Hakim-hakim 19:19

19:19 We have enough straw and grain for our donkeys, and there is enough food and wine for me, your female servant, ¹  and the young man who is with your servants. ²  We lack nothing.”

Ayub 39:12

39:12 Can you count on ³  it to bring in ⁴  your grain, ⁵ 

and gather the grain ⁶  to your threshing floor? ⁷ 

Yesaya 1:3

1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,

a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; ⁸ 

but Israel does not recognize me, ⁹ 

my people do not understand.”

[19:19]  ¹ tn By calling his concubine the old man’s “female servant,” the Levite emphasizes their dependence on him for shelter.

[19:19]  ² tc Some Hebrew mss and ancient witnesses read the singular, “your servant,” which would refer to the Levite. If one retains the plural, then both the Levite and his wife are in view. In either case the pronominal suffix emphasizes their dependence on the old man for shelter.

[39:12]  ³ tn The word is normally translated “believe” in the Bible. The idea is that of considering something dependable and acting on it. The idea of reliability is found also in the Niphal stem usages.

[39:12]  ⁴ tc There is a textual problem here: יָשׁוּב (yashuv) is the Kethib, meaning “[that] he will return”; יָשִׁיב (yashiv) is the Qere, meaning “that he will bring in.” This is the preferred reading, since the object follows it. For commentators who think the line too unbalanced for this, the object is moved to the second colon, and the reading “returns” is taken for the first. But the MT is perfectly clear as it stands.

[39:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “your seed”; this must be interpreted figuratively for what the seed produces.

[39:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “gather it”; the referent (the grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:12]  ⁷ tn Simply, the MT has “and your threshing floor gather.” The “threshing floor” has to be an adverbial accusative of place.

[1:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[1:3]  ⁹ tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).