Ratapan 2:21
Konteksש (Sin/Shin)
2:21 The young boys and old men
lie dead on the ground in the streets.
My young women 1 and my young men
have fallen by the sword.
You killed them when you were angry; 2
you slaughtered them without mercy. 3
Ratapan 4:5
Konteksה (He)
4:5 Those who once feasted on delicacies 4
are now starving to death 5 in the streets.
[2:21] 1 tn Heb “virgins.” The term “virgin” probably functions as a metonymy of association for single young women.
[2:21] 2 tn Heb “in the day of your anger.” The construction בָּיוֹם (bayom, “in the day of…”) is a common Hebrew idiom, meaning “when…” (e.g., Gen 2:4; Lev 7:35; Num 3:1; Deut 4:15; 2 Sam 22:1; Pss 18:1; 138:3; Zech 8:9). This temporal idiom refers to a general time period, but uses the term “day” as a forceful rhetorical device to emphasize the vividness and drama of the event, depicting it as occurring within a single day. In the ancient Near East, military minded kings often referred to a successful campaign as “the day of X” in order to portray themselves as powerful conquerors who, as it were, could inaugurate and complete a victory military campaign within the span of one day.
[2:21] 3 tc The MT reads לֹא חָמָלְתָּ (lo’ khamalta, “You showed no mercy”). However, many medieval Hebrew
[4:5] 4 tn Heb “eaters of delicacies.” An alternate English gloss would be “connoisseurs of fine foods.”
[4:5] 5 tn Heb “are desolate.”
[4:5] 7 tn Heb “in purple.” The term תוֹלָע (tola’, “purple”) is a figurative description of expensive clothing: it is a metonymy of association: the color of the dyed clothes (= purple) stands for the clothes themselves.
[4:5] 8 tn Heb “embrace garbage.” One may also translate “rummage through” (cf. NCV “pick through trash piles”; TEV “pawing through refuse”; NLT “search the garbage pits.”
[4:5] 9 tn The Hebrew word אַשְׁפַּתּוֹת (’ashpatot) can also mean “ash heaps.” Though not used as a combination elsewhere, to “embrace ash heaps” might also envision a state of mourning or even dead bodies lying on the ash heaps.
