[1436] Heb.: and ye shall flee, the ravine of My mountains. The text is obviously corrupt, but it is difficult to see how it should be repaired. LXX., Targ. Symmachus and the Babylonian codd. (Baer, p. 84) read וְנִסְתַּם, shall be closed, for וְנַסְתֶּם, ye shall flee, and this is adopted by a number of critics (Bredenkamp, Wellhausen, Nowack). But it is hardly possible before the next clause, which says the valley extends to ’Aṣal.
[1437] Wellhausen suggests the ravine (גיא) of Hinnom.
[1438] אָצַל, place-name: cf. אָצֵל, name of a family of Benjamin, viii. 37 f., ix. 43 f.; and בֵית הָאֵצֶל, Micah i. 11. Some would read אֵצֶל, the adverb near by.
[1439] Amos i. 1.
[1440] LXX.
[1441] LXX.; Heb. thee.
[1442] Heb. Kethibh, יְקָרוֹת יִקְפָּאוּן, jewels (? hardly stars as some have sought to prove from Job xxxi. 26) grow dead or congealed. Heb. Ḳerê, jewels and frost, וְקִפָּאוֹן. LXX. καὶ ψύχη καὶ πάγος, וְקָרוּת וְקִפָּאוֹן, and cold and frost. Founding on this Wellhausen proposes to read חוֹם for אוֹר, and renders, there shall be neither heat nor cold nor frost. So Nowack. But it is not easy to see how חוֹם ever got changed to אוֹר.
[1443] Unique or the same?
[1444] Taken as a gloss by Wellhausen and Nowack.
[1445] עֲרָבָה, the name for the Jordan Valley, the Ghôr (Hist. Geog., pp. 482–484). It is employed, not because of its fertility, but because of its level character. Cf. Josephus’ name for it, “the Great Plain” (IV. Wars viii. 2; IV. Antt. vi. 1): also 1 Macc. v. 52, xvi. 11.