Isaiah 13:8

13:8 They panic –

cramps and pain seize hold of them

like those of a woman who is straining to give birth.

They look at one another in astonishment;

their faces are flushed red. ¹ 

Isaiah 53:3

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ² 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ³ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ⁴ 

Isaiah 3:15

3:15 Why do you crush my people

and grind the faces of the poor?” ⁵ 

The sovereign Lord who commands armies ⁶  has spoken.

Isaiah 25:8

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ⁷ 

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ⁸ 

Isaiah 3:9

3:9 The look on their faces ⁹  testifies to their guilt; ¹⁰ 

like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. ¹¹ 

Too bad for them! ¹² 

For they bring disaster on themselves.

Isaiah 49:23

49:23 Kings will be your children’s ¹³  guardians;

their princesses will nurse your children. ¹⁴ 

With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you

and they will lick the dirt on ¹⁵  your feet.

Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;

those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.

Isaiah 6:2

6:2 Seraphs ¹⁶  stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, ¹⁷  and they used the remaining two to fly.

Isaiah 29:22

29:22 So this is what the Lord, the one who delivered Abraham, says to the family of Jacob: ¹⁸ 

“Jacob will no longer be ashamed;

their faces will no longer show their embarrassment. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 8:21

8:21 They will pass through the land ²⁰  destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, ²¹  and they will curse their king and their God ²²  as they look upward.

Isaiah 46:6

46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse

and weigh out silver on the scale ²³ 

hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.

They then bow down and worship it.

Isaiah 57:4

57:4 At whom are you laughing?

At whom are you opening your mouth

and sticking out your tongue?

You are the children of rebels,

the offspring of liars, ²⁴ 

Isaiah 60:14

60:14 The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you;

all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet.

They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord,

Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ ²⁵ 

Isaiah 45:14

The Lord is the Nations’ Only Hope

45:14 This is what the Lord says:

“The profit ²⁶  of Egypt and the revenue ²⁷  of Ethiopia,

along with the Sabeans, those tall men,

will be brought to you ²⁸  and become yours.

They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. ²⁹ 

They will bow down to you

and pray to you: ³⁰ 

‘Truly God is with ³¹  you; he has no peer; ³² 

there is no other God!’”

[13:8]  ¹ tn Heb “their faces are faces of flames.” Their faces are flushed with fear and embarrassment.

[53:3]  ² tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ³ tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ⁴ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[3:15]  ³ sn The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s outrage at what the leaders have done to the poor. He finds it almost unbelievable that they would have the audacity to treat his people in this manner.

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at 1:9.

[25:8]  ⁴ sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

[25:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[3:9]  ⁵ sn This refers to their proud, arrogant demeanor.

[3:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “answers against them”; NRSV “bears witness against them.”

[3:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “their sin, like Sodom, they declare, they do not conceal [it].”

[3:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “woe to their soul.”

[49:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).

[49:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.

[49:23]  ⁸ tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”

[6:2]  ⁷ tn Hebrew שָׂרָף (saraf, “seraph”) literally means “burning one,” perhaps suggesting that these creatures had a fiery appearance (cf. TEV, CEV “flaming creatures”; NCV “heavenly creatures of fire”). Elsewhere in the OT the word “seraph” refers to poisonous snakes (Num 21:6; Deut 8:15; Isa 14:29; 30:6). Perhaps they were called “burning ones” because of their appearance or the effect of their venomous bites, which would cause a victim to burn up with fever. It is possible that the seraphs seen by Isaiah were at least partially serpentine in appearance. Though it might seem strange for a snake-like creature to have wings, two of the texts where “seraphs” are snakes describe them as “flying” (Isa 14:29; 30:6), perhaps referring to their darting movements. See the note at 14:29.

[6:2]  ⁸ sn Some understand “feet” here as a euphemistic reference to the genitals.

[29:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “So this is what the Lord says to the house of Jacob, the one who ransomed Abraham.” The relative pronoun must refer back to “the Lord,” not to the immediately preceding “Jacob.” It is uncertain to what event in Abraham’s experience this refers. Perhaps the name “Abraham” stands here by metonymy for his descendants through Jacob. If so, the Exodus is in view.

[29:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “and his face will no longer be pale.”

[8:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “he will pass through it.” The subject of the collective singular verb is the nation. (See the preceding note.) The immediately preceding context supplies no antecedent for “it” (a third feminine singular suffix in the Hebrew text); the suffix may refer to the land, which would be a reasonable referent with a verb of motion. Note also that אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) does appear at the beginning of the next verse.

[8:21]  ¹⁰ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[8:21]  ¹¹ tn Or “gods” (NAB, NRSV, CEV).

[46:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.

[57:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Are you not children of rebellion, offspring of a lie?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course you are!”

[60:14]  ¹² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[45:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “labor,” which stands metonymically for the fruits of labor, either “monetary profit,” or “products.”

[45:14]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps, “merchandise” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “the gain of Ethiopia”; CEV “the treasures of Ethiopia.”

[45:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they will pass over to you”; NASB, NIV “will come over to you”; CEV “will belong to you.”

[45:14]  ¹⁶ sn Restored Israel is depicted here in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion as an imperial power that receives riches and slaves as tribute.

[45:14]  ¹⁷ sn Israel’s vassals are portrayed as so intimidated and awed that they treat Israel as an intermediary to God or sub-deity.

[45:14]  ¹⁸ tn Or perhaps, “among.” Cf. KJV, ASV “Surely God is in thee.”

[45:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “there is no other” (so NIV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs at the end of v. 18, in v. 21, and at the end of v. 22.