50:10 For every wild animal in the forest belongs to me,
as well as the cattle that graze on a thousand hills. 4
50:11 I keep track of 5 every bird in the hills,
and the insects 6 of the field are mine.
50:12 Even if I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and all it contains belong to me.
1 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for this title.
2 tn Heb “An iron yoke I have put on the necks of all these nations.”
3 sn The emphasis is on the absoluteness of Nebuchadnezzar’s control. The statement is once again rhetorical and not to be taken literally. See the study note on 27:6.
4 tn Heb “[the] animals on a thousand hills.” The words “that graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The term בְּהֵמוֹה (bÿhemot, “animal”) refers here to cattle (see Ps 104:14).
5 tn Heb “I know.”
6 tn The precise referent of the Hebrew word, which occurs only here and in Ps 80:13, is uncertain. Aramaic, Arabic and Akkadian cognates refer to insects, such as locusts or crickets.
7 tn Aram “the sons of man.”
8 tn Aram “the beasts of the field.”
9 tn Aram “hand.”