Isaiah 25:11-12

25:11 Moab ¹  will spread out its hands in the middle of it, ² 

just as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim;

the Lord ³  will bring down Moab’s ⁴  pride as it spreads its hands. ⁵ 

25:12 The fortified city (along with the very tops of your ⁶  walls) ⁷  he will knock down,

he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground. ⁸ 

[25:11]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:11]  ² tn The antecedent of the third masculine singular pronominal suffix is probably the masculine noun מַתְבֵּן (matben, “heap of straw”) in v. 10 rather than the feminine noun מַדְמֵנָה (madmenah, “manure pile”), also in v. 10.

[25:11]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Moab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:11]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text has, “he will bring down his pride along with the [?] of his hands.” The meaning of אָרְבּוֹת (’arbot), which occurs only here in the OT, is unknown. Some (see BDB 70 s.v. אָרְבָּה) translate “artifice, cleverness,” relating the form to the verbal root אָרָב (’arav, “to lie in wait, ambush”), but this requires some convoluted semantic reasoning. HALOT 83 s.v. *אָרְבָּה suggests the meaning “[nimble] movements.” The translation above, which attempts to relate the form to the preceding context, is purely speculative.

[25:12]  ⁶ sn Moab is addressed.

[25:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “a fortification, the high point of your walls.”

[25:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “he will bring [it] down, he will make [it] touch the ground, even to the dust.”