Discovery BoxIsaiah 10:5
Context10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 1
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 2
Isaiah 10:27
Contextthe Lord will remove their burden from your shoulders, 4
and their yoke from your neck;
the yoke will be taken off because your neck will be too large. 5
Isaiah 14:3-5
Context14:3 When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, 6 and from the hard labor which you were made to perform, 14:4 you will taunt the king of Babylon with these words: 7
“Look how the oppressor has met his end!
Hostility 8 has ceased!
14:5 The Lord has broken the club of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers.
Isaiah 30:31-32
Context30:31 Indeed, the Lord’s shout will shatter Assyria; 9
he will beat them with a club.
30:32 Every blow from his punishing cudgel, 10
with which the Lord will beat them, 11
will be accompanied by music from the 12 tambourine and harp,
and he will attack them with his weapons. 13
Psalms 125:3
Context125:3 Indeed, 14 the scepter of a wicked king 15 will not settle 16
upon the allotted land of the godly.
Otherwise the godly might
do what is wrong. 17
[10:5] 1 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
[10:5] 2 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
[10:27] 3 tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
[10:27] 4 tn Heb “he [i.e., the Lord] will remove his [i.e, Assyria’s] burden from upon your shoulder.”
[10:27] 5 tc The meaning of this line is uncertain. The Hebrew text reads literally, “and the yoke will be destroyed (or perhaps, “pulled down”) because of fatness.” Perhaps this is a bizarre picture of an ox growing so fat that it breaks the yoke around its neck or can no longer fit into its yoke. Fatness would symbolize the Lord’s restored blessings; the removal of the yoke would symbolize the cessation of Assyrian oppression. Because of the difficulty of the metaphor, many prefer to emend the text at this point. Some emend וְחֻבַּל (vÿkhubbal, “and it will be destroyed,” a perfect with prefixed vav), to יִחְבֹּל (yikhbol, “[it] will be destroyed,” an imperfect), and take the verb with what precedes, “and their yoke will be destroyed from your neck.” Proponents of this view (cf. NAB, NRSV) then emend עֹל (’ol, “yoke”) to עָלָה (’alah, “he came up”) and understand this verb as introducing the following description of the Assyrian invasion (vv. 28-32). מִפְּנֵי־שָׁמֶן (mippÿney-shamen, “because of fatness”) is then emended to read “from before Rimmon” (NAB, NRSV), “from before Samaria,” or “from before Jeshimon.” Although this line may present difficulties, it appears best to regard the line as a graphic depiction of God’s abundant blessings on his servant nation.
[14:3] 6 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
[14:4] 7 tn Heb “you will lift up this taunt over the king of Babylon, saying.”
[14:4] 8 tc The word in the Hebrew text (מַדְהֵבָה, madhevah) is unattested elsewhere and of uncertain meaning. Many (following the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa) assume a dalet-resh (ד-ר) confusion and emend the form to מַרְהֵבָה (marhevah, “onslaught”). See HALOT 548 s.v. II *מִדָּה and HALOT 633 s.v. *מַרְהֵבָה.
[30:31] 9 tn Heb “Indeed by the voice of the Lord Assyria will be shattered.”
[30:32] 10 tc The Hebrew text has “every blow from a founded [i.e., “appointed”?] cudgel.” The translation above, with support from a few medieval Hebrew
[30:32] 11 tn Heb “which the Lord lays on him.”
[30:32] 12 tn Heb “will be with” (KJV similar).
[30:32] 13 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and with battles of brandishing [weapons?] he will fight against him.” Some prefer to emend וּבְמִלְחֲמוֹת (uvÿmilkhamot, “and with battles of”) to וּבִמְחֹלוֹת (uvimkholot, “and with dancing”). Note the immediately preceding references to musical instruments.
[125:3] 15 tn Heb “a scepter of wickedness.” The “scepter” symbolizes royal authority; when collocated with “wickedness” the phrase refers to an oppressive foreign conqueror.
[125:3] 17 tn Heb “so that the godly might not stretch out their hands in wrongdoing.” A wicked king who sets a sinful example can have an adverse moral and ethical effect on the people he rules.
