52:3 For this is what the Lord says:
“You were sold for nothing,
and you will not be redeemed for money.”
59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak 1 to deliver you;
his ear is not too deaf to hear you. 2
59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;
your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. 3
59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak 4 to deliver you;
his ear is not too deaf to hear you. 5
21:1 Here is a message about the Desert by the Sea: 6
Like strong winds blowing in the south, 7
one invades from the desert,
from a land that is feared.
21:2 I have received a distressing message: 8
“The deceiver deceives,
the destroyer destroys.
Attack, you Elamites!
Lay siege, you Medes!
I will put an end to all the groaning!” 9
17:1 Here is a message about Damascus:
“Look, Damascus is no longer a city,
it is a heap of ruins!
4:18 “The way you have lived and the things you have done 14
will bring this on you.
This is the punishment you deserve, and it will be painful indeed. 15
The pain will be so bad it will pierce your heart.” 16
1 tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
2 tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”
3 tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”
4 tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”
6 sn The phrase is quite cryptic, at least to the modern reader. Verse 9 seems to indicate that this message pertains to Babylon. Southern Mesopotamia was known as the Sealand in ancient times, because of its proximity to the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the reference to Babylon as a “desert” foreshadows the destruction that would overtake the city, making it like a desolate desert.
7 tn Or “in the Negev” (NASB).
8 tn Heb “a severe revelation has been related to me.”
9 sn This is often interpreted to mean “all the groaning” that Babylon has caused others.
10 tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew
11 tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.
12 tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.
13 tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.
14 tn Heb “Your way and your deeds.”
15 tn Heb “How bitter!”
16 tn Heb “Indeed, it reaches to your heart.” The subject must be the pain alluded to in the last half of the preceding line; the verb is masculine, agreeing with the adjective translated “painful.” The only other possible antecedent “punishment” is feminine.