Yesaya 32:11

32:11 Tremble, you complacent ones!

Shake with fear, you carefree ones!

Strip off your clothes and expose yourselves –

put sackcloth on your waist! ¹ 

Yesaya 47:8

47:8 So now, listen to this,

O one who lives so lavishly, ² 

who lives securely,

who says to herself, ³ 

‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! ⁴ 

I will never have to live as a widow;

I will never lose my children.’ ⁵ 

Daniel 4:4

Nebuchadnezzar Dreams of a Tree Chopped Down

4:4 (4:1) ⁶  I, Nebuchadnezzar, was relaxing in my home, ⁷  living luxuriously ⁸  in my palace.

Amos 6:1

The Party is over for the Rich

6:1 Woe ⁹  to those who live in ease in Zion, ¹⁰ 

to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.

They think of themselves as ¹¹  the elite class of the best nation.

The family ¹²  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ¹³ 

Zefanya 2:15

2:15 This is how the once-proud city will end up ¹⁴  –

the city that was so secure. ¹⁵ 

She thought to herself, ¹⁶  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ¹⁷ 

What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live!

Everyone who passes by her taunts her ¹⁸  and shakes his fist. ¹⁹ 

[32:11]  ¹ tn The imperatival forms in v. 11 are problematic. The first (חִרְדוּ, khirdu, “tremble”) is masculine plural in form, though spoken to a feminine plural addressee (שַׁאֲנַנּוֹת, sha’anannot, “complacent ones”). The four imperatival forms that follow (רְגָזָה, rÿgazah, “shake with fear”; פְּשֹׁטָה, pÿshotah, “strip off your clothes”; עֹרָה, ’orah, “expose yourselves”; and חֲגוֹרָה, khagorah, “put on”) all appear to be lengthened (so-called “emphatic”) masculine singular forms, even though they too appear to be spoken to a feminine plural addressee. GKC 131-32 §48.i suggests emending חִרְדוּ (khirdu) to חֲרָדָה (kharadah) and understanding all five imperatives as feminine plural “aramaized” forms.

[47:8]  ² tn Or perhaps, “voluptuous one” (NAB); NAB “you sensual one”; NLT “You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom.”

[47:8]  ³ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[47:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.” See Zeph 2:15.

[47:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will not live [as] a widow, and I will not know loss of children.”

[4:4]  ⁶ sn This verse marks the beginning of chap. 4 in the Aramaic text of Daniel (see the note on 4:1). The Greek OT (LXX) has the following addition: “In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign he said.” This date would suggest a link to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. In general, the LXX of chapters 4-6 is very different from the MT, so much so that the following notes will call attention only to selected readings. In Daniel 4 the LXX lacks sizable portions of material in the MT (e.g., vv. 3-6, 31-32), includes sizable portions of material not in the MT (e.g., v. 14a, parts of vv. 16, 28), has a different order of some material (e.g., v. 8 after v. 9), and in some instances is vastly different from the MT (e.g., vv. 30, 34). Whether these differences are due to an excessively paraphrastic translation technique adopted for these chapters in the LXX, or are due to differences in the underlying Vorlage of the LXX, is a disputed matter. The latter seems more likely. There is a growing trend in modern scholarship to take the LXX of chapters 4-6 much more seriously than was the case in most earlier text-critical studies that considered this issue.

[4:4]  ⁷ tn Aram “my house.”

[4:4]  ⁸ tn Aram “happy.”

[6:1]  ⁹ tn On the Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy; “ah, woe”) as a term of mourning, see the notes in 5:16, 18.

[6:1]  ¹⁰ sn Zion is a reference to Jerusalem.

[6:1]  ¹¹ tn The words “They think of themselves as” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Hebrew text the term נְקֻבֵי (nÿquvey; “distinguished ones, elite”) is in apposition to the substantival participles in the first line.

[6:1]  ¹² tn Heb “house.”

[6:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “comes to them.”

[2:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “this is the proud city.”

[2:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the one that lived securely.”

[2:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[2:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.”

[2:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “hisses”; or “whistles.”

[2:15]  ¹⁹ sn Hissing (or whistling) and shaking the fist were apparently ways of taunting a defeated foe or an object of derision in the culture of the time.