Their inhabitants refers to the inhabitants of the fortified cities mentioned in verse 25.
Shorn of strength: New Jerusalem Bible provides an almost literal rendering of the Hebrew expression here by translating “feeble of hand.” But, as is often the case, the word “hand” refers to power. So Jewish Publication Version translates “were of small power.” Yet the most natural modern equivalent in English is probably “were powerless” as in Good News Translation. In other languages very different idioms may be used. Some may say “were deficient in power” or “were lacking in strength.” But others will translate the idea by saying simply “were very weak.”
Are dismayed and confounded: The verb tenses in this verse should be past as in the previous verse (so Good News Translation). The Hebrew verb translated dismayed comes from a root meaning to prostrate or to break down. The people in the fortified cities were broken in spirit, but the term also has connotations of being afraid. In addition to this, they are characterized as confounded, a term that has to do with feelings of shame and humiliation. A possible translation for the two terms might be “disheartened and put to shame” (Revised English Bible). Others may prefer “afraid and ashamed.”
The inhabitants of the cities destroyed by Sennacherib are said to have been like plants of the field and like tender grass. Revised Standard Version and most modern translations add the word like, changing the Hebrew metaphors into similes. Both of these images reinforce the statements already made about the weakness of those defeated by the Assyrian army. Another image with the same meaning is like grass on the housetops. The grass that grows on the flat roofs of houses in the Middle East has no significant root system and is therefore particularly weak and susceptible to dying from a lack of moisture or as a result of intense heat. See Ellington’s 1990 article entitled “Up on the Housetop.”
Blighted before it is grown: Textual evidence differs at this point. Some modern versions are similar to Good News Translation “when the hot east wind blasts them,” while others are more like Revised Standard Version.
The text at the end of this verse and the beginning of verse 27 is very difficult to establish. The Masoretic Text reads as follows: “Grass of the roofs and scorching before the standing grain. And your sitting down and your going out and your coming in I know.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh follows the Masoretic Text by saying:
Grass of the roofs that is blasted
Before the standing grain.
I know your stayings
And your goings and comings.
With the help of a manuscript of Isaiah from Qumran, Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament reconstructs the original text as follows:
Grass of the roofs that is blasted
Before the east wind.
And your standing up and your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in I know.
This same reconstructed text is the basis for the American Bible translation (similarly Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible):
Like straw on rooftops, blasted by the east wind.
Your every action and your every pursuit I know.
The sense of “before the standing grain” in the Masoretic Text is not entirely clear. Revised Standard Version has rendered these words as before it is grown. The meaning of “before the standing grain” may in fact be that the grass on the roofs is blasted by the heat before it reaches maturity.
Since there is no direct manuscript evidence for what Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament considers to be the original text here in 2 Kings, Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament follows the Septuagint in adding “your standing up” at the beginning of verse 27 but follows the Masoretic Text at the end of verse 26 in reading “before the standing grain,” rather than “before the east wind.” Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, however, gives only a {C} rating to this mixed text. This Handbook, however, recommends the reconstructed original text as follows:
Grass of the roofs that is blasted
Before the east wind.
And your standing up and your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in I know.
The question mark at the end of this verse in Revised Standard Version may be confusing and should be eliminated. It is there because of the question asked at the beginning of the previous verse. But the long, complicated question should not be carried through to this point in translation. It should rather be limited to the first part of verse 25.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .