Mazmur 69:21

69:21 They put bitter poison ¹  into my food,

and to quench my thirst they give me vinegar to drink. ² 

Yesaya 44:20

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ³ 

his deceived mind misleads him.

He cannot rescue himself,

nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ ⁴ 

Ratapan 3:15-16

3:15 He has given me my fill of bitter herbs

and made me drunk with bitterness. ⁵ 

ו (Vav)

3:16 He ground ⁶  my teeth in gravel;

he trampled ⁷  me in the dust.

Mikha 1:10

1:10 Don’t spread the news in Gath! ⁸ 

Don’t shed even a single tear! ⁹ 

In Beth Leaphrah sit in the dust! ¹⁰ 

Mikha 7:17

7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,

like serpents crawling on the ground. ¹¹ 

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God; ¹² 

they will be terrified ¹³  of you. ¹⁴ 

[69:21]  ¹ tn According to BDB 912 s.v. II רֹאשׁ the term can mean “a bitter and poisonous plant.”

[69:21]  ² sn John 19:28-30 appears to understand Jesus’ experience on the cross as a fulfillment of this passage (or Ps 22:15). See the study note on the word “thirsty” in John 19:28.

[44:20]  ³ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[3:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “wormwood” or “bitterness” (BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה; HALOT 533 s.v. לַעֲנָה).

[3:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “crushed.”

[3:16]  ⁷ tn The Hiphil stem of כָּפַשׁ (kafash) means “to tread down” or “make someone cower.” It is rendered variously: “trampled me in the dust” (NIV), “covered me with ashes” (KJV, NKJV), “ground me into the dust” (NJPS), “made me cower in ashes” (RSV, NRSV), “rubbed my face in the ground” (TEV) and “rubbed me in the dirt” (CEV).

[1:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “Tell it not in Gath.” The Hebrew word for “tell” (נָגַד, nagad) sounds like the name of the city, Gath (גַּת, gat).

[1:10]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute before the negated jussive emphasizes the prohibition.

[1:10]  ¹⁰ tc The translation assumes a masculine plural imperative. If one were to emend בְּבֵית (bÿvet) to בֵית (vet), Beth Leaphrah would then be the addressee and the feminine singular imperative (see Qere) could be retained, “O Beth Leaphrah, sit in the dust.”

[1:10]  tn Heb “roll about in mourning in the dust”; or “wallow about in mourning in the dust.” The verb פָּלַשׁ (palash, “roll about in mourning [in dust]”; HALOT 935 s.v. פלשׁ) is figurative (metonymy) for sitting as an outward sign of mourning.

[1:10]  sn To sit in the dust was an outward sign of mourning. The name Beth Leaphrah means “house of dust.”

[7:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17]  ¹² tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the Lord our God”) goes with what precedes. Another option is to take the phrase with the following verb, in which case one could translate, “to the Lord our God they will turn in dread.”

[7:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17]  ¹⁴ tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.