Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageFor Yahweh saw how utterly bitter Israel's suffering had become — there was no one left, slave or free, and no one to come to Israel's rescue.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GFor YHWH had seen the very bitter affliction of Yisra'el — there was no one left, bound or abandoned, and there was no helper for Yisra'el.
KJV
King James VersionFor the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleFor the LORD saw that the affliction of the Israelites, both slave and free, was very bitter. There was no one to help Israel,
Footnotes
The phrase *atzur ve'azuv* (literally 'shut in and let go') is a Hebrew merism — two extremes standing for the whole — meaning every last person without exception. Ancient translations vary; English versions oscillate between 'bond or free,' 'helpless or abandoned,' and other attempts to capture the idiom's totality. The word *mar* ('bitter') used of Yisra'el's affliction echoes Naomi's self-renaming (*Marah*, Ruth 1:20) and the bitter waters of Marah in Exod. 15:23 — the recurring grammar of anguish that YHWH consistently moves to reverse. FOG renders the merism more literally ('bound or abandoned') to preserve its strangeness; FOG Message uses 'slave or free' for its conventional accessibility.
