65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; 2
you make it rich and fertile 3
with overflowing streams full of water. 4
You provide grain for them, 5
for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. 6
65:10 You saturate 7 its furrows,
and soak 8 its plowed ground. 9
With rain showers you soften its soil, 10
and make its crops grow. 11
65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, 12
and you leave abundance in your wake. 13
65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, 14
and the hills are clothed with joy. 15
65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.
55:10 16 The rain and snow fall from the sky
and do not return,
but instead water the earth
and make it produce and yield crops,
and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.
55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make
does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. 17
No, it is realized as I desire
and is fulfilled as I intend.” 18
55:1 “Hey, 19 all who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come!
Buy and eat!
Come! Buy wine and milk
without money and without cost! 20
3:17 So 21 the sovereign master 22 will afflict the foreheads of Zion’s women 23 with skin diseases, 24
the Lord will make the front of their heads bald.” 25
1 tn Heb “rode and went to.”
2 tn The verb form is a Polel from שׁוּק (shuq, “be abundant”), a verb which appears only here and in Joel 2:24 and 3:13, where it is used in the Hiphil stem and means “overflow.”
3 tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”
4 tn Heb “[with] a channel of God full of water.” The divine name is probably used here in a superlative sense to depict a very deep stream (“a stream fit for God,” as it were).
5 tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.
6 tn Heb “for thus [referring to the provision of rain described in the first half of the verse] you prepare it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix attached to the verb “prepare” refers back to the “earth,” which is a feminine noun with regard to grammatical form.
7 tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].
8 tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”
9 tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”
10 tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.
11 tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.
12 tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.
13 tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”
14 tn Heb “drip.”
15 tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.
16 tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.
17 tn Heb “so is the word which goes out from my mouth, it does not return to empty.” “Word” refers here to divine promises, like the ones made just prior to and after this (see vv. 7b, 12-13).
18 tn Heb “but it accomplishes what I desire, and succeeds [on the mission] which I send it.”
19 tn The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments and is often prefixed to judgment oracles for rhetorical effect. But here it appears to be a simple interjection, designed to grab the audience’s attention. Perhaps there is a note of sorrow or pity. See BDB 223 s.v.
20 sn The statement is an oxymoron. Its ironic quality adds to its rhetorical impact. The statement reminds one of the norm (one must normally buy commodities) as it expresses the astounding offer. One might paraphrase the statement: “Come and take freely what you normally have to pay for.”
21 tn In the Hebrew text vv. 16-17 and one long sentence, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk…, the sovereign master will afflict….” In v. 17 the Lord refers to himself in the third person.
22 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
23 tn Heb “the daughters of Zion.”
24 tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”
25 tn The precise meaning of this line is unclear because of the presence of the rare word פֹּת (pot). Since the verb in the line means “lay bare, make naked,” some take פֹּת as a reference to the genitals (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV, CEV). (In 1 Kgs 7:50 a noun פֹּת appears, with the apparent meaning “socket.”) J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:139, n. 2), basing his argument on alleged Akkadian evidence and the parallelism of the verse, takes פֹּת as “forehead.”