9:19 Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, 1
and the people became fuel for the fire. 2
People had no compassion on one another. 3
30:14 It shatters in pieces like a clay jar,
so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. 4
Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough 5
to scoop a hot coal from a fire 6
or to skim off water from a cistern.” 7
1 tn The precise meaning of the verb עְתַּם (’ÿtam), which occurs only here, is uncertain, though the context strongly suggests that it means “burn, scorch.”
2 sn The uncontrollable fire of the people’s wickedness (v. 18) is intensified by the fire of the Lord’s judgment (v. 19). God allows (or causes) their wickedness to become self-destructive as civil strife and civil war break out in the land.
3 tn Heb “men were not showing compassion to their brothers.” The idiom “men to their brothers” is idiomatic for reciprocity. The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav (ו) consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.
4 tn Heb “Its shattering is like the shattering of a jug of [i.e., “made by”] potters, [so] shattered one cannot save [any of it].”
5 tn The words “large enough” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
6 tn Heb “to remove fire from the place of kindling.”
7 tn On the meaning of גֶבֶא (geveh, “cistern”) see HALOT 170 s.v.