Lamentations 3:47-49

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Lamentations 3:47 tn The similar sounding nouns פַּחַד וָפַחַת (pakhad vafakhat, “panic and pitfall”) are an example of paronomasia.
2. Lamentations 3:47 tn Similar to the paronomasia in the preceding line, the words הַשֵּׁאת וְהַשָּׁבֶר (hasheʾt v^ehashaver, “devastation and destruction”) form an example of alliteration: the beginning of the words sound alike.
3. Lamentations 3:48 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.
4. Lamentations 3:48 tn Heb “my eyes flow down with canals of water.”
5. Lamentations 3:48 tn Heb “the daughter of my people,” or “the Daughter, my people.”
6. Lamentations 3:48 tn Heb “because of the destruction of [the daughter of my people].”
7. Lamentations 3:49 tn Heb “my eye flows.” The term “eye” is a metonymy of association, standing for the “tears” which flow from one’s eyes.
8. Lamentations 3:49 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”).