15:9 The enemy said, ‘I will chase, 1 I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil;
my desire 2 will be satisfied on them.
I will draw 3 my sword, my hand will destroy them.’ 4
15:10 But 5 you blew with your breath, and 6 the sea covered them.
They sank 7 like lead in the mighty waters.
“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,
by my strategy that I devised.
I invaded the territory of nations, 8
and looted their storehouses.
Like a mighty conqueror, 9 I brought down rulers. 10
10:14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,
as one gathers up abandoned eggs,
I gathered up the whole earth.
There was no wing flapping,
or open mouth chirping.” 11
10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,
or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? 12
As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,
or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!
10:16 For this reason 13 the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. 14 His majestic glory will go up in smoke. 15
37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, 16
‘With my many chariots I climbed up
the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions, 17
its thickest woods.
37:25 I dug wells
and drank water. 18
With the soles of my feet I dried up
all the rivers of Egypt.’
37:26 19 Certainly you must have heard! 20
Long ago I worked it out,
in ancient times I planned 21 it,
and now I am bringing it to pass.
The plan is this:
Fortified cities will crash
into heaps of ruins. 22
1 sn W. C. Kaiser observes the staccato phrases that almost imitate the heavy, breathless heaving of the Egyptians as, with what reserve of strength they have left, they vow, “I will…, I will…, I will…” (“Exodus,” EBC 2:395).
2 tn The form is נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”). But this word refers to the whole person, the body and the soul, or better, a bundle of appetites in a body. It therefore can figuratively refer to the desires or appetites (Deut 12:15; 14:26; 23:24). Here, with the verb “to be full” means “to be satisfied”; the whole expression might indicate “I will be sated with them” or “I will gorge myself.” The greedy appetite was to destroy.
3 tn The verb רִיק (riq) means “to be empty” in the Qal, and in the Hiphil “to empty.” Here the idea is to unsheathe a sword.
4 tn The verb is יָרַשׁ (yarash), which in the Hiphil means “to dispossess” or “root out.” The meaning “destroy” is a general interpretation.
5 tn “But” has been supplied here.
6 tn Here “and” has been supplied.
7 tn The verb may have the idea of sinking with a gurgling sound, like water going into a whirlpool (R. A. Cole, Exodus [TOTC], 124; S. R. Driver, Exodus, 136). See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, “The Song of Miriam,” JNES 14 (1955): 243-47.
8 tn Heb “removed the borders of nations”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “boundaries.”
9 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has כְּאַבִּיר (kÿ’abir, “like a strong one”); the marginal reading (Qere) is כַּבִיר (kavir, “mighty one”).
10 tn Heb “and I brought down, like a strong one, ones sitting [or “living”].” The participle יוֹשְׁבִים (yoshÿvim, “ones sitting”) could refer to the inhabitants of the nations, but the translation assumes that it refers to those who sit on thrones, i.e., rulers. See BDB 442 s.v. יָשַׁב and HALOT 444 s.v. ישׁב.
11 sn The Assyrians’ conquests were relatively unopposed, like robbing a bird’s nest of its eggs when the mother bird is absent.
12 tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”
13 sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.
14 tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”
15 tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”
16 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
17 tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”
18 tc The Hebrew text has simply, “I dug and drank water.” But the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:24 has “foreign waters.” זָרִים (zarim, “foreign”) may have accidentally dropped out of the Isaianic text by homoioteleuton (cf. NCV, NIV, NLT). Note that the preceding word, מַיִם (mayim, “water) also ends in mem (ם). The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has “foreign waters” for this line. However, in several other passages the 1QIsaa scroll harmonizes with 2 Kgs 19 against the MT (Isa 36:5; 37:9, 20). Since the addition of “foreign” to this text in Isaiah by a later scribe would be more likely than its deletion, the MT reading should be accepted.
19 tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.
20 tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.
21 tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).
22 tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.