 2
the withering flower, its beautiful splendor, 3
situated 4 at the head of a rich valley,
the crown of those overcome with wine. 5
33:9 The land 6 dries up 7 and withers away;
the forest of Lebanon shrivels up 8 and decays.
Sharon 9 is like the desert; 10
Bashan and Carmel 11 are parched. 12
64:6 We are all like one who is unclean,
all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. 13
We all wither like a leaf;
our sins carry us away like the wind.
4:28 Because of this the land will mourn
and the sky above will grow black. 14
For I have made my purpose known 15
and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” 16
12:4 How long must the land be parched 17
and the grass in every field be withered?
How long 18 must the animals and the birds die
because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? 19
For these people boast,
“God 20 will not see what happens to us.” 21
4:3 Therefore the land will mourn,
and all its inhabitants will perish. 22
The wild animals, 23 the birds of the sky,
and even the fish in the sea will perish.
1 tn Heb “she will be empty, on the ground she will sit.” Jerusalem is personified as a destitute woman who sits mourning the empty city.
2 tn Heb “Woe [to] the crown [or “wreath”] of the splendor [or “pride”] of the drunkards of Ephraim.” The “crown” is Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom (Ephraim). Priests and prophets are included among these drunkards in v. 7.
3 tn Heb “the beauty of his splendor.” In the translation the masculine pronoun (“his”) has been replaced by “its” because the referent (the “crown”) is the city of Samaria.
4 tn Heb “which [is].”
5 tn Heb “ones overcome with wine.” The words “the crown of” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The syntactical relationship of the final phrase to what precedes is uncertain. הֲלוּמֵי יָיִן (halume yayin, “ones overcome with wine”) seems to correspond to שִׁכֹּרֵי אֶפְרַיִם (shikkore ’efrayim, “drunkards of Ephraim”) in line 1. The translation assumes that the phrase “the splendid crown” is to be understood in the final line as well.
6 tn Or “earth” (KJV); NAB “the country.”
7 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. I אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism. See 24:4.
8 tn Heb “Lebanon is ashamed.” The Hiphil is exhibitive, expressing the idea, “exhibits shame.” In this context the statement alludes to the withering of vegetation.
9 sn Sharon was a fertile plain along the Mediterranean coast. See 35:2.
10 tn Or “the Arabah” (NIV). See 35:1.
11 sn Both of these areas were known for their trees and vegetation. See 2:13; 35:2.
12 tn Heb “shake off [their leaves]” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB “are stripped bare.”
13 tn Heb “and like a garment of menstruation [are] all our righteous acts”; KJV, NIV “filthy rags”; ASV “a polluted garment.”
14 sn The earth and the heavens are personified here and depicted in the act of mourning and wearing black clothes because of the destruction of the land of Israel.
15 tn Heb “has spoken and purposed.” This is an example of hendiadys where two verbs are joined by “and” but one is meant to serve as a modifier of the other.
16 tn Heb “will not turn back from it.”
17 tn The verb here is often translated “mourn.” However, this verb is from a homonymic root meaning “to be dry” (cf. HALOT 7 s.v. II אָבַל and compare Hos 4:3 for usage).
18 tn The words “How long” are not in the text. They are carried over from the first line.
19 tn Heb “because of the wickedness of those who live in it.”
20 tn Heb “he.” The referent is usually identified as God and is supplied here for clarity. Some identify the referent with Jeremiah. If that is the case, then he returns to his complaint about the conspirators. It is more likely, however, that it refers to God and Jeremiah’s complaint that the people live their lives apart from concern about God.
21 tc Or reading with the Greek version, “God does not see what we are doing.” In place of “what will happen to us (אַחֲרִיתֵנוּ, ’akharitenu, “our end”) the Greek version understands a Hebrew text which reads “our ways” (אָרְחוֹתֵנו, ’orkhotenu), which is graphically very close to the MT. The Masoretic is supported by the Latin and is retained here on the basis of external evidence. Either text makes good sense in the context. Some identify the “he” with Jeremiah and understand the text to be saying that the conspirators are certain that they will succeed and he will not live to see his prophecies fulfilled.
22 tn Or “languish” (so KJV, NRSV); NIV “waste away.”
23 tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so NAB, NIV).