33:8 Highways are empty, 1
there are no travelers. 2
Treaties are broken, 3
witnesses are despised, 4
human life is treated with disrespect. 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
1 tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”
2 tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”
3 tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”
4 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.
5 tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”
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.”