51:7 Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand.
She had made the whole world drunk.
The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. 1
So they have all gone mad. 2
44:25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers 3
and humiliates 4 the omen readers,
who overturns the counsel of the wise men 5
and makes their advice 6 seem foolish,
17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, 7 his spirit was greatly upset 8 because he saw 9 the city was full of idols.
1 tn The words “of her wrath” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation to help those readers who are not familiar with the figure of the “cup of the
2 tn Heb “upon the grounds of such conditions the nations have gone mad.”
3 tc The Hebrew text has בַּדִּים (baddim), perhaps meaning “empty talkers” (BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד). In the four other occurrences of this word (Job 11:3; Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30; 50:36) the context does not make the meaning of the term very clear. Its primary point appears to be that the words spoken are meaningless or false. In light of its parallelism with “omen readers,” some have proposed an emendation to בָּרִים (barim, “seers”). The Mesopotamian baru-priests were divination specialists who played an important role in court life. See R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 93-98. Rather than supporting an emendation, J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:189, n. 79) suggests that Isaiah used בַּדִּים purposively as a derisive wordplay on the Akkadian word baru (in light of the close similarity of the d and r consonants).
4 tn Or “makes fools of” (NIV, NRSV); NAB and NASB both similar.
5 tn Heb “who turns back the wise” (so NRSV); NIV “overthrows the learning of the wise”; TEV “The words of the wise I refute.”
6 tn Heb “their knowledge” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).
7 map For location see JP1-C2; JP2-C2; JP3-C2; JP4-C2.
8 tn Grk “greatly upset within him,” but the words “within him” were not included in the translation because they are redundant in English. See L&N 88.189. The term could also be rendered “infuriated.”
9 tn Or “when he saw.” The participle θεωροῦντος (qewrounto") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle; it could also be translated as temporal.