Isaiah 16:1

16:1 Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, ¹ 

from Sela in the desert ² 

to the hill of Daughter Zion.

Isaiah 7:11

7:11 “Ask for a confirming sign from the Lord your God. You can even ask for something miraculous.” ³ 

Isaiah 20:3

20:3 Later the Lord explained, “In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush,

Isaiah 44:25

44:25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers ⁴ 

and humiliates ⁵  the omen readers,

who overturns the counsel of the wise men ⁶ 

and makes their advice ⁷  seem foolish,

Isaiah 36:16

36:16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. ⁸  Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

Isaiah 49:8

49:8 This is what the Lord says:

“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;

in the day of deliverance I will help you;

I will protect you ⁹  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ¹⁰ 

to rebuild ¹¹  the land ¹² 

and to reassign the desolate property.

¹ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “Send [a plural imperatival form is used] a ram [to] the ruler of the land.” The term כַּר (kar, “ram”) should be emended to the plural כָּרִים (karim). The singular form in the text is probably the result of haplography; note that the next word begins with a mem (מ).

² tn The Hebrew text has “toward [across?] the desert.”

³ tn Heb “Make it as deep as Sheol or make it high upwards.” These words suggest that Ahaz can feel free to go beyond the bounds of ordinary human experience.

⁵ tc The Hebrew text has בַּדִּים (baddim), perhaps meaning “empty talkers” (BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד). In the four other occurrences of this word (Job 11:3; Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30; 50:36) the context does not make the meaning of the term very clear. Its primary point appears to be that the words spoken are meaningless or false. In light of its parallelism with “omen readers,” some have proposed an emendation to בָּרִים (barim, “seers”). The Mesopotamian baru-priests were divination specialists who played an important role in court life. See R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 93-98. Rather than supporting an emendation, J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:189, n. 79) suggests that Isaiah used בַּדִּים purposively as a derisive wordplay on the Akkadian word baru (in light of the close similarity of the d and r consonants).

⁶ tn Or “makes fools of” (NIV, NRSV); NAB and NASB both similar.

⁷ tn Heb “who turns back the wise” (so NRSV); NIV “overthrows the learning of the wise”; TEV “The words of the wise I refute.”

⁸ tn Heb “their knowledge” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

⁷ tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”

⁹ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצָר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצָר (yatsar, “form”).

¹⁰ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (’am, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.

¹¹ tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”

¹² tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.