Ratapan 3:23

3:23 They are fresh ¹  every morning;

your faithfulness is abundant! ² 

Ratapan 3:26-27

3:26 It is good to wait patiently ³ 

for deliverance from the Lord. ⁴ 

3:27 It is good for a man ⁵ 

to bear ⁶  the yoke ⁷  while he is young. ⁸ 

Ratapan 3:38

3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that everything comes –

both calamity and blessing? ⁹ 

[3:23]  ¹ tn Heb “they are new.”

[3:23]  ² tn The adjective רַב (rav) has a broad range of meanings: (1) quantitative: “much, numerous, many (with plurals), abundant, enough, exceedingly” and (2) less often in a qualitative sense: “great” (a) of space and location, (b) “strong” as opposed to “weak” and (c) “major.” The traditional translation, “great is thy faithfulness,” is less likely than the quantitative sense: “your faithfulness is abundant” [or, “plentiful”]. NJPS is on target in its translation: “Ample is your grace!”

[3:26]  ³ tn Heb “waiting and silently.” The two adjectives וְיָחִיל וְדוּמָם (vÿyakhil vÿdumam, “waiting and silently”) form a hendiadys: The first functions verbally and the second functions adverbially: “to wait silently.” The adjective דוּמָם (dumam, “silently”) also functions as a metonymy of association, standing for patience or rest (HALOT 217 s.v.). This metonymical nuance is captured well in less literal English versions: “wait in patience” (TEV) and “wait patiently” (CEV, NJPS). The more literal English versions do not express the metonymy as well: “quietly wait” (KJV, NKJV, ASV), “waits silently” (NASB), “wait quietly” (RSV, NRSV, NIV).

[3:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “deliverance of the Lord.” In the genitive-construct, the genitive יהוה (YHWH, “the Lord”) denotes source, that is, he is the source of the deliverance: “deliverance from the Lord.”

[3:27]  ⁵ tn See note at 3:1 on the Hebrew term for “man” here.

[3:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “that he bear.”

[3:27]  ⁷ sn Jeremiah is referring to the painful humiliation of subjugation to the Babylonians, particularly to the exile of the populace of Jerusalem. The Babylonians and Assyrians frequently used the phrase “bear the yoke” as a metaphor: their subjects were made as subservient to them as yoked oxen were to their masters. Because the Babylonian exile would last for seventy years, only those who were in their youth when Jerusalem fell would have any hope of living until the return of the remnant. For the middle-aged and elderly, the yoke of exile would be insufferable; but those who bore this “yoke” in their youth would have hope.

[3:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “in his youth.” The preposition ב (bet) functions in a temporal sense: “when.”

[3:38]  ⁹ tn Heb “From the mouth of the Most High does it not go forth, both evil and good?”