Isaiah 1:24

1:24 Therefore, the sovereign Lord who commands armies, ¹ 

the powerful ruler of Israel, ²  says this:

“Ah, I will seek vengeance ³  against my adversaries,

I will take revenge against my enemies. ⁴ 

Isaiah 6:3

6:3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy ⁵  is the Lord who commands armies! ⁶  His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!”

Isaiah 8:22

8:22 When one looks out over the land, he sees ⁷  distress and darkness, gloom ⁸  and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land. 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 13:9

13:9 Look, the Lord’s day of judgment ¹³  is coming;

it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, ¹⁴ 

destroying ¹⁵  the earth ¹⁶ 

and annihilating its sinners.

Isaiah 19:8

19:8 The fishermen will mourn and lament,

all those who cast a fishhook into the river,

and those who spread out a net on the water’s surface will grieve. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 21:11

Bad News for Seir

21:11 Here is a message about Dumah: ¹⁸ 

Someone calls to me from Seir, ¹⁹ 

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?” ²⁰ 

Isaiah 27:8

27:8 When you summon her for divorce, you prosecute her; ²¹ 

he drives her away ²²  with his strong wind in the day of the east wind. ²³ 

Isaiah 29:21

29:21 those who bear false testimony against a person, ²⁴ 

who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate ²⁵ 

and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. ²⁶ 

Isaiah 35:6

35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,

the mute tongue will shout for joy;

for water will flow ²⁷  in the desert,

streams in the wilderness. ²⁸ 

Isaiah 40:3

40:3 A voice cries out,

“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;

construct in the desert a road for our God.

Isaiah 41:4

41:4 Who acts and carries out decrees? ²⁹ 

Who ³⁰  summons the successive generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning,

and at the very end – I am the one. ³¹ 

[1:24]  ¹ tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at v. 9.

[1:24]  ² tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Israel.”

[1:24]  ³ tn Heb “console myself” (i.e., by getting revenge); NRSV “pour out my wrath on.”

[1:24]  ⁴ sn The Lord here identifies with the oppressed and comes as their defender and vindicator.

[6:3]  ⁵ tn Some have seen a reference to the Trinity in the seraphs’ threefold declaration, “holy, holy, holy.” This proposal has no linguistic or contextual basis and should be dismissed as allegorical. Hebrew sometimes uses repetition for emphasis. (See IBHS 233-34 §12.5a; and GKC 431-32 §133.k.) By repeating the word “holy,” the seraphs emphasize the degree of the Lord’s holiness. For another example of threefold repetition for emphasis, see Ezek 21:27 (Heb. v. 32). (Perhaps Jer 22:29 provides another example.)

[6:3]  ⁶ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[8:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[8:22]  ¹⁰ tn The precise meaning of מְעוּף (mÿ’uf) is uncertain; the word occurs only here. See BDB 734 s.v. מָעוּף.

[8:22]  ¹¹ 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.

[13:3]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my warriors with respect to my anger.”

[13:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the boasting ones of my pride”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV “my proudly exulting ones.”

[13:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the day of the Lord.”

[13:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[with] cruelty, and fury, and rage of anger.” Three synonyms for “anger” are piled up at the end of the line to emphasize the extraordinary degree of divine anger that will be exhibited in this judgment.

[13:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “making desolate.”

[13:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “land” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT).

[19:8]  ²¹ tn Or perhaps, “will disappear”; cf. TEV “will be useless.”

[21:11]  ²⁵ tn The noun דּוּמָה (dumah) means “silence,” but here it is a proper name, probably referring to a site in northern Arabia or to the nation of Edom. See BDB 189 s.v. II דּוּמָה. If Dumah was an area in northern Arabia, it would be of interest to the Edomites because of its strategic position on trade routes which they used. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:398.

[21:11]  ²⁶ sn Seir is another name for Edom. See BDB 973 s.v. שֵׂעִיר.

[21:11]  ²⁷ sn The “night” probably here symbolizes distress and difficult times. See BDB 539 s.v. לַיְלָה.

[27:8]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “in [?], in sending her away, you oppose her.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. The form בְּסַאסְּאָה (bÿsa’ssÿ’ah) is taken as an infinitive from סַאסְּאָה (sa’ssÿ’ah) with a prepositional prefix and a third feminine singular suffix. (The MT does not have a mappiq in the final he [ה], however). According to HALOT 738 s.v. סַאסְּאָה the verb is a Palpel form from an otherwise unattested root cognate with an Arabic verb meaning “to gather beasts with a call.” Perhaps it means “to call, summon” here, but this is a very tentative proposal. בְּשַׁלְחָהּ (bÿshalkhah, “in sending her away”) appears to be a Piel infinitive with a prepositional prefix and a third feminine singular suffix. Since the Piel of שָׁלָח (shalakh) can sometimes mean “divorce” (HALOT 1514-15 s.v.) and the following verb רִיב (riv, “oppose”) can be used in legal contexts, it is possible that divorce proceedings are alluded to here. This may explain why Israel is referred to as feminine in this verse, in contrast to the masculine forms used in vv. 6-7 and 9.

[27:8]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew text has no object expressed, but one can understand a third feminine singular pronominal object and place a mappiq in the final he (ה) of the form to indicate the suffix.

[27:8]  ³¹ sn The “east wind” here symbolizes violent divine judgment.

[29:21]  ³³ tn Heb “the ones who make a man a sinner with a word.” The Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) here has a delocutive sense: “declare a man sinful/guilty.”

[29:21]  ³⁴ sn Legal disputes were resolved at the city gate, where the town elders met. See Amos 5:10.

[29:21]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and deprive by emptiness the innocent.”

[35:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “burst forth” (so NAB); KJV “break out.”

[35:6]  ³⁸ tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT “desert.”

[41:4]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Who acts and accomplishes?”; NASB “Who has performed and accomplished it.”

[41:4]  ⁴² tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[41:4]  ⁴³ tn Heb “I, the Lord, [am with] the first, and with the last ones I [am] he.”