67:6 The earth yields its crops.
May God, our God, bless us!
85:12 Yes, the Lord will bestow his good blessings, 4
and our land will yield 5 its crops.
4:2 At that time 6
the crops given by the Lord will bring admiration and honor; 7
the produce of the land will be a source of pride and delight
to those who remain in Israel. 8
27:6 The time is coming when Jacob will take root; 9
Israel will blossom and grow branches.
The produce 10 will fill the surface of the world. 11
30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,
and the ground will produce crops in abundance. 12
At that time 13 your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
2:21 “At that time, 14 I will willingly respond,” 15 declares the Lord.
“I will respond to the sky,
and the sky 16 will respond to the ground;
2:22 then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;
and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)! 17
2:23 Then I will plant her as my own 18 in the land.
I will have pity on ‘No Pity’ (Lo-Ruhamah).
I will say to ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), ‘You are my people!’
And he 19 will say, ‘You are 20 my God!’”
9:13 “Be sure of this, 21 the time is 22 coming,” says the Lord,
“when the plowman will catch up to the reaper 23
and the one who stomps the grapes 24 will overtake 25 the planter. 26
Juice will run down the slopes, 27
it will flow down all the hillsides. 28
9:14 I will bring back my people, Israel; 29
they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble 30 and settle down. 31
They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce; 32
they will grow orchards 33 and eat the fruit they produce. 34
9:15 I will plant them on their land
and they will never again be uprooted from the 35 land I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.
1 tn Heb “showers of blessing.” Abundant rain, which in turn produces fruit and crops (v. 27), is a covenantal blessing for obedience (Lev 26:4).
2 tc The MT reads לְשֵׁם (lÿshem, “for a name”), meaning perhaps a renowned planting (place). The translation takes this to be a metathesis of שָׁלֹם (shalom) as was read by the LXX.
3 tn Heb “those gathered” for famine.
4 tn Heb “what is good.”
5 tn Both “bestow” and “yield” translate the same Hebrew verb (נָתַן, natan). The repetition of the word emphasizes that agricultural prosperity is the direct result of divine blessing.
6 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
7 tn Heb “and the vegetation of the Lord will become beauty and honor.” Many English versions understand the phrase צֶמַח יְהוָה (tsemakh yÿhvah) as a messianic reference and render it, “the Branch of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT, and others). Though צֶמַח (tsemakh) is used by later prophets of a royal descendant (Jer 23;5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12), those passages contain clear contextual indicators that a human ruler is in view and that the word is being used in a metaphorical way of offspring. However, in Isa 4:2 there are no such contextual indicators. To the contrary, in the parallel structure of the verse צֶמַח יְהוָה corresponds to “produce of the land,” a phrase that refers elsewhere exclusively to literal agricultural produce (see Num 13:20, 26; Deut 1:25). In the majority of its uses צֶמַח refers to literal crops or vegetation (in Ps 65:10 the Lord is the source of this vegetation). A reference to the Lord restoring crops would make excellent sense in Isa 4 and the prophets frequently included this theme in their visions of the future age (see Isa 30:23-24; 32:20; Jer 31:12; Ezek 34:26-29; and Amos 9:13-14).
8 tn Heb “and the fruit of the land will become pride and beauty for the remnant of Israel.”
9 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “the coming ones, let Jacob take root.” הַבָּאִים (habba’im, “the coming ones”) should probably be emended to יָמִים בָאִים (yamim va’im, “days [are] coming”) or בְּיָמִים הַבָּאִים (biyamim habba’im, “in the coming days”).
10 tn Heb “fruit” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
11 sn This apparently refers to a future population explosion. See 26:18.
12 tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”
13 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
14 tn Heb “And in that day”; NAB, NRSV “On that day.”
15 tn The verb עָנָה, (’anah) which is used throughout 2:23-24, is related to the root I עָנָה (’anah), “to answer, listen attentively, react willingly” (BDB 772 s.v. 1.b; HALOT 852 s.v. ענה 3.b).
16 tn Heb “and they.” In the Hebrew text the plural pronoun is used because it refers back to the term translated “sky,” which is a dual form in Hebrew. Many English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NRSV) use the plural term “heavens” here, which agrees with a plural pronoun (cf. also NIV, NCV “skies”).
17 tn Heb “Jezreel.” The use of the name יִזְרְעֶאל (yizré’e’l, “Jezreel”) creates a powerful three-fold wordplay: (1) The proper name יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) is a phonetic wordplay on the similar sounding name יִשְׂרָאֵל (yisra’el, “Israel”): God will answer Israel, that is, Jezreel. (2) The name יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) plays on the verb זָרַע (zara’, “to sow, plant”), the immediately following word: וּזְרַעְתִּיהָ (uzéra’tiha, vav + Qal perfect 1st person common singular + 3rd person feminine singular suffix: “I will sow/plant her”). This wordplay creates a popular etymology for יִזְרְעֶאל meaning, “God sows/plants,” which fits well into the agricultural fertility imagery in 2:21-23 [2:23-25]. (3) This positive connotation of יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) in 2:21-23[23-25] reverses the negative connotation of יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) in 1:4-5 (bloodshed of Jehu in the Jezreel Valley).
18 tn Heb “for myself.”
19 tn The Hebrew text, carrying out the reference to the son born in 1:8-9, uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here; some English translations use third person plural (“they,” so KJV, NASB, NIV, CEV) in keeping with the immediate context, which refers to reestablished Israel.
20 tn The words “You are” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are implied. It is necessary to supply the phrase in the translation to prevent the reader from understanding the predicate “my God” as an exclamation (cf. NAB).
21 tn Heb “behold” or “look.”
22 tn Heb “the days are.”
23 sn The plowman will catch up to the reaper. Plowing occurred in October-November, and harvesting in April-May (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109.) But in the future age of restored divine blessing, there will be so many crops the reapers will take all summer to harvest them, and it will be time for plowing again before the harvest is finished.
24 sn When the grapes had been harvested, they were placed in a press where workers would stomp on them with their feet and squeeze out the juice. For a discussion of grape harvesting technique, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 110-12.
25 tn The verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation from the parallel line.
26 sn The grape harvest occurred in August-September, planting in November-December (see P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 109). But in the future age described here there will be so many grapes the workers who stomp them will still be working when the next planting season arrives.
27 tn Or “hills,” where the vineyards were planted.
28 tn Heb “and all the hills will melt.”
29 tn This line can also be translated “I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel” and is a common idiom (e.g., Deut 30:3; Jer 30:3; Hos 6:11; Zeph 3:20). This rendering is followed by several modern English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, NJPS).
30 tn Or “the ruined [or “desolate”] cities.”
31 tn Or “and live [in them].”
32 tn Heb “drink their wine.”
33 tn Or “gardens.”
34 tn Heb “eat their fruit.”
35 tn Heb “their.” The pronoun was replaced by the English definite article in the translation for stylistic reasons.