2:11 Proud men will be brought low,
arrogant men will be humiliated; 1
the Lord alone will be exalted 2
in that day.
2:12 Indeed, the Lord who commands armies has planned a day of judgment, 3
for 4 all the high and mighty,
for all who are proud – they will be humiliated;
3:16 The Lord says,
“The women 5 of Zion are proud.
They walk with their heads high 6
and flirt with their eyes.
They skip along 7
and the jewelry on their ankles jingles. 8
5:19 They say, “Let him hurry, let him act quickly, 9
so we can see;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel 10 take shape 11 and come to pass,
then we will know it!”
28:14 Therefore, listen to the Lord’s word,
you who mock,
you rulers of these people
who reside in Jerusalem! 12
28:15 For you say,
“We have made a treaty with death,
with Sheol 13 we have made an agreement. 14
When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by 15
it will not reach us.
For we have made a lie our refuge,
we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” 16
28:16 Therefore, this is what the sovereign master, the Lord, says:
“Look, I am laying 17 a stone in Zion,
an approved 18 stone,
set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. 19
The one who maintains his faith will not panic. 20
28:17 I will make justice the measuring line,
fairness the plumb line;
hail will sweep away the unreliable refuge, 21
the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place.
28:18 Your treaty with death will be dissolved; 22
your agreement 23 with Sheol will not last. 24
When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, 25
you will be overrun by it. 26
13:15 Then I said to the people of Judah, 27
“Listen and pay attention! Do not be arrogant!
For the Lord has spoken.
13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. 28
Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. 29
Do it before you stumble 30 into distress
like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. 31
Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for
into the darkness and gloom of exile. 32
13:17 But if you will not pay attention to this warning, 33
I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride.
I will weep bitterly and my eyes will overflow with tears 34
because you, the Lord’s flock, 35 will be carried 36 into exile.”
5:22 “But you, his son 47 Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, 48 although you knew all this. 5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods 49 that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control 50 your very breath and all your ways!
1 tn Heb “and the eyes of the pride of men will be brought low, and the arrogance of men will be brought down.” The repetition of the verbs שָׁפַל (shafal) and שָׁחָח (shakhakh) from v. 9 draws attention to the appropriate nature of the judgment. Those proud men who “bow low” before idols will be forced to “bow low” before God when he judges their sin.
2 tn Or “elevated”; CEV “honored.”
3 tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] has a day.”
4 tn Or “against” (NAB, NASB, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “daughters” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).
6 tn Heb “with an outstretched neck.” They proudly hold their heads high so that others can see the jewelry around their necks.
7 tn Heb “walking and skipping, they walk.”
8 tn Heb “and with their feet they jingle.”
9 tn Heb “let his work hurry, let it hasten.” The pronoun “his” refers to God, as the parallel line makes clear. The reference to his “work” alludes back to v. 12, which refers to his ‘work” of judgment. With these words the people challenged the prophet’s warning of approaching judgment. They were in essence saying that they saw no evidence that God was about to work in such a way.
10 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
11 tn Heb “draw near” (so NASB); NRSV “hasten to fulfillment.”
12 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
13 sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.
14 tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.
15 tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).
16 sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.
17 tc The Hebrew text has a third person verb form, which does not agree with the first person suffix that precedes. The form should be emended to יֹסֵד (yosed), a Qal active participle used in a present progressive or imminent future sense.
18 tn Traditionally “tested,” but the implication is that it has passed the test and stands approved.
19 sn The reality behind the metaphor is not entirely clear from the context. The stone appears to represent someone or something that gives Zion stability. Perhaps the ideal Davidic ruler is in view (see 32:1). Another option is that the image of beginning a building project by laying a precious cornerstone suggests that God is about to transform Zion through judgment and begin a new covenant community that will experience his protection (see 4:3-6; 31:5; 33:20-24; 35:10).
20 tn Heb “will not hurry,” i.e., act in panic.
21 tn Heb “[the] refuge, [the] lie.” See v. 15.
22 tn On the meaning of כָּפַר (kafar) in this context, see HALOT 494 s.v. I כפר and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:515, n. 9.
23 tn Normally the noun חָזוּת (khazut) means “vision.” See the note at v. 15.
24 tn Or “will not stand” (NIV, NRSV).
25 tn See the note at v. 15.
26 tn Heb “you will become a trampling place for it.”
27 tn The words “Then I said to the people of Judah” are not in the text but are implicit from the address in v. 15 and the content of v. 17. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show the shift from the
28 tn Heb “Give glory/respect to the
29 tn The words “of disaster” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to explain the significance of the metaphor to readers who may not be acquainted with the metaphorical use of light and darkness for salvation and joy and distress and sorrow respectively.
30 tn Heb “your feet stumble.”
31 tn Heb “you stumble on the mountains at twilight.” The added words are again supplied in the translation to help explain the metaphor to the uninitiated reader.
32 tn Heb “and while you hope for light he will turn it into deep darkness and make [it] into gloom.” The meaning of the metaphor is again explained through the addition of the “of” phrases for readers who are unacquainted with the metaphorical use of these terms.
33 tn Heb “If you will not listen to it.” For the use of the feminine singular pronoun to refer to the idea(s) expressed in the preceding verse(s), see GKC 440-41 §135.p.
34 tn Heb “Tearing [my eye] will tear and my eye will run down [= flow] with tears.”
35 tn Heb “because the
36 tn The verb is once again in the form of “as good as done” (the Hebrew prophetic perfect).
37 tn Heb “doors.” This is the only time the word “door” is used in this way but all the commentaries and lexicons agree that it means “columns.” The meaning is figurative based on the similarity of shape.
38 tn Heb “he.” The majority of commentaries and English versions are agreed that “he” is the king. However, since a penknife (Heb “a scribe’s razor”) is used to cut the columns off, it is possible that Jehudi himself did it. However, even if Jehudi himself did it, he was acting on the king’s orders.
39 sn Heb “a scribe’s razor.” There is some irony involved here since a scribe’s razor was used to trim the sheets to be sewn together, scrape them in preparation for writing, and to erase errors. What was normally used to prepare the scroll was used to destroy it.
40 tn Heb “until the whole scroll was consumed upon the fire which was in the fire pot.”
41 sn See the study note on 42:1 for the possible identification of this man with Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite.
42 tn Aram “walk.”
43 tn Aram “heart.”
44 sn The point of describing Nebuchadnezzar as arrogant is that he had usurped divine prerogatives, and because of his immense arrogance God had dealt decisively with him.
45 tn Aram “heart.”
46 tn Aram “his dwelling.”
47 tn Or “descendant”; or “successor.”
48 tn Aram “your heart.”
49 tn Aram “which.”
50 tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”