Isaiah 1:7

1:7 Your land is devastated,

your cities burned with fire.

Right before your eyes your crops

are being destroyed by foreign invaders. ¹ 

They leave behind devastation and destruction. ² 

Isaiah 61:5

61:5 ³ “Foreigners will take care of ⁴  your sheep;

foreigners will work in your fields and vineyards.

Isaiah 25:5

25:5 like heat ⁵  in a dry land,

you humble the boasting foreigners. ⁶ 

Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, ⁷ 

so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. ⁸ 

Isaiah 25:2

25:2 Indeed, ⁹  you have made the city ¹⁰  into a heap of rubble,

the fortified town into a heap of ruins;

the fortress of foreigners ¹¹  is no longer a city,

it will never be rebuilt.

[1:7]  ¹ tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”

[1:7]  ² tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the mss or ancient versions. Such an emendation finds support from the following context (vv. 9-10) and usage of the preceding noun מַהְפֵּכָה (mahpekhah, “overthrow”). In its five other uses, this noun is associated with the destruction of Sodom. If one accepts the emendation, then one might translate, “the devastation resembles the destruction of Sodom.”

[61:5]  ³ sn The Lord speaks in vv. 7-8 (and possibly v. 9). It is not clear where the servant’s speech (see vv. 1-3a) ends and the Lord’s begins. Perhaps the direct address to the people signals the beginning of the Lord’s speech.

[61:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “will stand [in position] and shepherd.”

[25:5]  ⁵ tn Or “drought” (TEV).

[25:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “the tumult of foreigners.”

[25:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “[like] heat in the shadow of a cloud.”

[25:5]  ⁸ tn The translation assumes that the verb יַעֲנֶה (ya’aneh) is a Hiphil imperfect from עָנָה (’anah, “be afflicted, humiliated”). In this context with “song” as object it means to “quiet” (see HALOT 853-54 s.v. II ענה). Some prefer to emend the form to the second person singular, so that it will agree with the second person verb earlier in the verse. BDB 776 s.v. III עָנָה Qal.1 understands the form as Qal, with “song” as subject, in which case one might translate “the song of tyrants will be silent.” An emendation of the form to a Niphal (יֵעָנֶה, ye’aneh) would yield the same translation.

[25:2]  ⁷ tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[25:2]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text has “you have made from the city.” The prefixed mem (מ) on עִיר (’ir, “city”) was probably originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:456, n. 3.

[25:2]  ⁹ tc Some with support from the LXX emend זָרִים (zarim, “foreigners”) to זֵדִים (zedim, “the insolent”).