The Song of Songs 3:3

3:3 The night watchmen found me – the ones who guard the city walls. ¹ 

“Have you seen my beloved?” ² 

Isaiah 62:6

62:6 I ³  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

they should keep praying all day and all night. ⁴ 

You who pray to ⁵  the Lord, don’t be silent!

Jeremiah 6:17

6:17 The Lord said, ⁶ 

“I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, ⁷  saying:

‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” ⁸ 

But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

Jeremiah 31:6

31:6 Yes, a time is coming

when watchmen ⁹  will call out on the mountains of Ephraim,

“Come! Let us go to Zion

to worship the Lord our God!”’” ¹⁰ 

Ezekiel 3:17

3:17 “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman ¹¹  for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must give them a warning from me.

Ezekiel 33:7

33:7 “As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman ¹²  for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them on my behalf.

Micah 7:4

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹³ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ¹⁴ 

and then you will experience confusion. ¹⁵ 

Hebrews 13:17

13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. ¹⁶  Let them do this ¹⁷  with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.

[3:3]  ¹ tn Heb “those who go around the city” or “those who go around in the city.” The expression הַסֹּבְבִים בָּעִיר (hassovÿvim ba’ir, “those who go around the city”) probably refers to the watchmen of the city walls rather than night city street patrol (e.g., Ps 127:1; Song 5:7; Isa 21:11; 62:6). The Israelite night watchmen of the walls is paralleled by the Akkadian sahir duri (“one who goes around the wall”) which appears in a lexical text as the equivalent of ma-sar musi (“night watchman”) (CAD 4:192). See M. H. Pope, Song of Songs (AB), 419. There is a wordplay in 3:2-3 between the verb וַאֲסוֹבְבָה (va’asovÿvah, “I will go about”) and הַסֹּבְבִים (hassovÿvim, “those who go around”). This wordplay draws attention to the ironic similarity between the woman’s action and the action of the city’s watchmen. Ironically, she failed to find her beloved as she went around in the city, but the city watchmen found her. Rather than finding the one she was looking for, she was found.

[3:3]  ² tn Heb “the one whom my soul loves – have you seen [him]?” The normal Hebrew word-order (verb-subject-direct object) is reversed in 3:3 (direct object-verb-subject) to emphasize the object of her search: אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי רְאִיתֶם (’et she’ahavah nafshi rÿ’item, “The one whom my soul loves – have you seen [him]?”).

[62:6]  ³ sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.

[62:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.

[62:6]  ⁵ tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”

[6:17]  ⁶ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “I appointed watchmen over you.”

[6:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet.” The word “warning” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[31:6]  ⁹ sn Watchmen were stationed at vantage points to pass on warning of coming attack (Jer 6:17; Ezek 33:2, 6) or to spread the news of victory (Isa 52:8). Here reference is made to the watchmen who signaled the special times of the year such as the new moon and festival times when Israel was to go to Jerusalem to worship. Reference is not made to these in the Hebrew Bible but there is a good deal of instruction regarding them in the later Babylonian Talmud.

[31:6]  ¹⁰ sn Not only will Israel and Judah be reunited under one ruler (cf. 23:5-6), but they will share a unified place and practice of worship once again in contrast to Israel using the illicit places of worship, illicit priesthood, and illicit feasts instituted by Jeroboam (1 Kgs 12:26-31) and continued until the downfall of Samaria in 722 b.c.

[3:17]  ¹¹ tn The literal role of a watchman is described in 2 Sam 18:24; 2 Kgs 9:17.

[33:7]  ¹² sn Jeremiah (Jer 6:17) and Habakkuk (Hab 2:1) also served in the role of a watchman.

[7:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”

[13:17]  ¹⁶ tn Or “as ones who will give an account”; Grk “as giving an account.”

[13:17]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “that they may do this.”