The foregoing verse is one on which no satisfactory explanation has been given. The one adopted here has been materially followed by Vatablus, Druius, and Dathius, except as to the last clause. As to the first part of the verse Henderson gives the best sense, for it
corresponds with “changing” to [חלף] and “courage” to [רוח], (see Joshua 2:11; 5:1;) and of “passing onward” to [עבר], and not of “passing over,” i.e. bounds or moderation, which it seems not to have, when used, as here, intransitively. The passing here is evidently what is referred to in verse 6, as the renewing of courage would arise, from the success mentioned in verse 10.
The best exposition of the last clause is what Grotius has suggested, and has been followed by Marckius and Dathius—that the Chaldeans made their own strength their God; (see verse 16;) the rendering then would be this,—
Then will it renew courage, And pass through,
and become guilty; — This is strength being its god,
or literally, This is strength for its god.
There is an inconsistency in our version, and also in Calvin, as to this passage, from verse 6 to the end of this verse. The number is changed. The “bitter nation,” mentioned in verse 6, is meant throughout; and we ought to adopt the plural number throughout, as Newcome does, or, according to Henderson, the singular. There is no change of person, as some suppose, at the beginning of verse 10; for [הוא], there, and [הוא] in verse 6 is the same—the “bitter nation.”—Ed.