Lamentations 3:11-13

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Lamentations 3:11 tn Or “he made my paths deviate.”
2. Lamentations 3:11 tn “Since the Hebrew וַיְפַשְּׁחֵנִי (vay^efash^ekheni) occurs only here, and the translation relies on the Syriac and the Targum, it is not certain that the image of God as a predatory animal continues into this verse especially since [the beginning of the verse] is also of uncertain meaning” (D. R. Hillers, Lamentations [AB], 54).
3. Lamentations 3:12 tn Heb “bent.”
4. Lamentations 3:12 tn Heb “and set me as the target.”
5. Lamentations 3:13 tn The Hiphil stem of בוֹא (boʾ, lit., “cause to come in”) here means “to shoot” arrows.
6. Lamentations 3:13 tn Heb “sons of his quiver.” This idiom refers to arrows (BDB 121 s.v. בֵּן 6). The term “son” (בֵּן, ben) is often used idiomatically with a following genitive, e.g., “son of flame” = sparks (Job 5:7), “son of a constellation” = stars (Job 38:22), “son of a bow” = arrows (Job 41:2), “son of a quiver” = arrows (Lam 3:13), and “son of threshing-floor” = corn (Isa 21:10).
7. Lamentations 3:13 tn Heb “my kidneys.” In Hebrew anthropology, the kidneys are often portrayed as the most sensitive and vital part of man. Poetic texts sometimes portray a person being fatally wounded by the Lord shooting arrows in his kidneys (Job 16:13; here in Lam 3:13). The equivalent English idiomatic counterpart is the heart, which is employed in the present translation.