“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,
by my strategy that I devised.
I invaded the territory of nations, 1
and looted their storehouses.
Like a mighty conqueror, 2 I brought down rulers. 3
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.” 4
37:26 5 Certainly you must have heard! 6
Long ago I worked it out,
in ancient times I planned 7 it,
and now I am bringing it to pass.
The plan is this:
Fortified cities will crash
into heaps of ruins. 8
37:27 Their residents are powerless; 9
they are terrified and ashamed.
They are as short-lived as plants in the field
or green vegetation. 10
They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops 11
when it is scorched by the east wind. 12
41:25 I have stirred up one out of the north 13 and he advances,
one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. 14
He steps on 15 rulers as if they were clay,
like a potter treading the clay.
45:1 This is what the Lord says to his chosen 16 one,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold 17
in order to subdue nations before him,
and disarm kings, 18
to open doors before him,
so gates remain unclosed:
45:2 “I will go before you
and level mountains. 19
Bronze doors I will shatter
and iron bars 20 I will hack through.
45:3 I will give you hidden treasures, 21
riches stashed away in secret places,
so you may recognize that I am the Lord,
the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.
45:4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,
Israel, my chosen one,
I call you by name
and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize 22 me.
45:5 I am the Lord, I have no peer, 23
there is no God but me.
I arm you for battle, 24 even though you do not recognize 25 me.
47:6 How long will you cry out, 34 ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,
how long will it be before you stop killing? 35
Go back into your sheath!
Stay there and rest!’ 36
47:7 But how can it rest 37
when I, the Lord, have 38 given it orders?
I have ordered it to attack
the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast. 39
1 tn Heb “removed the borders of nations”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “boundaries.”
2 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has כְּאַבִּיר (kÿ’abir, “like a strong one”); the marginal reading (Qere) is כַּבִיר (kavir, “mighty one”).
3 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.
4 sn The Assyrians’ conquests were relatively unopposed, like robbing a bird’s nest of its eggs when the mother bird is absent.
5 tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.
6 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.
7 tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).
8 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.
9 tn Heb “short of hand”; KJV, ASV “of small power”; NASB “short of strength.”
10 tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.
11 tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.
12 tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah, “standing grain”) to קָדִים (qadim, “east wind”) with the support of 1Q Isaa; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:657, n. 8.
13 sn That is, Cyrus the Persian. See the note at v. 2.
14 tn Heb “[one] from the rising of the sun [who] calls in my name.”
15 tn The Hebrew text has וְיָבֹא (vÿyavo’, “and he comes”), but this is likely a corruption of an original וַיָּבָס (vayyavas), from בּוּס (bus, “step on”).
16 tn Heb “anointed” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “his appointed king.”
17 sn The “right hand” is a symbol of activity and strength; the Lord directs Cyrus’ activities and assures his success.
18 tn Heb “and the belts of kings I will loosen”; NRSV “strip kings of their robes”; NIV “strip kings of their armor.”
19 tc The form הֲדוּרִים (hadurim) makes little, if any, sense here. It is probably a corruption of an original הָרָרִים (hararim, “mountains”), the reduplicated form of הָר (har, “mountain”).
20 tn That is, on the gates. Cf. CEV “break the iron bars on bronze gates.”
21 tn Heb “treasures of darkness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “treasures from dark, secret places.”
22 tn Or “know” (NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT); NIV “acknowledge.”
23 tn Heb “and there is none besides.” On the use of עוֹד (’od) here, see BDB 729 s.v. 1.c.
24 tn Heb “gird you” (so NASB) or “strengthen you” (so NIV).
25 tn Or “know” (NAB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT); NIV “have not acknowledged.”
26 tn Heb “Oracle of the
27 sn The many allusions to trouble coming from the north are now clarified: it is the armies of Babylon which included within it contingents from many nations. See 1:14, 15; 4:6; 6:1, 22; 10:22; 13:20 for earlier allusions.
28 sn Nebuchadnezzar is called the
29 tn The word used here was used in the early years of Israel’s conquest for the action of killing all the men, women, and children in the cities of Canaan, destroying all their livestock, and burning their cities down. This policy was intended to prevent Israel from being corrupted by paganism (Deut 7:2; 20:17-18; Josh 6:18, 21). It was to be extended to any city that led Israel away from worshiping God (Deut 13:15) and any Israelite who brought an idol into his house (Deut 7:26). Here the policy is being directed against Judah as well as against her neighbors because of her persistent failure to heed God’s warnings through the prophets. For further usage of this term in application to foreign nations in the book of Jeremiah see 50:21, 26; 51:3.
30 tn Heb “will utterly destroy them.” The referent (this land, its inhabitants, and the nations surrounding it) has been specified in the translation for clarity, since the previous “them” referred to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.
31 sn The Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is the word often translated “eternal.” However, it sometimes has a more limited time reference. For example it refers to the lifetime of a person who became a “lasting slave” to another person (see Exod 21:6; Deut 15:17). It is also used to refer to the long life wished for a king (1 Kgs 1:31; Neh 2:3). The time frame here is to be qualified at least with reference to Judah and Jerusalem as seventy years (see 29:10-14 and compare v. 12).
32 tn Heb “I will make them an object of horror and a hissing and everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been broken up to separate the last object from the first two which are of slightly different connotation, i.e., they denote the reaction to the latter.
33 tn Heb “Oracle of the
34 tn The words “How long will you cry out” are not in the text but some such introduction seems necessary because the rest of the speech assumes a personal subject.
35 tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”
36 sn The passage is highly figurative. The sword of the
37 tn The reading here follows the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions. The Hebrew text reads “how can you rest” as a continuation of the second person in v. 6.
38 tn Heb “When the
39 tn Heb “Against Ashkelon and the sea coast, there he has appointed it.” For the switch to the first person see the preceding translator’s note. “There” is poetical and redundant and the idea of “attacking” is implicit in “against.”