Ratapan 3:43-54

ס (Samek)

3:43 You shrouded yourself ¹  with anger and then pursued us;

you killed without mercy.

3:44 You shrouded yourself with a cloud

so that no prayer can get through.

3:45 You make us like filthy scum ² 

in the estimation ³  of the nations.

פ (Pe)

3:46 All our enemies have gloated over us; ⁴ 

3:47 Panic and pitfall ⁵  have come upon us,

devastation and destruction. ⁶ 

3:48 Streams ⁷  of tears flow from my eyes ⁸ 

because my people ⁹  are destroyed. ¹⁰ 

ע (Ayin)

3:49 Tears flow from my eyes ¹¹  and will not stop;

there will be no break ¹² 

3:50 until the Lord looks down from heaven

and sees what has happened. ¹³ 

3:51 What my eyes see ¹⁴  grieves me ¹⁵  –

all the suffering of the daughters in my city. ¹⁶ 

צ (Tsade)

3:52 For no good reason ¹⁷  my enemies

hunted me down ¹⁸  like a bird.

3:53 They shut me ¹⁹  up in a pit

and threw stones at me.

3:54 The waters closed over my head;

I thought ²⁰  I was about to die. ²¹ 

[3:43]  ¹ tn Heb “covered.” The object must be supplied either from the next line (“covered yourself”) or from the end of this line (“covered us”).

[3:45]  ² tn Heb “offscouring and refuse.” The two nouns סְחִי וּמָאוֹס (sÿkhi uma’os) probably form a nominal hendiadys, in which the first noun functions as an adjective and the second retains its full nominal sense: “filthy refuse,” i.e., “filthy scum.”

[3:45]  ³ tn Heb “in the midst of.”

[3:46]  ⁴ tn Heb “open wide their mouths.”

[3:47]  ⁵ tn The similar sounding nouns פַּחַד וָפַחַת (pakhad vafakhat, “panic and pitfall”) are an example of paronomasia.

[3:47]  ⁶ tn Similar to the paronomasia in the preceding line, the words הַשֵּׁאת וְהַשָּׁבֶר (hashe’t vÿhashaver, “devastation and destruction”) form an example of alliteration: the beginning of the words sound alike.

[3:48]  ⁷ tn Heb “canals.” The phrase “canals of water” (eye water = tears) is an example of hyperbole. The English idiom “streams of tears” is also hyperbolic.

[3:48]  ⁸ tn Heb “my eyes flow down with canals of water.”

[3:48]  ⁹ tn Heb “the daughter of my people,” or “the Daughter, my people.”

[3:48]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “because of the destruction of [the daughter of my people].”

[3:49]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my eye flows.” The term “eye” is a metonymy of association, standing for the “tears” which flow from one’s eyes.

[3:49]  ¹² tn Heb “without stopping.” The noun הַפוּגָה (hafugah, “stop”) is a hapax legomenon (word that occurs only once in Hebrew scriptures). The form of the noun is unusual, probably being derived from the denominative Hiphil verbal stem of the root פּוּג (pug, “to grow weary, ineffective; numb, become cold”).

[3:50]  ¹³ tn The phrase “what has happened” is added in the translation for smoother English style and readability.

[3:51]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my eye causes grief to my soul.” The term “eye” is a metonymy of association, standing for that which one sees with the eyes.

[3:51]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my soul.” The term נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”) is a synecdoche of part (= my soul) for the whole person (= me).

[3:51]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “at the sight of all the daughters of my city.” It is understood that seeing the plight of the women, not simply seeing the women, is what is so grievous. To make this clear, “suffering” was supplied in the translation.

[3:52]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “without cause.”

[3:52]  ¹⁸ tn The construction צוֹד צָדוּנִי (tsod tsaduni, “they have hunted me down”) is emphatic: Qal infinitive absolute of the same root of Qal perfect 3rd person common plural + 1st person common singular suffix.

[3:53]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “my life.”

[3:54]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”

[3:54]  ²¹ 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).