Isaiah 11:7

11:7 A cow and a bear will graze together,

their young will lie down together. ¹ 

A lion, like an ox, will eat straw.

Isaiah 66:12

66:12 For this is what the Lord says:

“Look, I am ready to extend to her prosperity that will flow like a river,

the riches of nations will flow into her like a stream that floods its banks. ² 

You will nurse from her breast ³  and be carried at her side;

you will play on her knees.

Isaiah 14:15

14:15 But you were brought down ⁴  to Sheol,

to the remote slopes of the pit. ⁵ 

Isaiah 18:1

The Lord Will Judge a Distant Land in the South

18:1 The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead, ⁶ 

the one beyond the rivers of Cush,

Isaiah 38:15

38:15 What can I say?

He has decreed and acted. ⁷ 

I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ⁸ 

Isaiah 60:4

60:4 Look all around you! ⁹ 

They all gather and come to you –

your sons come from far away

and your daughters are escorted by guardians.

Isaiah 8:8

8:8 It will spill into Judah, flooding and engulfing, as it reaches to the necks of its victims. He will spread his wings out over your entire land, ¹⁰  O Immanuel.” ¹¹ 

Isaiah 14:13

14:13 You said to yourself, ¹² 

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El ¹³ 

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 29:3

29:3 I will lay siege to you on all sides; ¹⁵ 

I will besiege you with troops; ¹⁶ 

I will raise siege works against you.

Isaiah 54:15

54:15 If anyone dares to ¹⁷  challenge you, it will not be my doing!

Whoever tries to challenge you will be defeated. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 9:1

9:1 (8:23) ¹⁹  The gloom will be dispelled for those who were anxious. ²⁰ 

In earlier times he ²¹  humiliated

the land of Zebulun,

and the land of Naphtali; ²² 

but now he brings honor ²³ 

to the way of the sea,

the region beyond the Jordan,

and Galilee of the nations. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 30:20

30:20 The sovereign master ²⁵  will give you distress to eat

and suffering to drink; ²⁶ 

but your teachers will no longer be hidden;

your eyes will see them. ²⁷ 

Isaiah 50:9

50:9 Look, the sovereign Lord helps me.

Who dares to condemn me?

Look, all of them will wear out like clothes;

a moth will eat away at them.

Isaiah 7:20

7:20 At that time ²⁸  the sovereign master will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, ²⁹  the king of Assyria, to shave the head and the pubic hair; ³⁰  it will also shave off the beard.

Isaiah 38:14

38:14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,

I coo ³¹  like a dove;

my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. ³² 

O sovereign master, ³³  I am oppressed;

help me! ³⁴ 

Isaiah 37:24

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ³⁵ 

‘With my many chariots I climbed up

the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ³⁶ 

its thickest woods.

[11:7]  ¹ tn Heb “and a cow and a bear will graze – together – they will lie down, their young.” This is a case of pivot pattern; יַחְדָּו (yakhddav, “together”) goes with both the preceding and following statements.

[66:12]  ² tn Heb “Look, I am ready to extend to her like a river prosperity [or “peace”], and like an overflowing stream, the riches of nations.”

[66:12]  ³ tn The words “from her breast” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 11).

[14:15]  ³ tn The prefixed verb form is taken as a preterite. Note the use of perfects in v. 12 to describe the king’s downfall.

[14:15]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term בּוּר (bor, “cistern”) is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to the place of the dead or the entrance to the underworld.

[18:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe [to] the land of buzzing wings.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

[38:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”

[38:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”

[60:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see!”

[8:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the spreading out of his wings [will be over] the fullness of the breadth of your land.” The metaphor changes here from raging flood to predatory bird.

[8:8]  ⁸ sn The appearance of the name Immanuel (“God is with us”) is ironic at this point, for God is present with his people in judgment. Immanuel is addressed here as if he has already been born and will see the judgment occur. This makes excellent sense if his birth has just been recorded. There are several reasons for considering Immanuel and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz one and the same. 8:3 is a birth account which could easily be understood as recording the fulfillment of the birth prophecy of 7:14. The presence of a formal record/witnesses (8:1-2) suggests a sign function for the child (cf. 7:14). As in 7:14-16, the removal of Judah’s enemies would take place before the child reached a specified age (cf. 8:4). Both 7:17-25 and 8:7-8 speak of an Assyrian invasion of Judah which would follow the defeat of Israel/Syria. The major objection to this view is the fact that different names appear, but such a phenomenon is not without parallel in the OT (cf. Gen 35:18). The name Immanuel may emphasize the basic fact of God’s presence, while the name Maher focuses on the specific nature of God’s involvement. In 7:14 the mother is viewed as naming the child, while in 8:3 Isaiah is instructed to give the child’s name, but one might again point to Gen 35:18 for a precedent. The sign child’s age appears to be different in 8:4 than in 7:15-16, but 7:15-16 pertains to the judgment on Judah, as well as the defeat of Israel/Syria (cf. vv. 17-25), while 8:4 deals only with the downfall of Israel/Syria. Some argue that the suffixed form “your land” in 8:8 points to a royal referent (a child of Ahaz or the Messiah), but usage elsewhere shows that the phrase does not need to be so restricted. While the suffix can refer to the king of a land (cf. Num 20:17; 21:22; Deut 2:27; Judg 11:17, 19; 2 Sam 24:13; 1 Kgs 11:22; Isa 14:20), it can also refer to one who is a native of a particular land (cf. Gen 12:1; 32:9; Jonah 1:8). (See also the use of “his land” in Isa 13:14 [where the suffix refers to a native of a land] and 37:7 [where it refers to a king].)

