5:2 He built a hedge around it, 1 removed its stones,
and planted a vine.
He built a tower in the middle of it,
and constructed a winepress.
He waited for it to produce edible grapes,
but it produced sour ones instead. 2
9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased 3 with their young men,
he took no pity 4 on their orphans and widows;
for the whole nation was godless 5 and did wicked things, 6
every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. 7
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 8
24:18 The one who runs away from the sound of the terror
will fall into the pit; 9
the one who climbs out of the pit,
will be trapped by the snare.
For the floodgates of the heavens 10 are opened up 11
and the foundations of the earth shake.
1 tn Or, “dug it up” (so NIV); KJV “fenced it.’ See HALOT 810 s.v. עזק.
2 tn Heb “wild grapes,” i.e., sour ones (also in v. 4).
3 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”
4 tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)
5 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”
6 tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.
7 tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.
8 tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”
5 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
6 tn Heb “from the height”; KJV “from on high.”
7 sn The language reflects the account of the Noahic Flood (see Gen 7:11).