Isaiah 1:2

Obedience, not Sacrifice

1:2 Listen, O heavens,

pay attention, O earth! ¹ 

For the Lord speaks:

“I raised children, ²  I brought them up, ³ 

but ⁴  they have rebelled ⁵  against me!

Isaiah 5:9

5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: ⁶ 

“Many houses will certainly become desolate,

large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. ⁷ 

Isaiah 7:6

7:6 They say, “Let’s attack Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it. ⁸  Then we’ll set up the son of Tabeel as its king.” ⁹ 

Isaiah 13:3

13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers; ¹⁰ 

I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, ¹¹ 

my boasting, arrogant ones. ¹² 

Isaiah 16:3

16:3 “Bring a plan, make a decision! ¹³ 

Provide some shade in the middle of the day! ¹⁴ 

Hide the fugitives! Do not betray ¹⁵  the one who tries to escape!

Isaiah 23:12

23:12 He said,

“You will no longer celebrate,

oppressed ¹⁶  virgin daughter Sidon!

Get up, travel to Cyprus,

but you will find no relief there.” ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 28:9

28:9 Who is the Lord ¹⁸  trying to teach?

To whom is he explaining a message? ¹⁹ 

Those just weaned from milk!

Those just taken from their mother’s breast! ²⁰ 

Isaiah 33:14

33:14 Sinners are afraid in Zion;

panic ²¹  grips the godless. ²² 

They say, ²³  ‘Who among us can coexist with destructive fire?

Who among us can coexist with unquenchable ²⁴  fire?’

Isaiah 37:17

37:17 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God! ²⁵ 

Isaiah 45:2

45:2 “I will go before you

and level mountains. ²⁶ 

Bronze doors I will shatter

and iron bars ²⁷  I will hack through.

Isaiah 45:23

45:23 I solemnly make this oath ²⁸  –

what I say is true and reliable: ²⁹ 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ³⁰ 

Isaiah 46:3

46:3 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, ³¹ 

all you who are left from the family of Israel, ³² 

you who have been carried from birth, ³³ 

you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. ³⁴ 

Isaiah 48:3

48:3 “I announced events beforehand, ³⁵ 

I issued the decrees and made the predictions; ³⁶ 

suddenly I acted and they came to pass.

Isaiah 52:6

52:6 For this reason my people will know my name,

for this reason they will know ³⁷  at that time ³⁸  that I am the one who says,

‘Here I am.’”

[1:2]  ¹ sn The personified heavens and earth are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people. Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).

[1:2]  ² tn Or “sons” (NAB, NASB).

[1:2]  ³ sn The normal word pair for giving birth to and raising children is יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth to”) and גָּדַל (gadal, “to grow, raise”). The pair גָּדַל and רוּם (rum, “to raise up”) probably occur here to highlight the fact that Yahweh made something important of Israel (cf. R. Mosis, TDOT 2:403).

[1:2]  ⁴ sn Against the backdrop of Yahweh’s care for his chosen people, Israel’s rebellion represents abhorrent treachery. The conjunction prefixed to a nonverbal element highlights the sad contrast between Yahweh’s compassionate care for His people and Israel’s thankless rebellion.

[1:2]  ⁵ sn To rebel carries the idea of “covenant treachery.” Although an act of פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, “rebellion”) often signifies a breach of the law, the legal offense also represents a violation of an existing covenantal relationship (E. Carpenter and M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 3:707).

[5:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

[5:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”

[7:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and let us break it open for ourselves”; NASB “make for ourselves a breach in its walls”; NLT “fight our way into.”

[7:6]  ¹² tn Heb “and we will make the son of Tabeel king in its midst.”

[13:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my consecrated ones,” i.e., those who have been set apart by God for the special task of carrying out his judgment.

[13:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my warriors with respect to my anger.”

[13:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the boasting ones of my pride”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV “my proudly exulting ones.”

[16:3]  ²¹ sn It is unclear who is being addressed in this verse. Perhaps the prophet, playing the role of a panic stricken Moabite refugee, requests the leaders of Judah (the imperatives are plural) to take pity on the fugitives.

[16:3]  ²² tn Heb “Make your shade like night in the midst of noonday.” “Shade” here symbolizes shelter, while the heat of noonday represents the intense suffering of the Moabites. By comparing the desired shade to night, the speaker visualizes a huge dark shadow cast by a large tree that would provide relief from the sun’s heat.

[16:3]  ²³ tn Heb “disclose, uncover.”

[23:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “violated, raped,” the point being that Daughter Sidon has lost her virginity in the most brutal manner possible.

[23:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “[to the] Kittim, get up, cross over; even there there will be no rest for you.” On “Kittim” see the note on “Cyprus” at v. 1.

[28:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:9]  ³² tn Heb “Who is he teaching knowledge? For whom is he explaining a message?” The translation assumes that the Lord is the subject of the verbs “teaching” and “explaining,” and that the prophet is asking the questions. See v. 12. According to some vv. 9-10 record the people’s sarcastic response to the Lord’s message through Isaiah.

[28:9]  ³³ tn Heb “from the breasts.” The words “their mother’s” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The translation assumes that this is the prophet’s answer to the questions asked in the first half of the verse. The Lord is trying to instruct people who are “infants” morally and ethically.

[33:14]  ³⁶ tn Or “trembling” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “shake with fear.”

[33:14]  ³⁷ tn Or “the defiled”; TEV “The sinful people of Zion”; NLT “The sinners in Jerusalem.”

[33:14]  ³⁸ tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[33:14]  ³⁹ tn Or “perpetual”; or “everlasting” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[37:17]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Hear all the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”

[45:2]  ⁴⁶ tc The form הֲדוּרִים (hadurim) makes little, if any, sense here. It is probably a corruption of an original הָרָרִים (hararim, “mountains”), the reduplicated form of הָר (har, “mountain”).

[45:2]  ⁴⁷ tn That is, on the gates. Cf. CEV “break the iron bars on bronze gates.”

[45:23]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

[45:23]  ⁵² tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

[45:23]  ⁵³ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

[46:3]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV “descendants of Jacob.”

[46:3]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “and all the remnant of the house of Israel.”

[46:3]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “from the womb” (so NRSV); KJV “from the belly”; NAB “from your infancy.”

[46:3]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “who have been lifted up from the womb.”

[48:3]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “the former things beforehand I declared.”

[48:3]  ⁶² tn Heb “and from my mouth they came forth and I caused them to be heard.”

[52:6]  ⁶⁶ tn The verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[52:6]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).