Nehemiah 1:3-4

1:3 They said to me, “The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable ¹  adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!” ² 

1:4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, ³  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Nehemiah 2:3

2:3 I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors ⁴  lies desolate and its gates destroyed ⁵  by fire?”

Job 2:12-13

2:12 But when they gazed intently ⁶  from a distance but did not recognize ⁷  him, they began to weep loudly. Each of them tore his robes, and they threw dust into the air over their heads. ⁸  2:13 Then they sat down with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, yet no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain ⁹  was very great. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 13:17-18

13:17 But if you will not pay attention to this warning, ¹¹ 

I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride.

I will weep bitterly and my eyes will overflow with tears ¹² 

because you, the Lord’s flock, ¹³  will be carried ¹⁴  into exile.”

13:18 The Lord told me, ¹⁵ 

“Tell the king and the queen mother,

‘Surrender your thrones, ¹⁶ 

for your glorious crowns

will be removed ¹⁷  from your heads. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 15:17

15:17 I did not spend my time in the company of other people,

laughing and having a good time.

I stayed to myself because I felt obligated to you ¹⁹ 

and because I was filled with anger at what they had done.

Lamentations 2:10

י (Yod)

2:10 The elders of Daughter Zion

sit ²⁰  on the ground in silence. ²¹ 

They have thrown dirt on their heads;

They have dressed in sackcloth. ²² 

Jerusalem’s young women ²³  stare down at the ground. ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 3:15

3:15 I came to the exiles at Tel Abib, ²⁵  who lived by the Kebar River. ²⁶  I sat dumbfounded among them there, where they were living, for seven days. ²⁷ 

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “great.”

[1:3]  ² tn Heb “have been burned with fire” (so also in Neh 2:17). The expression “burned with fire” is redundant in contemporary English; the translation uses “burned down” for stylistic reasons.

[1:4]  ³ tn Heb “sat down.” Context suggests that this was a rather sudden action, resulting from the emotional shock of the unpleasant news, so “abruptly” has been supplied in the present translation.

[2:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 5).

[2:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “devoured” or “eaten” (so also in Neh 2:13).

[2:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “they lifted up their eyes.” The idiom “to lift up the eyes” (or “to lift up the voice”) is intended to show a special intensity in the effort. Here it would indicate that they were trying to see Job from a great distance away.

[2:12]  ⁷ tn The Hiphil perfect here should take the nuance of potential perfect – they were not able to recognize him. In other words, this does not mean that they did not know it was Job, only that he did not look anything like the Job they knew.

[2:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “they tossed dust skyward over their heads.”

[2:13]  ⁹ tn The word כְּאֵב (kÿ’ev) means “pain” – both mental and physical pain. The translation of “grief” captures only part of its emphasis.

[2:13]  ¹⁰ sn The three friends went into a more severe form of mourning, one that is usually reserved for a death. E. Dhorme says it is a display of grief in its most intense form (Job, 23); for one of them to speak before the sufferer spoke would have been wrong.

[13:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “If you will not listen to it.” For the use of the feminine singular pronoun to refer to the idea(s) expressed in the preceding verse(s), see GKC 440-41 §135.p.

[13:17]  ¹² tn Heb “Tearing [my eye] will tear and my eye will run down [= flow] with tears.”

[13:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “because the Lord’s flock will…” The pronoun “you” is supplied in the translation to avoid the shift in English from the second person address at the beginning to the third person affirmation at the end. It also helps explain the metaphor of the people of Israel as God’s flock for some readers who may be unfamiliar with that metaphor.

[13:17]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is once again in the form of “as good as done” (the Hebrew prophetic perfect).

[13:18]  ¹⁵ tn The words “The Lord told me” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift from second plural pronouns in vv. 15-17 to second singular in the Hebrew text of this verse. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[13:18]  ¹⁶ tn Or “You will come down from your thrones”; Heb “Make low! Sit!” This is a case of a construction where two forms in the same case, mood, or tense are joined in such a way that one (usually the first) is intended as an adverbial or adjectival modifier of the other (a figure called hendiadys). This is also probably a case where the imperative is used to express a distinct assurance or promise. See GKC 324 §110.b and compare the usage in Isa 37:30 and Ps 110:2.

[13:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “have come down.” The verb here and those in the following verses are further examples of the “as good as done” form of the Hebrew verb (the prophetic perfect).

[13:18]  ¹⁸ tc The translation follows the common emendation of a word normally meaning “place at the head” (מַרְאֲשׁוֹת [mar’ashot] plus pronoun = מַרְאֲוֹשׁתֵיכֶם [mar’aoshtekhem]) to “from your heads” (מֵרָאשֵׁיכֶם, mera’shekhem) following the ancient versions. The meaning “tiara” is nowhere else attested for this word.

[15:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “because of your hand.”

[2:10]  ²⁰ tc Consonantal ישׁבו (yshvy) is vocalized by the MT as יֵשְׁבוּ (yeshvu), Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from יָשַׁב (yashav, “to sit”): “they sit on the ground.” However, the ancient versions (Aramaic Targum, Greek Septuagint, Syriac Peshitta, Latin Vulgate) reflect an alternate vocalization tradition of יָשְׁבוּ (yashvu), Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine plural from שׁוּב (shuv, “to return”): “they return to the ground (= the grave).” The parallelism with the following line favors the MT.

[2:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “they sit on the ground, they are silent.” Based on meter, the two verbs יִדְּמוּ…יֵשְׁבוּ (yeshvu…yidÿmu, “they sit…they are silent”) are in the same half of the line. Joined without a ו (vav) conjunction they form a verbal hendiadys. The first functions in its full verbal sense while the second functions adverbially: “they sit in silence.” The verb יִדְּמוּ (yidÿmu) may mean to be silent or to wail.

[2:10]  ²² tn Heb “they have girded themselves with sackcloth.”

[2:10]  ²³ tn Heb “the virgins of Jerusalem.” The term “virgins” is a metonymy of association, standing for single young women who are not yet married. These single women are in grief because their potential suitors have been killed. The elders, old men, and young women function together as a merism for all of the survivors (F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Lamentations [IBC], 92).

[2:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “have bowed down their heads to the ground.”

[3:15]  ²⁵ sn The name “Tel Abib” is a transliteration of an Akkadian term meaning “mound of the flood,” i.e., an ancient mound. It is not to be confused with the modern city of Tel Aviv in Israel.

[3:15]  ²⁶ tn Or “canal.”

[3:15]  ²⁷ sn A similar response to a divine encounter is found in Acts 9:8-9.