1:10 Don’t spread the news in Gath! 1
Don’t shed even a single tear! 2
In Beth Leaphrah sit in the dust! 3
7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,
like serpents crawling on the ground. 4
They will come trembling from their strongholds
to the Lord our God; 5
they will be terrified 6 of you. 7
1 tn Heb “Tell it not in Gath.” The Hebrew word for “tell” (נָגַד, nagad) sounds like the name of the city, Gath (גַּת, gat).
2 tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute before the negated jussive emphasizes the prohibition.
3 tc The translation assumes a masculine plural imperative. If one were to emend בְּבֵית (bÿvet) to בֵית (vet), Beth Leaphrah would then be the addressee and the feminine singular imperative (see Qere) could be retained, “O Beth Leaphrah, sit in the dust.”
4 tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.
5 tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the
6 tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”
7 tn The