42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; 1
I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn streams into islands, 2
and dry up pools of water. 3
43:16 This is what the Lord says,
the one who made a road through the sea,
a pathway through the surging waters,
50:2 Why does no one challenge me when I come?
Why does no one respond when I call? 4
Is my hand too weak 5 to deliver 6 you?
Do I lack the power to rescue you?
Look, with a mere shout 7 I can dry up the sea;
I can turn streams into a desert,
so the fish rot away and die
from lack of water. 8
63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. 9
Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,
along with the shepherd of 10 his flock?
Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, 11
63:12 the one who made his majestic power available to Moses, 12
who divided the water before them,
gaining for himself a lasting reputation, 13
15:13 By your loyal love you will lead 16 the people whom 17 you have redeemed;
you will guide 18 them by your strength to your holy dwelling place.
74:13 You destroyed 19 the sea by your strength;
you shattered the heads of the sea monster 20 in the water.
1 tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”
2 tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).
3 sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.
4 sn The present tense translation of the verbs assumes that the Lord is questioning why Israel does not attempt to counter his arguments. Another possibility is to take the verbs as referring to past events: “Why did no one meet me when I came? Why did no one answer when I called?” In this case the Lord might be asking why Israel rejected his calls to repent and his offer to deliver them.
5 tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV).
6 tn Or “ransom” (NAB, NASB, NIV).
7 tn Heb “with my rebuke.”
8 tn Heb “the fish stink from lack of water and die from thirst.”
9 tn Heb “and he remembered the days of antiquity, Moses, his people.” The syntax of the statement is unclear. The translation assumes that “his people” is the subject of the verb “remembered.” If original, “Moses” is in apposition to “the days of antiquity,” more precisely identifying the time period referred to. However, the syntactical awkwardness suggests that “Moses” may have been an early marginal note (perhaps identifying “the shepherd of his flock” two lines later) that has worked its way into the text.
10 tn The Hebrew text has a plural form, which if retained and taken as a numerical plural, would probably refer to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite tribal leaders at the time of the Exodus. Most prefer to emend the form to the singular (רָעָה, ra’ah) and understand this as a reference just to Moses.
11 sn See the note at v. 10.
12 tn Heb “who caused to go at the right hand of Moses the arm of his splendor.”
13 tn Heb “making for himself a lasting name.”
14 tn Or “drove the sea back” (NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV). The verb is simply the Hiphil of הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk, go”). The context requires that it be interpreted along the lines of “go back, go apart.”
15 tn The clause literally reads, “and the waters [were] for them a wall.” The word order in Hebrew is disjunctive, with the vav (ו) on the noun introducing a circumstantial clause.
16 tn The verbs in the next two verses are perfect tenses, but can be interpreted as a prophetic perfect, looking to the future.
17 tn The particle זוּ (zu) is a relative pronoun, subordinating the next verb to the preceding.
18 tn This verb seems to mean “to guide to a watering-place” (See Ps 23:2).
19 tn The derivation and meaning of the Polel verb form פּוֹרַרְתָּ (porarta) are uncertain. The form may be related to an Akkadian cognate meaning “break, shatter,” though the biblical Hebrew cognate of this verb always appears in the Hiphil or Hophal stem. BDB 830 s.v. II פָּרַר suggests a homonym here, meaning “to split; to divide.” A Hitpolel form of a root פָּרַר (parar) appears in Isa 24:19 with the meaning “to shake violently.”
20 tn The Hebrew text has the plural form, “sea monsters” (cf. NRSV “dragons”), but it is likely that an original enclitic mem has been misunderstood as a plural ending. The imagery of the mythological sea monster is utilized here. See the note on “Leviathan” in v. 14.