5:17 Lambs 1 will graze as if in their pastures,
amid the ruins the rich sojourners will graze. 2
5:2 Our inheritance 12 is turned over to strangers;
foreigners now occupy our homes. 13
30:12 I will dry up the waterways
and hand the land over to 14 evil men.
I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
7:9 Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced, 15
but he does not recognize it!
His head is filled with gray hair,
but he does not realize it!
8:7 They sow the wind,
and so they will reap the whirlwind!
The stalk does not have any standing grain;
it will not produce any flour.
Even if it were to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it all up.
1 tn Or “young rams”; NIV, NCV “sheep”; NLT “flocks.”
2 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and ruins, fatlings, resident aliens, will eat.” This part of the verse has occasioned various suggestions of emendation. The parallelism is tighter if the second line refers to animals grazing. The translation, “amid the ruins the fatlings and young sheep graze,” assumes an emendation of “resident aliens” (גָּרִים, garim) to “young goats/sheep” (גְּדַיִם, gÿdayim) – confusion of dalet and resh is quite common – and understands “fatlings” and “young sheep” taken as a compound subject or as in apposition as the subject of the verb. However, no emendations are necessary if the above translation is correct. The meaning of מֵחִים (mekhim) has a significant impact on one’s textual decision and translation. The noun can refer to a sacrificial (“fat”) animal as it does in its only other occurrence (Ps 66:15). However, it could signify the rich of the earth (“the fat ones of the earth”; Ps 22:29 [MT 30]) using a different word for “fatness” (דָּשֶׁן, dashen). If so, it serves a figurative reference to the rich. Consequently, the above translation coheres with the first half of the verse. Just as the sheep are out of place grazing in these places (“as in their pasture”), the sojourners would not have expected to have the chance to eat in these locations. Both animals and itinerant foreigners would eat in places not normal for them.
3 tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.
4 tn Heb “lack of everything.”
5 tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the
6 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”
7 tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.
8 tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).
9 tn Heb “increase of herds.”
10 tn Heb “growth of flocks.”
11 tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.
12 tn Heb “Our inheritance”; or “Our inherited possessions/property.” The term נַחֲלָה (nakhalah) has a range of meanings: (1) “inheritance,” (2) “portion, share” and (3) “possession, property.” The land of Canaan was given by the
13 tn Heb “our homes [are turned over] to foreigners.”
14 tn Heb “and I will sell the land into the hand of.”
15 tn Heb “foreigners consume his strength”; NRSV “devour (sap NIV) his strength.”