2:3a
Otherwise: This word introduces a list of ways (2:3a–e) that the wife will be punished if she does not stop her immoral behavior.
Here are some other ways to express this relationship in 2:3a:
lest I strip her naked (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
or else I shall strip her bare (Revised English Bible)
-or-
If she refuses, I will strip her. (God’s Word)
Use a natural way in your language to express this relationship.
2:3b
expose her like the day of her birth: When a child is born, it is bare/naked. Instead of making explicit the idea of exposing the woman in public, some versions make explicit the idea of being naked to make the meaning clearer in English. For example:
make her as bare as on the day… (New International Version)
-or-
strip her as naked as she was on the day… (Good News Translation)
General Comment on 2:3a–b
In some languages, it may be clearer to combine the parallel ideas into one line. For example:
I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. (Good News Translation)
2:3c–d
Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:
3c I will make her like a desert
3d and turn her into a parched land,
In these lines, the husband threatens to deprive his wife of food and water as if she were in a dry desert/wilderness area. A “parched land” is a land that has no water. These statements are figures of speech. They illustrate what the LORD will do to the nation of Israel.
General Comment on 2:3c–d
In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder these parallel statements. For example:
I will make her like a dry and barren land. (Good News Translation)
2:3e
and I will let her die of thirst: In Hebrew, this phrase is literally “I should make her die with thirst.” Some versions do not state explicitly that the LORD will cause her death. For example:
she will die of thirst (Good News Translation)
This may be a good option in some languages, if the context clearly implies that the LORD will cause this to happen.
General Comment on 2:3c–e
In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder these lines. For example:
I will leave her to die of thirst, as in a dry and barren wilderness. (New Living Translation (2004))
© 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.