Isaiah 10:31

10:31 Madmenah flees,

the residents of Gebim have hidden.

Isaiah 23:6

23:6 Travel to Tarshish!

Wail, you residents of the coast!

Isaiah 24:6

24:6 So a treaty curse ¹  devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt. ² 

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, ³ 

and are reduced to just a handful of people. ⁴ 

Isaiah 23:2

23:2 Lament, ⁵  you residents of the coast,

you merchants of Sidon ⁶  who travel over the sea,

whose agents sail over

Isaiah 18:3

18:3 All you who live in the world,

who reside on the earth,

you will see a signal flag raised on the mountains;

you will hear a trumpet being blown.

Isaiah 21:14

21:14 Bring out some water for the thirsty.

You who live in the land of Tema,

bring some food for the fugitives.

Isaiah 42:7

42:7 to open blind eyes, ⁷ 

to release prisoners ⁸  from dungeons,

those who live in darkness from prisons.

Isaiah 42:11

42:11 Let the desert and its cities shout out,

the towns where the nomads of Kedar live!

Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully;

let them shout loudly from the mountaintops.

Isaiah 9:2

9:2 (9:1) The people walking in darkness

see a bright light; ⁹ 

light shines

on those who live in a land of deep darkness. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 26:5

26:5 Indeed, ¹¹  the Lord knocks down those who live in a high place,

he brings down an elevated town;

he brings it down to the ground, ¹² 

he throws it down to the dust.

Isaiah 26:9

26:9 I ¹³  look for ¹⁴  you during the night,

my spirit within me seeks you at dawn,

for when your judgments come upon the earth,

those who live in the world learn about justice. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 26:18

26:18 We were pregnant, we strained,

we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹⁶ 

We cannot produce deliverance on the earth;

people to populate the world are not born. ¹⁷ 

[24:6]  ¹ sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.

[24:6]  ² tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).

[24:6]  ³ tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).

[24:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”

[23:2]  ¹ tn Or “keep quiet”; NAB “Silence!”

[23:2]  ² map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[42:7]  ¹ sn This does not refer to literal physical healing of the blind. As the next two lines suggest, this refers metonymically to freeing captives from their dark prisons where their eyes have grown unaccustomed to light.

[42:7]  ² sn This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice.

[9:2]  ¹ sn The darkness symbolizes judgment and its effects (see 8:22); the light represents deliverance and its effects, brought about by the emergence of a conquering Davidic king (see vv. 3-6).

[9:2]  ² tn Traditionally צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmavet) has been interpreted as a compound noun, meaning “shadow of death” (so KJV, ASV, NIV), but usage indicates that the word, though it sometimes refers to death, means “darkness.” The term should probably be repointed as an abstract noun צַלְמוּת (tsalmut). See the note at Ps 23:4.

[26:5]  ¹ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[26:5]  ² tn The translation assumes that יַשְׁפִּילֶנָּה (yashpilennah) goes with the preceding words “an elevated town,” and that יַשְׁפִּילָהּ (yashpilah) belongs with the following words, “to the ground.” See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:469, n. 7.

[26:9]  ¹ tn Heb “with my soul I.” This is a figure for the speaker himself (“I”).

[26:9]  ² tn Or “long for, desire.” The speaker acknowledges that he is eager to see God come in judgment (see vv. 8, 9b).

[26:9]  ³ tn The translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “those who live in the world learn to live in a righteous manner” (cf. NCV).

[26:18]  ¹ tn On the use of כְּמוֹ (kÿmo, “like, as”) here, see BDB 455 s.v. Israel’s distress and suffering, likened here to the pains of childbirth, seemed to be for no purpose. A woman in labor endures pain with the hope that a child will be born; in Israel’s case no such positive outcome was apparent. The nation was like a woman who strains to bring forth a child, but can’t push the baby through to daylight. All her effort produces nothing.

[26:18]  ² tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the world do not fall.” The term נָפַל (nafal) apparently means here, “be born,” though the Qal form of the verb is not used with this nuance anywhere else in the OT. (The Hiphil appears to be used in the sense of “give birth” in v. 19, however.) The implication of verse 18b seems to be that Israel hoped its suffering would somehow end in deliverance and an increase in population. The phrase “inhabitants of the world” seems to refer to the human race in general, but the next verse, which focuses on Israel’s dead, suggests the referent may be more limited.