5:26 He lifts a signal flag for a distant nation, 1
he whistles for it to come from the far regions of the earth.
Look, they 2 come quickly and swiftly.
10:33 Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,
is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. 6
The tallest trees 7 will be cut down,
the loftiest ones will be brought low.
17:1 Here is a message about Damascus:
“Look, Damascus is no longer a city,
it is a heap of ruins!
17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror; 8
by morning they vanish. 9
This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,
the destiny of those who try to loot us! 10
24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth
and leave it in ruins;
he will mar its surface
and scatter its inhabitants.
34:5 He says, 11 “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. 12
Look, it now descends on Edom, 13
on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”
42:9 Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; 16
now I announce new events.
Before they begin to occur,
I reveal them to you.” 17
48:7 Now they come into being, 18 not in the past;
before today you did not hear about them,
so you could not say,
‘Yes, 19 I know about them.’
54:11 “O afflicted one, driven away, 20 and unconsoled!
Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony
and I lay your foundation with lapis-lazuli.
65:6 Look, I have decreed: 21
I will not keep silent, but will pay them back;
I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, 22
65:14 Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! 23
But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; 24
you will wail because your spirits will be crushed. 25
1 tc The Hebrew text has literally, “for nations from a distance.” The following verses use singular forms to describe this nation, so the final mem (ם) on לְגּוֹיִם (lÿgoyim) may be enclitic or dittographic. In the latter case one could read לְגוֹי מֵרָחוֹק (lÿgoy merakhoq, “for a nation from a distance”; see Deut 28:49; Joel 3:8). Another possibility is to emend the text from לַגּוֹיִם מֵרָחוֹק (laggoyim merakhoq) to לְגוֹי מִמֶּרְחָק (lÿgoy mimmerkhaq, “for a nation from a distant place”) a phrase which occurs in Jer 5:15. In this case an error of misdivision has occurred in MT, the mem of the prefixed preposition being accidentally taken as a plural ending on the preceding word.
2 tn Heb “he.” Singular forms are used throughout vv. 26-30 to describe this nation, but for stylistic reasons the translation uses the plural for these collective singulars.
3 tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).
4 tn The precise meaning of מְעוּף (mÿ’uf) is uncertain; the word occurs only here. See BDB 734 s.v. מָעוּף.
5 tn Heb “ and darkness, pushed.” The word מְנֻדָּח (mÿnudakh) appears to be a Pual participle from נדח (“push”), but the Piel is unattested for this verb and the Pual occurs only here.
5 tc The Hebrew text reads “with terrifying power,” or “with a crash.” מַעֲרָצָה (ma’aratsah, “terrifying power” or “crash”) occurs only here. Several have suggested an emendation to מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad, “ax”) parallel to “ax” in v. 34; see HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:448.
6 tn Heb “the exalted of the height.” This could refer to the highest branches (cf. TEV) or the tallest trees (cf. NIV, NRSV).
7 tn Heb “at the time of evening, look, sudden terror.”
8 tn Heb “before morning he is not.”
9 tn Heb “this is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who loot us.”
9 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.
10 tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”
11 sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.
11 tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”
12 tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”
13 tn Heb “the former things, look, they have come.”
14 tn Heb “before they sprout up, I cause you to hear.” The pronoun “you” is plural, referring to the people of Israel. In this verse “the former things” are the Lord’s earlier predictive oracles which have come to pass, while “the new things” are predicted events that have not yet begun to take place. “The former things” are earlier events in Israel’s history which God announced beforehand, such as the Exodus (see 43:16-18). “The new things” are the predictions about the servant (42:1-7). and may also include Cyrus’ conquests (41:25-27).
15 tn Heb “are created” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “They are brand new.”
16 tn Heb “look”; KJV, NASB “Behold.”
17 tn Or, more literally, “windblown, storm tossed.”
19 tn Heb “Look, it is written before me.”
20 tn Heb “I will pay back into their lap.”
21 tn Heb “from the good of the heart.”
22 tn Heb “from the pain of the heart.”
23 tn Heb “from the breaking of the spirit.”