3:9 He has blocked 1 every road I take 2 with a wall of hewn stones;
he has made every path impassable. 3
3:53 They shut me 4 up in a pit
and threw stones at me.
3:54 The waters closed over my head;
I thought 5 I was about to die. 6
1 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.
2 tn Heb “my roads.”
3 tn Heb “he had made my paths crooked.” The implication is that the paths by which one might escape cannot be traversed.
4 tn Heb “my life.”
7 tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”
8 tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect 1st person common singular from גָּזַר (gazar, “to be cut off”), functions in an ingressive sense: “about to be cut off.” It is used in reference to the threat of death (e.g., Ezek 37:11). To be “cut off” from the hand of the living means to experience death (Ps 88:6).