Text -- Isaiah 32:16-20 (NET)

32:16 Justice will settle down in the desert and fairness will live in the orchard. 32:17 Fairness will produce peace and result in lasting security. 32:18 My people will live in peaceful settlements, in secure homes, and in safe, quiet places. 32:19 Even if the forest is destroyed and the city is annihilated, 32:20 you will be blessed, you who plant seed by all the banks of the streams, you who let your ox and donkey graze.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 32:16

¹ sn This new era of divine blessing will also include a moral/ethical transformation, as justice and fairness fill the land and replace the social injustice so prevalent in Isaiah’s time.

NET Notes: Isa 32:17

¹ tn Heb “and the product of fairness will be peace.”

² tn Heb “and the work of fairness [will be] calmness and security forever.”

NET Notes: Isa 32:18

¹ tn Or “in safe resting places”; NAB, NRSV “quiet resting places.”

NET Notes: Isa 32:19

¹ tn Heb “and [?] when the forest descends.” The form וּבָרַד (uvarad) is often understood as an otherwise unattested denominative verb meaning “to hail” (HALOT 154 s.v. I ברד). In this case one might translate, “and it hails when the forest is destroyed” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV). Perhaps the text alludes to a powerful wind and hail storm that knocks down limbs and trees. Some prefer to emend the form to וְיָרַד (vÿyarad), “and it descends,” which provides better, though not perfect, symmetry with the parallel line (cf. NAB). Perhaps וּבָרַד should be dismissed as dittographic. In this case the statement (“when the forest descends”) lacks a finite verb and seems incomplete, but perhaps it is subordinate to v. 20.

² tn Heb “and in humiliation the city is laid low.”

NET Notes: Isa 32:20

¹ tn Heb “by all the waters.”

² tn Heb “who set free the foot of the ox and donkey”; NIV “letting your cattle and donkeys range free.”

sn This verse seems to anticipate a time when fertile land is available to cultivate and crops are so abundant that the farm animals can be allowed to graze freely.