74:5 They invade like lumberjacks
swinging their axes in a thick forest. 1
74:6 And now 2 they are tearing down 3 all its engravings 4
with axes 5 and crowbars. 6
74:7 They set your sanctuary on fire;
they desecrate your dwelling place by knocking it to the ground. 7
1 tn Heb “it is known like one bringing upwards, in a thicket of wood, axes.” The Babylonian invaders destroyed the woodwork in the temple.
2 tn This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”
3 tn The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.
4 tn Heb “its engravings together.”
5 tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49-50).
6 tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. An Akkadian cognate refers to a “pickaxe” (cf. NEB “hatchet and pick”; NIV “axes and hatchets”; NRSV “hatchets and hammers”).
7 tn Heb “to the ground they desecrate the dwelling place of your name.”