[14:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”

[14:13]  ⁹ sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.

[14:13]  ¹⁰ sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.

[29:3]  ⁹ tc The Hebrew text has כַדּוּר (khadur, “like a circle”), i.e., “like an encircling wall.” Some emend this phrase to כְּדָוִד (kÿdavid, “like David”), which is supported by the LXX (see v. 1). However, the rendering in the LXX could have arisen from a confusion of the dalet (ד) and resh (ר).

[29:3]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of מֻצָּב (mutsav) is not certain. Because of the parallelism (note “siege works”), some translate “towers.” The noun is derived from נָצַב (natsav, “take one’s stand”) and may refer to the troops stationed outside the city to prevent entrance or departure.

[54:15]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb here for emphasis.

[54:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will fall over you.” The expression נָפַל עַל (nafal ’al) can mean “attack,” but here it means “fall over to,” i.e., “surrender to.”

[9:1]  ¹¹ sn In the Hebrew text (BHS) the chapter division comes one verse later than in the English Bible; 9:1 (8:23 HT). Thus 9:2-21 in the English Bible = 9:1-20 in the Hebrew text. Beginning with 10:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.

[9:1]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text reads, “Indeed there is no gloom for the one to whom there was anxiety for her.” The feminine singular pronominal suffix “her” must refer to the land (cf. vv. 22a, 23b). So one could translate, “Indeed there will be no gloom for the land which was anxious.” In this case the statement introduces the positive message to follow. Some assume an emendation of לֹא (lo’, “no”) to לוֹ (lo, “to him”) and of לָהּ (lah, “to her”) to לוֹ (lo, “to him”), yielding this literal reading: “indeed there is gloom for him, for the one to whom there was anxiety for him.” In this case the statement concludes the preceding description of judgment.

[9:1]  ¹³ tn The Lord must be understood as the subject of the two verbs in this verse.

[9:1]  ¹⁴ sn The statement probably alludes to the Assyrian conquest of Israel in ca. 734-733 b.c., when Tiglath-pileser III annexed much of Israel’s territory and reduced Samaria to a puppet state.

[9:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb Just as in earlier times he humiliated…, [in] the latter times he has brought honor.” The main verbs in vv. 1b-4 are Hebrew perfects. The prophet takes his rhetorical stance in the future age of restoration and describes future events as if they have already occurred. To capture the dramatic effect of the original text, the translation uses the English present or present perfect.

[9:1]  ¹⁶ sn These three geographical designations may refer to provinces established by the Assyrians in 734-733 b.c. The “way of the sea” is the province of Dor, along the Mediterranean coast, the “region beyond the Jordan” is the province of Gilead in Transjordan, and “Galilee of the nations” (a title that alludes to how the territory had been overrun by foreigners) is the province of Megiddo located west of the Sea of Galilee. See Y. Aharoni, Land of the Bible, 374.

[30:20]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[30:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the Master will give to you bread – distress, and water – oppression.”

[30:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “but your teachers will no longer be hidden, your eyes will be seeing your teachers.” The translation assumes that the form מוֹרֶיךָ (morekha) is a plural participle, referring to spiritual leaders such as prophets and priests. Another possibility is that the form is actually singular (see GKC 273-74 §93.ss) or a plural of respect, referring to God as the master teacher. See HALOT 560-61 s.v. III מוֹרֶה. For discussion of the views, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:560.

[7:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB); KJV “In the same day.”

[7:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the river” (so KJV); NASB “the Euphrates.” The name of the river has been supplied in the present translation for clarity.

[7:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the hair of the feet.” The translation assumes that the word “feet” is used here as a euphemism for the genitals. See BDB 920 s.v. רֶגֶל.

[38:14]  ¹⁴ tn Or “moan” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); KJV, CEV “mourn.”

[38:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my eyes become weak, toward the height.”

[38:14]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[38:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “stand surety for me.” Hezekiah seems to be picturing himself as a debtor who is being exploited; he asks that the Lord might relieve his debt and deliver him from the oppressive creditor.

[37:24]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”