Isaiah 13:18

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ¹ 

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ² 

they will not ³  look with pity on children.

Isaiah 4:2

The Branch of the Lord

4:2 At that time ⁴ 

the crops given by the Lord will bring admiration and honor; ⁵ 

the produce of the land will be a source of pride and delight

to those who remain in Israel. ⁶ 

[13:18]  ¹ tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.

[13:18]  ² tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”

[13:18]  ³ tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[4:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the vegetation of the Lord will become beauty and honor.” Many English versions understand the phrase צֶמַח יְהוָה (tsemakh yÿhvah) as a messianic reference and render it, “the Branch of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT, and others). Though צֶמַח (tsemakh) is used by later prophets of a royal descendant (Jer 23;5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12), those passages contain clear contextual indicators that a human ruler is in view and that the word is being used in a metaphorical way of offspring. However, in Isa 4:2 there are no such contextual indicators. To the contrary, in the parallel structure of the verse צֶמַח יְהוָה corresponds to “produce of the land,” a phrase that refers elsewhere exclusively to literal agricultural produce (see Num 13:20, 26; Deut 1:25). In the majority of its uses צֶמַח refers to literal crops or vegetation (in Ps 65:10 the Lord is the source of this vegetation). A reference to the Lord restoring crops would make excellent sense in Isa 4 and the prophets frequently included this theme in their visions of the future age (see Isa 30:23-24; 32:20; Jer 31:12; Ezek 34:26-29; and Amos 9:13-14).

[4:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the fruit of the land will become pride and beauty for the remnant of Israel.”