33:8 Highways are empty, 7
there are no travelers. 8
Treaties are broken, 9
witnesses are despised, 10
human life is treated with disrespect. 11
ד (Dalet)
1:4 The roads to Zion 12 mourn 13
because no one 14 travels to the festivals. 15
All her city gates 16 are deserted; 17
her priests groan. 18
Her virgins grieve; 19
she is in bitter anguish! 20
צ (Tsade)
4:18 Our enemies 21 hunted us down at every step 22
so that we could not walk about in our streets.
Our end drew near, our days were numbered, 23
for our end had come!
3:12 Therefore, because of you, 24 Zion will be plowed up like 25 a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount 26 will become a hill overgrown with brush! 27
1 tn Heb “the animal of the field.” This collective singular has been translated as a plural. The expression “animal of the field” refers to a wild (i.e., nondomesticated) animal.
2 tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
3 tn Heb “and diminish you.”
4 tn Heb “and my sanctuary you shall fear.” Cf. NCV “respect”; CEV “honor.”
5 tn Heb “And a man who touches in his bed”; NLT “touch the man’s bedding.”
6 tn Heb “he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening” (cf. also vv. 6-8, 10-11, etc.).
7 tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”
8 tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”
9 tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”
10 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.
11 tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”
12 tn Heb “roads of Zion.” The noun צִיּוֹן (tsiyyon, Zion) is a genitive of direction (termination) following the construct noun, meaning “roads to Zion.”
13 tn The adjective אֲבֵּלּוֹת (’avelot, “mourning”) functions as a predicate of state.
14 tn Heb “from lack of.” The construction מִבְּלִי (mibbÿli) is composed of the preposition מִן (min) functioning in a causal sense (BDB 580 s.v. מִן 2.f) and the adverb of negation בְּלִי (bÿli) to denote the negative cause: “from want of” or “without” (HALOT 133 s.v. בְּלִי 4; BDB 115 s.v. בְּלִי 2.c) (Num 14:16; Deut 9:28; 28:55; Eccl 3:11; Isa 5:13; Jer 2:15; 9:11; Hos 4:6; Ezek 34:5).
15 tn Heb “those coming of feast.” The construct chain בָּאֵי מוֹעֵד (ba’e mo’ed) consists of (1) the substantival plural construct participle בָּאֵי (ba’e, “those who come”) and (2) the collective singular genitive of purpose מוֹעֵד (mo’ed, “for the feasts”).
16 tc The MT reads שְׁעָרֶיהָ (shÿ’areha, “her gates”). The BHS editors suggest revocalizing the text to the participle שֹׁעֲרֶיהָ (sho’areha, “her gate-keepers”) from שֹׁעֵר (sho’er, “porter”; BDB 1045 s.v. שֹׁעֵר). The revocalization creates tight parallelism: “her gate-keepers”//“her priests,” but ruins the chiasm: (A) her gate-keepers, (B) her priests, (B’) her virgins, (A’) the city itself.
17 tn The verb שָׁמֵם (shamem) normally means “to be desolated; to be appalled,” but when used in reference to land, it means “deserted” (Isa 49:8; Ezek 33:28; 35:12, 15; 36:4) (BDB 1030 s.v. 1).
18 tn Heb “groan” or “sigh.” The verb אָנַח (’anakh) is an expression of grief (Prov 29:2; Isa 24:7; Lam 1:4, 8; Ezek 9:4; 21:11). BDB 58 s.v. 1 suggests that it means “sigh” but HALOT 70-71 s.v. prefers “groan” here.
19 tc The MT reads נּוּגוֹת (nugot, “are grieved”), Niphal participle feminine plural from יָגָה (yagah, “to grieve”). The LXX ἀγόμεναι (agomenai) reflects נָהוּגוֹת (nahugot, “are led away”), Qal passive participle feminine plural from נָהַג (nahag, “to lead away into exile”), also reflected in Aquila and Symmachus. The MT reading is an unusual form (see translator’s note below) and best explains the origin of the LXX which is a more common root. It would be difficult to explain the origin of the MT reading if the LXX reflects the original. Therefore, the MT is probably the original reading.
20 tn Heb “and she is bitter to herself,” that is, “sick inside” (2 Kgs 4:27)
21 tn Heb “they”; this has been specified in the translation as “our enemies” for clarity.
22 tn Heb “they hunted our steps.”
23 tn Heb “our days were full.”
24 tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.
25 tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).
26 tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
27 tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”