8:1 The Lord told me, “Take a large tablet 1 and inscribe these words 2 on it with an ordinary stylus: 3 ‘Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ 4
24:6 So a treaty curse 5 devours the earth;
its inhabitants pay for their guilt. 6
This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, 7
and are reduced to just a handful of people. 8
51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right,
you people who are aware of my law! 9
Don’t be afraid of the insults of men;
don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!
56:2 The people who do this will be blessed, 10
the people who commit themselves to obedience, 11
who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,
who refrain from doing anything that is wrong. 12
1 sn Probably made of metal, wood, or leather. See HALOT 193 s.v. גִּלָּיוֹן.
2 tn Heb “write” (so KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV).
3 tn Heb “with the stylus of a man.” The significance of the qualifying genitive “a man” is uncertain. For various interpretations see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:219, n. 1.
4 tn Heb “quickly, [the] plunder; it hurries, [the] loot.” The first word (מַהֵר, maher) is either a Piel imperative (“hurry [to]”) or infinitive (“hurrying,” or “quickly”). The third word (חָשׁ, khash) is either a third masculine singular perfect or a masculine singular participle, in either case from the root חוּשׁ (khush, “hurry”). Perhaps it is best to translate, “One hastens to the plunder, one hurries to the loot.” In this case מַהֵר is understood as an infinitive functioning as a verb, the subject of חוּשׁ is taken as indefinite, and the two nouns are understood as adverbial accusatives. As we discover in v. 3, this is the name of the son to be born to Isaiah through the prophetess.
5 sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.
6 tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).
7 tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).
8 tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”
9 tn Heb “people (who have) my law in their heart.”
13 tn Heb “blessed is the man who does this.”
14 tn Heb “the son of mankind who takes hold of it.”
15 tn Heb and who keeps his hand from doing any evil.”