Ayub 27:23

27:23 It claps ¹  its hands at him in derision

and hisses him away from his place. ² 

Ratapan 2:15

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ³ 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ⁴ 

‘The perfection of beauty, ⁵ 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ⁶ 

Zefanya 2:15

2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up ⁷  –

the city that was so secure. ⁸ 

She thought to herself, ⁹  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ¹⁰ 

What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live!

Everyone who passes by her taunts her ¹¹  and shakes his fist. ¹² 

[27:23]  ¹ tn If the same subject is to be carried through here, it is the wind. That would make this a bold personification, perhaps suggesting the force of the wind. Others argue that it is unlikely that the wind claps its hands. They suggest taking the verb with an indefinite subject: “he claps” means “one claps. The idea is that of people rejoicing when the wicked are gone. But the parallelism is against this unless the second line is changed as well. R. Gordis (Job, 296) has “men will clap their hands…men will whistle upon him.”

[27:23]  ² tn Or “hisses at him from its place” (ESV).

[2:15]  ³ tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).

[2:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “of which they said.”

[2:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.

[2:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.

[2:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “this is the proud city.”

[2:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “the one that lived securely.”

[2:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[2:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.”

[2:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hisses”; or “whistles.”

[2:15]  ¹² sn Hissing (or whistling) and shaking the fist were apparently ways of taunting a defeated foe or an object of derision in the culture of the time.