6:3 So I sent messengers to them saying, “I am engaged in 3 an important work, and I am unable to come down. Why should the work come to a halt when I leave it to come down to you?”
6:8 I sent word back to him, “We are not engaged in these activities you are describing. 7 All of this is a figment of your imagination.” 8
6:9 All of them were wanting 9 to scare us, supposing, “Their hands will grow slack from the work, and it won’t get done.”
So now, strengthen my hands! 10
1 tn Heb “peoples.”
2 tn It is not entirely clear whether the Hebrew word כְּפִירִים (kÿfirim) is a place-name not mentioned elsewhere in the OT (as indicated in the present translation; so also NAB, NASB) or whether it means “in [one of] the villages” (so, e.g., NIV, NRSV, NLT; see BDB 499 s.v.; HALOT 493 s.v.). The LXX and Vulgate understand it in the latter sense. Some scholars connect this term with the identically spelled word כּפירים (“lions”) as a figurative description of princes or warriors (e.g., Pss 34:11; 35:17; 58:7; Jer 2:15; Ezek 32:2, 13; Nah 2:14; see HALOT 493 s.v.): “let us meet together with the leaders in the plain of Ono.”
3 tn Heb “[am] doing.”
4 tn Heb “call.”
5 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
6 tn Heb “Let us consult together.”
5 tn Heb “We are not according to these matters that you are saying.”
6 tn Heb “For from your heart you are inventing them.”
6 tn The participle has a desiderative nuance here, describing the desire of the subject and not necessarily the actual outcome. See also v. 14.
7 tn The statement “So now, strengthen my hands” is frequently understood as an implied prayer, but is taken differently by NAB (“But instead, I now redoubled my efforts”).