10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 1
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 2
10:6 I sent him 3 against a godless 4 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 5
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 6 like dirt in the streets.
10:7 But he does not agree with this,
his mind does not reason this way, 7
for his goal is to destroy,
and to eliminate many nations. 8
37:28 I know where you live
and everything you do
and how you rage against me. 9
13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; 11
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, 12
they will not 13 look with pity on children.
13:2 14 On a bare hill raise a signal flag,
shout to them,
wave your hand,
so they might enter the gates of the princes!
18:1 The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead, 15
the one beyond the rivers of Cush,
18:2 that sends messengers by sea,
who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus.
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, 16
to a people that are feared far and wide, 17
to a nation strong and victorious, 18
whose land rivers divide. 19
35:1 Let the desert and dry region be happy; 20
let the wilderness 21 rejoice and bloom like a lily!
3:6 If an alarm sounds 22 in a city, do people not fear? 23
If disaster overtakes a 24 city, is the Lord not responsible? 25
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
2 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
3 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
4 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
5 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
6 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
7 tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”
8 tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”
9 tc Heb “your going out and your coming in and how you have raged against me.” Several scholars have suggested that this line is probably dittographic (note the beginning of the next line). However, most English translations include the statement in question at the end of v. 28 and the beginning of v. 29. Interestingly, the LXX does not have this clause at the end of v. 28 and the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa does not have it at the beginning of v. 29. In light of this ambiguous manuscript evidence, it appears best to retain the clause in both verses.
10 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
11 tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.
12 tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”
13 tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.
14 sn The Lord is speaking here (see v. 3).
15 tn Heb “Woe [to] the land of buzzing wings.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
16 tn The precise meaning of the qualifying terms is uncertain. מְמֻשָּׁךְ (mÿmushakh) appears to be a Pual participle from the verb מָשַׁךְ (mashakh, “to draw, extend”). Lexicographers theorize that it here refers to people who “stretch out,” as it were, or are tall. See BDB 604 s.v. מָשַׁךְ, and HALOT 645-46 s.v. משׁךְ. מוֹרָט (morat) is taken as a Pual participle from מָרַט (marat), which can mean “to pull out [hair],” in the Qal, “become bald” in the Niphal, and “be wiped clean” in the Pual. Lexicographers theorize that the word here refers to people with bare, or smooth, skin. See BDB 598-99 s.v. מָרַט, and HALOT 634-35 s.v. מרט. These proposed meanings, which are based on etymological speculation, must be regarded as tentative.
17 tn Heb “from it and onwards.” HALOT 245 s.v. הָלְאָה suggests the translation “far and wide.”
18 tn Once more the precise meaning of the qualifying terms is uncertain. The expression קַו־קָו (qav-qav) is sometimes related to a proposed Arabic cognate and taken to mean “strength” (see BDB 876 II קַו). Others, on the basis of Isa 28:10, 13, understand the form as gibberish (literally, “kav, kav”) and take it to be a reference to this nation’s strange, unknown language. The form מְבוּסָה (mÿvusah) appears to be derived from בּוּס (bus, “to trample”), so lexicographers suggest the meaning “trampling” or “subjugation,” i.e., a nation that subdues others. See BDB 101 s.v. בּוּס and HALOT 541 s.v. מְבוּסָה. These proposals, which are based on etymological speculation, must be regarded as tentative.
19 tn The precise meaning of the verb בָּזָא (baza’), which occurs only in this oracle (see also v. 7) in the OT, is uncertain. BDB 102 s.v. suggests “divide” on the basis of alleged Aramaic and Arabic cognates; HALOT 117 s.v., citing an alleged Arabic cognate, suggests “wash away.”
20 tn The final mem (ם) on the verb יְשֻׂשׂוּם (yÿsusum) is dittographic (note the initial mem on the following noun מִדְבָּר [midbar]). The ambiguous verbal form is translated as a jussive because it is parallel to the jussive form תָגֵל (tagel). The jussive is used rhetorically here, not as a literal command or prayer.
21 tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); NAB, NIV, TEV “desert.”
22 tn Heb “If the ram’s horn is blown.”
23 tn Or “tremble” (NASB, NIV, NCV); or “shake.”
24 tn Heb “is in”; NIV, NCV, NLT “comes to.”
25 tn Heb “has the