Job 12:14

12:14 If ¹  he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt;

if he imprisons a person, there is no escape. ² 

Job 19:8

19:8 He has blocked ³  my way so I cannot pass,

and has set darkness ⁴  over my paths.

Psalms 31:8

31:8 You do not deliver me over to the power of the enemy;

you enable me to stand ⁵  in a wide open place.

Lamentations 3:7

ג (Gimel)

3:7 He has walled me in ⁶  so that I cannot get out;

he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. ⁷ 

Lamentations 3:9

3:9 He has blocked ⁸  every road I take ⁹  with a wall of hewn stones;

he has made every path impassable. ¹⁰ 

Hosea 2:6

The Lord’s Discipline Will Bring Israel Back

2:6 Therefore, I will soon ¹¹  fence her in ¹²  with thorns;

I will wall her in ¹³  so that ¹⁴  she cannot find her way. ¹⁵ 

[12:14]  ¹ tn The use of הֵן (hen, equivalent to הִנֵּה, hinneh, “behold”) introduces a hypothetical condition.

[12:14]  ² tn The verse employs antithetical ideas: “tear down” and “build up,” “imprison” and “escape.” The Niphal verbs in the sentences are potential imperfects. All of this is to say that humans cannot reverse the will of God.

[19:8]  ³ tn The verb גָּדַר (gadar) means “to wall up; to fence up; to block.” God has blocked Job’s way so that he cannot get through. See the note on 3:23. Cf. Lam 3:7.

[19:8]  ⁴ tn Some commentators take the word to be חָשַׁךְ (hasak), related to an Arabic word for “thorn hedge.”

[31:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “you cause my feet to stand.”

[3:7]  ⁶ tn The verb גָּדַר (garad) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “to build up a wall” with stones, and (2) “to block a road” with a wall of stones. The imagery depicts the Lord building a wall to seal off personified Jerusalem with no way of escape out of the city, or the Lord blocking the road of escape. Siege imagery prevails in 3:4-6, but 3:7-9 pictures an unsuccessful escape that is thwarted due to blocked roads in 3:7 and 3:9.

[3:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “he has made heavy my chains.”

[3:9]  ⁸ tn The verb גָּדַר (garad) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “to build up a wall” with stones, and (2) “to block a road” with a wall of stones. The collocated terms דְּרָכַי (dÿrakhay, “my roads”) in 3:9 clearly indicate that the second category of meaning is in view.

[3:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “my roads.”

[3:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he had made my paths crooked.” The implication is that the paths by which one might escape cannot be traversed.

[2:6]  ¹¹ tn The deictic particle הִנְנִי (hinni, “Behold!”) introduces a future-time reference participle that refers to imminent future action: “I am about to” (TEV “I am going to”).

[2:6]  ¹² tn Heb “I will hedge up her way”; NIV “block her path.”

[2:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will wall in her wall.” The cognate accusative construction וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־גְּדֵרָהּ (vÿgadarti ’et-gÿderah, “I will wall in her wall”) is an emphatic literary device. The 3rd person feminine singular suffix on the noun functions as a dative of disadvantage: “as a wall against her” (A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, 3, remark 2). The expression means “I will build a wall to bar her way.” Cf. KJV “I will make a wall”; TEV “I will build a wall”; RSV, NASB, NRSV “I will build a wall against her”; NLT “I will fence her in.”

[2:6]  ¹⁴ tn The disjunctive clause (object followed by negated verb) introduces a clause which can be understood as either purpose or result.

[2:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “her paths” (so NAB, NRSV).