1:8 For this reason I 1 will mourn and wail;
I will walk around barefoot 2 and without my outer garments. 3
I will howl 4 like a wild dog, 5
and screech 6 like an owl. 7
1:11 Residents 8 of Shaphir, 9 pass by in nakedness and humiliation! 10
The residents of Zaanan can’t leave their city. 11
Beth Ezel 12 mourns, 13
“He takes from you what he desires.” 14
1 tn The prophet is probably the speaker here.
2 tn Or “stripped.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is unclear. It may refer to walking barefoot (see 2 Sam 15:30) or to partially stripping oneself (see Job 12:17-19).
3 tn Heb “naked.” This probably does not refer to complete nudity, but to stripping off one’s outer garments as an outward sign of the destitution felt by the mourner.
4 tn Heb “I will make lamentation.”
5 tn Or “a jackal”; CEV “howling wolves.”
6 tn Heb “[make] a mourning.”
7 tn Or perhaps “ostrich” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).
8 tn The Hebrew participial form, which is feminine singular, is here used in a collective sense for the all the residents of the town. See GKC 394 §122.s.
9 sn The place name Shaphir means “pleasant” in Hebrew.
10 tn The imperatival form is used rhetorically, emphasizing that the inhabitants of Shaphir will pass by into exile.
11 tn Heb “have not come out”; NIV “will not come out”; NLT “dare not come outside.”
12 sn The place name Beth Ezel means “house of nearness” or “house of proximity” in Hebrew.
13 tn Heb “the lamentation of Beth Ezel.” The following words could be the lamentation offered up by Beth Ezel (subjective genitive) or the mourning song sung over it (objective genitive).
14 tc The form עֶמְדָּתוֹ (’emdato) should be emended to חֲמַדְּתוֹ (khamadto, “his (the conqueror’s) desire”).