Yosua 19:47

19:47 (The Danites failed to conquer their territory, ¹  so they went up and fought with Leshem and captured it. They put the sword to it, took possession of it, and lived in it. They renamed it ²  Dan after their ancestor. ³ )

Mazmur 49:12

49:12 but, despite their wealth, people do not last, ⁴ 

they are like animals ⁵  that perish. ⁶ 

[19:47]  ¹ tn Heb “the territory of the sons of Dan went out from them.”

[19:47]  ² tn Heb “Leshem.” The pronoun (“it”) has replaced the name “Leshem” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[19:47]  ³ tn Heb “according to the name of their father.”

[49:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “but mankind in honor does not remain.” The construction vav (ו) + noun at the beginning of the verse can be taken as contrastive in relation to what precedes. The Hebrew term יְקָר (yÿqar, “honor”) probably refers here to the wealth mentioned in the preceding context. The imperfect verbal form draws attention to what is characteristically true. Some scholars emend יָלִין (yalin, “remains”) to יָבִין (yavin, “understands”) but this is an unnecessary accommodation to the wording of v. 20.

[49:12]  ⁵ tn Or “cattle.”

[49:12]  ⁶ tn The verb is derived from דָּמָה (damah, “cease; destroy”; BDB 198 s.v.). Another option is to derive the verb from דָּמָה (“be silent”; see HALOT 225 s.v. II דמה, which sees two homonymic roots [דָּמָה, “be silent,” and דָּמָה, “destroy”] rather than a single root) and translate, “they are like dumb beasts.” This makes particularly good sense in v. 20, where the preceding line focuses on mankind’s lack of understanding.