Verse 4
Ah sinful nation "Degenerate" - Five MSS., one of them ancient, read משחתים moschathim , without the first י yod, in hophal corrupted, not corrupters. See the same word in the same form, and in the same sense, Proverbs 25:26 .
Are corrupters "Are estranged" - Thirty-two MSS., five ancient, and two editions, read נזורו nazoru ; which reading determines the word to be from the root זור zur , to alienate, not from נזר nazar , to separate; so Kimchi understands it. See also Annotat. in Noldium, 68.
They are gone away backward "They have turned their backs upon him" - So Kimchi explains it:" they have turned unto him the back and not the face." See Jeremiah 2:27 ; Jeremiah 7:24 . I have been forced to render this line paraphrastically; as the verbal translation, "they are estranged backward," would have been unintelligible.
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