5:16 Why do you remain among the sheepfolds, 1
listening to the shepherds playing their pipes 2 for their flocks? 3
As for the clans of Reuben – there was intense searching of heart.
1 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word מִשְׁפְּתַיִם (mishpÿtayim) is uncertain. Some understand the word to mean “campfires.”
2 tn Or “whistling.”
3 tn Heb “listening to the pipe playing for the flocks.”
4 tn Heb “Why do you ask for my name, for it is incomprehensible?” The Hebrew adjective פִּלְאִי (pile’iy, “wonderful, incomprehensible”) refers to what is in a category of its own and is beyond full human understanding. Note the use of this word in Ps 139:6, where God’s knowledge is described as incomprehensible and unattainable.