4:6 By day it will be a shelter to provide shade from the heat,
as well as safety and protection from the heavy downpour. 1
5:6 I will make it a wasteland;
no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, 2
and thorns and briers will grow there.
I will order the clouds
not to drop any rain on it.
44:14 He cuts down cedars
and acquires a cypress 3 or an oak.
He gets 4 trees from the forest;
he plants a cedar 5 and the rain makes it grow.
55:10 6 The rain and snow fall from the sky
and do not return,
but instead water the earth
and make it produce and yield crops,
and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.
30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,
and the ground will produce crops in abundance. 7
At that time 8 your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
45:8 O sky, rain down from above!
Let the clouds send down showers 9 of deliverance!
Let the earth absorb it 10 so salvation may grow, 11
and deliverance may sprout up 12 along with it.
I, the Lord, create it. 13
28:2 Look, the sovereign master 14 sends a strong, powerful one. 15
With the force of a hailstorm or a destructive windstorm, 16
with the might of a driving, torrential rainstorm, 17
he will knock that crown 18 to the ground with his hand. 19
25:4 For you are a protector for the poor,
a protector for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm,
a shade from the heat.
Though the breath of tyrants 20 is like a winter rainstorm, 21
24:4 The earth 22 dries up 23 and withers,
the world shrivels up and withers;
the prominent people of the earth 24 fade away.
18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:
“I will wait 25 and watch from my place,
like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, 26
like a cloud of mist 27 in the heat 28 of harvest.” 29
30:30 The Lord will give a mighty shout 30
and intervene in power, 31
with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, 32
with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.
1 tn Heb “a shelter it will be for shade by day from heat, and for a place of refuge and for a hiding place from cloudburst and rain.” Since both of the last nouns of this verse can mean rain, they can either refer to the rain storm and the rain as distinct items or together refer to a heavy downpour. Regardless, they do not represent unrelated phenomena.
2 tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.
3 tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).
4 tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).
5 tn Some prefer to emend אֹרֶן (’oren) to אֶרֶז (’erez, “cedar”), but the otherwise unattested noun appears to have an Akkadian cognate, meaning “cedar.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 44-45. HALOT 90 s.v. I אֹרֶן offers the meaning “laurel.”
4 tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.
5 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.”
6 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
6 tn Heb “let the clouds drip with”; KJV “let the skies pour down.”
7 tn Heb “open up” (so NASB); NIV, NLT “open wide.”
8 tc The plural verb should be emended to a singular form. The vav (ו) ending is probably virtually dittographic (note the yod at the beginning of the following word).
9 tc The Hiphil verb form (תַצְמִיחַ, tatsmiakh) should probably be emended to a Qal (תִצְמַח, titsmakh). The יח sequence at the end of the form is probably due to dittography (note the following יַחַד, yakhad).
10 tn The masculine singular pronominal suffix probably refers back to יָשַׁע (yasha’, “salvation”).
7 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 22 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
8 tn Heb “Look, a strong and powerful [one] belongs to the Lord.”
9 tn Heb “like a rainstorm of hail, a wind of destruction.”
10 tn Heb “like a rainstorm of mighty, overflowing waters.”
11 tn The words “that crown” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The object of the verb is unexpressed in the Hebrew text.
12 tn Or “by [his] power.”
8 tn Or perhaps, “the violent”; NIV, NRSV “the ruthless.”
9 tc The Hebrew text has, “like a rainstorm of a wall,” which might be interpreted to mean, “like a rainstorm battering against a wall.” The translation assumes an emendation of קִיר (qir, “wall”) to קֹר (qor, “cold, winter”; cf. Gen 8:22). See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:457, n. 6, for discussion.
9 tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (erets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37;12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).
10 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.
11 tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (mÿrom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (mÿrome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.
10 tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”
11 tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.
12 tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”
13 tc Some medieval Hebrew
14 sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.
11 tn Heb “the Lord will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard.”
12 tn Heb “and reveal the lowering of his arm.”
13 tn Heb “and a flame of consuming fire.”