38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. 1
You delivered me 2 from the pit of oblivion. 3
For you removed all my sins from your sight. 4
33:7 Look, ambassadors 5 cry out in the streets;
messengers sent to make peace 6 weep bitterly.
1 tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”
2 tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).
3 tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”
4 tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”
5 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word is unknown. Proposals include “heroes” (cf. KJV, ASV “valiant ones”; NASB, NIV “brave men”); “priests,” “residents [of Jerusalem].” The present translation assumes that the term is synonymous with “messengers of peace,” with which it corresponds in the parallel structure of the verse.
6 tn Heb “messengers of peace,” apparently those responsible for negotiating the agreements that have been broken (see v. 8).