1:9 For Samaria’s 1 disease 2 is incurable.
It has infected 3 Judah;
it has spread to 4 the leadership 5 of my people
and has even contaminated Jerusalem! 6
5:5 He will give us peace. 7
Should the Assyrians try to invade our land
and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, 8
we will send 9 against them seven 10 shepherd-rulers, 11
make that eight commanders. 12
7:8 My enemies, 13 do not gloat 14 over me!
Though I have fallen, I will get up.
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. 15
1 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Samaria) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tc The MT reads the plural “wounds”; the singular is read by the LXX, Syriac, and Vg.
3 tn Heb “come to.”
4 tn Or “reached.”
5 tn Heb “the gate.” Kings and civic leaders typically conducted important business at the city gate (see 1 Kgs 22:10 for an example), and the term is understood here to refer by metonymy to the leadership who would be present at the gate.
6 tn Heb “to Jerusalem.” The expression “it has contaminated” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied to fill out the parallelism with the preceding line.
7 tn Heb “and this one will be peace”; ASV “and this man shall be our peace” (cf. Eph 2:14).
8 tc Some prefer to read “in our land,” emending the text to בְּאַדְמָתֵנוּ (bÿ’admatenu).
9 tn Heb “raise up.”
10 sn The numbers seven and eight here symbolize completeness and emphasize that Israel will have more than enough military leadership and strength to withstand the Assyrian advance.
11 tn Heb “shepherds.”
12 tn Heb “and eight leaders of men.”
13 tn The singular form is understood as collective.
14 tn Or “rejoice” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “don’t laugh at me.”
15 sn Darkness represents judgment; light (also in v. 9) symbolizes deliverance. The