Discovery BoxIsaiah 10:5-6
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
10:6 I sent him 3 against a godless 4 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 5
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 6 like dirt in the streets.
Isaiah 17:14
Context17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror; 7
by morning they vanish. 8
This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,
the destiny of those who try to loot us! 9
Isaiah 24:16
Context24:16 From the ends of the earth we 10 hear songs –
the Just One is majestic. 11
But I 12 say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed!
Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!” 13
Isaiah 24:2
Context24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, 14
the master as well as the servant, 15
the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, 16
the seller as well as the buyer, 17
the borrower as well as the lender, 18
the creditor as well as the debtor. 19
Isaiah 18:1-2
Context18:1 The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead, 20
the one beyond the rivers of Cush,
18:2 that sends messengers by sea,
who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus.
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, 21
to a people that are feared far and wide, 22
to a nation strong and victorious, 23
whose land rivers divide. 24
Isaiah 28:16-21
Context28:16 Therefore, this is what the sovereign master, the Lord, says:
“Look, I am laying 25 a stone in Zion,
an approved 26 stone,
set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. 27
The one who maintains his faith will not panic. 28
28:17 I will make justice the measuring line,
fairness the plumb line;
hail will sweep away the unreliable refuge, 29
the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place.
28:18 Your treaty with death will be dissolved; 30
your agreement 31 with Sheol will not last. 32
When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, 33
you will be overrun by it. 34
28:19 Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you;
indeed, 35 every morning it will sweep by,
it will come through during the day and the night.” 36
When this announcement is understood,
it will cause nothing but terror.
28:20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
and the blanket is too narrow to wrap around oneself. 37
28:21 For the Lord will rise up, as he did at Mount Perazim, 38
he will rouse himself, as he did in the Valley of Gibeon, 39
to accomplish his work,
his peculiar work,
to perform his task,
his strange task. 40
Habakkuk 2:5-8
Context2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! 41
His appetite 42 is as big as Sheol’s; 43
like death, he is never satisfied.
He gathers 44 all the nations;
he seizes 45 all peoples.
2:6 “But all these nations will someday taunt him 46
and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: 47
‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead 48
(How long will this go on?) 49 –
he who gets rich by extortion!’ 50
2:7 Your creditors will suddenly attack; 51
those who terrify you will spring into action, 52
and they will rob you. 53
2:8 Because you robbed many countries, 54
all who are left among the nations 55 will rob you.
You have shed human blood
and committed violent acts against lands, cities, 56 and those who live in them.
[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.”
[10:6] 3 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
[10:6] 4 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
[10:6] 5 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
[10:6] 6 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
[17:14] 7 tn Heb “at the time of evening, look, sudden terror.”
[17:14] 8 tn Heb “before morning he is not.”
[17:14] 9 tn Heb “this is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who loot us.”
[24:16] 10 sn The identity of the subject is unclear. Apparently in vv. 15-16a an unidentified group responds to the praise they hear in the west by exhorting others to participate.
[24:16] 11 tn Heb “Beauty belongs to the just one.” These words may summarize the main theme of the songs mentioned in the preceding line.
[24:16] 12 sn The prophet seems to contradict what he hears the group saying. Their words are premature because more destruction is coming.
[24:16] 13 tn Heb “and [with] deception deceivers deceive.”
[24:2] 14 tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”
[24:2] 15 tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”
[24:2] 16 tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”
[24:2] 17 tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”
[24:2] 18 tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”
[24:2] 19 tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”
[18:1] 20 tn Heb “Woe [to] the land of buzzing wings.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
[18:2] 21 tn The precise meaning of the qualifying terms is uncertain. מְמֻשָּׁךְ (mÿmushakh) appears to be a Pual participle from the verb מָשַׁךְ (mashakh, “to draw, extend”). Lexicographers theorize that it here refers to people who “stretch out,” as it were, or are tall. See BDB 604 s.v. מָשַׁךְ, and HALOT 645-46 s.v. משׁךְ. מוֹרָט (morat) is taken as a Pual participle from מָרַט (marat), which can mean “to pull out [hair],” in the Qal, “become bald” in the Niphal, and “be wiped clean” in the Pual. Lexicographers theorize that the word here refers to people with bare, or smooth, skin. See BDB 598-99 s.v. מָרַט, and HALOT 634-35 s.v. מרט. These proposed meanings, which are based on etymological speculation, must be regarded as tentative.
[18:2] 22 tn Heb “from it and onwards.” HALOT 245 s.v. הָלְאָה suggests the translation “far and wide.”
