4:9 “When this happens,” 1 says the Lord,
“the king and his officials will lose their courage.
The priests will be struck with horror,
and the prophets will be speechless in astonishment.”
4:19 I said, 2
“Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach! 3
I writhe in anguish.
Oh, the pain in my heart! 4
My heart pounds within me.
I cannot keep silent.
For I hear the sound of the trumpet; 5
the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul! 6
48:36 So my heart moans for Moab
like a flute playing a funeral song.
Yes, like a flute playing a funeral song,
my heart moans for the people of Kir Heres.
For the wealth they have gained will perish.
48:41 Her towns 7 will be captured.
Her fortresses will be taken.
At that time the soldiers of Moab will be frightened
like a woman in labor. 8
49:22 Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings,
a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah.
At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful
as a woman in labor.” 9
1 tn Heb “In that day.”
2 tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are used to mark the shift from the
3 tn Heb “My bowels! My bowels!”
4 tn Heb “the walls of my heart!”
5 tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.
6 tc The translation reflects a different division of the last two lines than that suggested by the Masoretes. The written text (the Kethib) reads “for the sound of the ram’s horn I have heard [or “you have heard,” if the form is understood as the old second feminine singular perfect] my soul” followed by “the battle cry” in the last line. The translation is based on taking “my soul” with the last line and understanding an elliptical expression “the battle cry [to] my soul.” Such an elliptical expression is in keeping with the elliptical nature of the exclamations at the beginning of the verse (cf. the literal translations of the first two lines of the verse in the notes on the words “stomach” and “heart”).
3 tn Parallelism argues that the word קְרִיּוֹת (qÿriyyot) be understood as the otherwise unattested feminine plural of the noun קִרְיָה (qiryah, “city”) rather than the place name Kerioth mentioned in v. 24 (cf. HALOT 1065 s.v. קִרְיָה). Both this noun and the parallel term “fortresses” are plural but are found with feminine singular verbs, being treated either as collectives or distributive plurals (cf. GKC 462-63 §145.c or 464 §145.l).
4 tn Heb “The heart of the soldiers of Moab will be like the heart of a woman in labor.”
4 sn Compare Jer 48:40-41 for a similar prophecy about Moab. The parallelism here suggests that Bozrah, like Teman in v. 20, is a poetic equivalent for Edom.