Isaiah 10:26

10:26 The Lord who commands armies is about to beat them ¹  with a whip, similar to the way he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb. ²  He will use his staff against the sea, lifting it up as he did in Egypt. ³ 

Isaiah 23:13

23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans,

these people who have lost their identity! ⁴ 

The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals.

They erected their siege towers, ⁵ 

demolished ⁶  its fortresses,

and turned it into a heap of ruins. ⁷ 

Isaiah 34:4

34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, ⁸ 

the sky will roll up like a scroll;

all its stars will wither,

like a leaf withers and falls from a vine

or a fig withers and falls from a tree. ⁹ 

Isaiah 37:7

37:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹⁰  he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ¹¹  with a sword in his own land.”’”

Isaiah 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ¹²  went out and killed 185,000 troops ¹³  in the Assyrian camp. When they ¹⁴  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 63:3

63:3 “I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself;

no one from the nations joined me.

I stomped on them ¹⁶  in my anger;

I trampled them down in my rage.

Their juice splashed on my garments,

and stained ¹⁷  all my clothes.

[10:26]  ¹ tn Heb “him” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); the singular refers to the leader or king who stands for the entire nation. This is specified by NCV, CEV as “the Assyrians.”

[10:26]  ² sn According to Judg 7:25, the Ephraimites executed the Midianite general Oreb at a rock which was subsequently named after the executed enemy.

[10:26]  ³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and his staff [will be] against the sea, and he will lift it in the way [or “manner”] of Egypt.” If the text is retained, “the sea” symbolizes Assyria’s hostility, the metaphor being introduced because of the reference to Egypt. The translation above assumes an emendation of עַל הַיָּם (’al hayyam, “against the sea”) to עַלֵיהֶם (’alehem, “against them”). The proposed shift from the third singular pronoun (note “beat him” earlier in the verse) to the plural is not problematic, for the singular is collective. Note that a third plural pronoun is used at the end of v. 25 (“their destruction”). The final phrase, “in the way/manner of Egypt,” probably refers to the way in which God used the staff of Moses to bring judgment down on Egypt.

[23:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “this people [that] is not.”

[23:13]  ⁵ tn For the meaning of this word, see HALOT 118 s.v. *בַּחוּן.

[23:13]  ⁶ tn Or “laid bare.” For the meaning of this word, see HALOT 889 s.v. ערר.

[23:13]  ⁷ sn This verse probably refers to the Assyrian destruction of Babylon.

[34:4]  ⁷ tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”

[34:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”

[37:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.

[37:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”

[37:36]  ¹³ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ¹⁴ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ¹⁵ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”

[63:3]  ¹⁶ sn Nations, headed by Edom, are the object of the Lord’s anger (see v. 6). He compares military slaughter to stomping on grapes in a vat.

[63:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and I stained.” For discussion of the difficult verb form, see HALOT 170 s.v. II גאל. Perhaps the form is mixed, combining the first person forms of the imperfect (note the alef prefix) and perfect (note the תי- ending).