[18:2] 23 tn Once more the precise meaning of the qualifying terms is uncertain. The expression קַו־קָו (qav-qav) is sometimes related to a proposed Arabic cognate and taken to mean “strength” (see BDB 876 II קַו). Others, on the basis of Isa 28:10, 13, understand the form as gibberish (literally, “kav, kav”) and take it to be a reference to this nation’s strange, unknown language. The form מְבוּסָה (mÿvusah) appears to be derived from בּוּס (bus, “to trample”), so lexicographers suggest the meaning “trampling” or “subjugation,” i.e., a nation that subdues others. See BDB 101 s.v. בּוּס and HALOT 541 s.v. מְבוּסָה. These proposals, which are based on etymological speculation, must be regarded as tentative.
[18:2] 24 tn The precise meaning of the verb בָּזָא (baza’), which occurs only in this oracle (see also v. 7) in the OT, is uncertain. BDB 102 s.v. suggests “divide” on the basis of alleged Aramaic and Arabic cognates; HALOT 117 s.v., citing an alleged Arabic cognate, suggests “wash away.”
[28:16] 25 tc The Hebrew text has a third person verb form, which does not agree with the first person suffix that precedes. The form should be emended to יֹסֵד (yosed), a Qal active participle used in a present progressive or imminent future sense.
[28:16] 26 tn Traditionally “tested,” but the implication is that it has passed the test and stands approved.
[28:16] 27 sn The reality behind the metaphor is not entirely clear from the context. The stone appears to represent someone or something that gives Zion stability. Perhaps the ideal Davidic ruler is in view (see 32:1). Another option is that the image of beginning a building project by laying a precious cornerstone suggests that God is about to transform Zion through judgment and begin a new covenant community that will experience his protection (see 4:3-6; 31:5; 33:20-24; 35:10).
[28:16] 28 tn Heb “will not hurry,” i.e., act in panic.
[28:17] 29 tn Heb “[the] refuge, [the] lie.” See v. 15.
[28:18] 30 tn On the meaning of כָּפַר (kafar) in this context, see HALOT 494 s.v. I כפר and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:515, n. 9.
[28:18] 31 tn Normally the noun חָזוּת (khazut) means “vision.” See the note at v. 15.
[28:18] 32 tn Or “will not stand” (NIV, NRSV).
[28:18] 33 tn See the note at v. 15.
[28:18] 34 tn Heb “you will become a trampling place for it.”
[28:19] 35 tn Or “for” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).
[28:19] 36 tn The words “it will come through” are supplied in the translation. The verb “will sweep by” does double duty in the parallel structure.
[28:20] 37 sn The bed and blanket probably symbolize their false sense of security. A bed that is too short and a blanket that is too narrow may promise rest and protection from the cold, but in the end they are useless and disappointing. In the same way, their supposed treaty with death will prove useless and disappointing.
[28:21] 38 sn This probably alludes to David’s victory over the Philistines at Baal Perazim. See 2 Sam 5:20.
[28:21] 39 sn This probably alludes to the Lord’s victory over the Canaanites at Gibeon, during the days of Joshua. See Josh 10:10-11.
[28:21] 40 sn God’s judgment of his own people is called “his peculiar work” and “his strange task,” because he must deal with them the way he treated their enemies in the past.
[2:5] 41 tn Heb “Indeed wine betrays a proud man and he does not dwell.” The meaning of the last verb, “dwell,” is uncertain. Many take it as a denominative of the noun נָוָה (navah, “dwelling place”). In this case it would carry the idea, “he does not settle down,” and would picture the drunkard as restless (cf. NIV “never at rest”; NASB “does not stay at home”). Some relate the verb to an Arabic cognate and translate the phrase as “he will not succeed, reach his goal.”
[2:5] 42 tn Heb “who opens wide like Sheol his throat.” Here נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is understood in a physical sense, meaning “throat,” which in turn is figurative for the appetite. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 11-12.
[2:5] 43 sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Prov 30:15-16; Isa 5:14; also see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 168.
[2:5] 44 tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”
[2:5] 45 tn Heb “he collects for himself.”
[2:6] 46 tn Heb “Will not these, all of them, take up a taunt against him…?” The rhetorical question assumes the response, “Yes, they will.” The present translation brings out the rhetorical force of the question by rendering it as an affirmation.
[2:6] 47 tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”
[2:6] 48 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who increases [what is] not his.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe,” “ah”) was used in funeral laments and carries the connotation of death.
[2:6] 49 tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.
[2:6] 50 tn Heb “and the one who makes himself heavy [i.e., wealthy] [by] debts.” Though only appearing in the first line, the term הוֹי (hoy) is to be understood as elliptical in the second line.
[2:7] 51 tn Heb “Will not your creditors suddenly rise up?” The rhetorical question assumes the response, “Yes, they will.” The present translation brings out the rhetorical force of the question by rendering it as an affirmation.
[2:7] 52 tn Heb “[Will not] the ones who make you tremble awake?”
[2:7] 53 tn Heb “and you will become their plunder.”
[2:8] 56 tn Heb “because of the shed blood of humankind and violence against land, city.” The singular forms אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) and קִרְיָה (qiryah, “city”) are collective, referring to all the lands and cities terrorized by the Babylonians.
