3:5 I am against you,” declares the Lord who commands armies. 1
“I will strip off your clothes! 2
I will show your nakedness to the nations
and your shame to the kingdoms;
3:8 You are no more secure 3 than Thebes 4 –
she was located on the banks of the Nile;
the waters surrounded her,
her 5 rampart 6 was the sea,
the water 7 was her wall.
1 tn Traditionally, “the
2 tn Heb “I will uncover your skirts over your face.”
3 tn Heb “Are you better than Thebes?”
4 tn Heb “No-Amon.” The name is transliterated by NAB, NASB; many other English versions employ the equivalent “Thebes.”
5 tn The relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher) is functioning in a possessive sense: “whose” (Job 37:17; Ps 95:5; Isa 5:28; 49:23; Jer 31:32; see HALOT 98 s.v. 4).
6 tn The consonantal form חיל is vocalized in the MT as חֵיל (khel, “rampart”). The LXX translation ἡ ἀρξή (Jh arxh, “strength”) reflects confusion between the relatively rare חֵיל and the more common חַיִל (khayil, “strength”); see HALOT 310-12.
7 tn Heb “from (the) sea.” The form should be emended to מַיִם (mayim, “water”). This is a figurative description of the Nile River: It functioned like a fortress wall for Thebes.