Isaiah 14:13

14:13 You said to yourself, ¹ 

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El ² 

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ³ 

Isaiah 14:19

14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave

like a shoot that is thrown away. ⁴ 

You lie among ⁵  the slain,

among those who have been slashed by the sword,

among those headed for ⁶  the stones of the pit, ⁷ 

as if you were a mangled corpse. ⁸ 

Isaiah 33:1

The Lord Will Restore Zion

33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead, ⁹ 

you who have not been destroyed!

The deceitful one is as good as dead, ¹⁰ 

the one whom others have not deceived!

When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you finish ¹¹  deceiving, others will deceive you!

Isaiah 38:17

38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ¹² 

You delivered me ¹³  from the pit of oblivion. ¹⁴ 

For you removed all my sins from your sight. ¹⁵ 

[14:13]  ¹ tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”

[14:13]  ² sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.

[14:13]  ³ sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.

[14:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “like a shoot that is abhorred.” The simile seems a bit odd; apparently it refers to a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away. Some prefer to emend נֵצֶר (netser, “shoot”); some propose נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”). In this case one might paraphrase: “like a horrible-looking fetus that is delivered when a woman miscarries.”

[14:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “are clothed with.”

[14:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “those going down to.”

[14:19]  ⁷ tn בּוֹר (bor) literally means “cistern”; cisterns were constructed from stones. On the metaphorical use of “cistern” for the underworld, see the note at v. 15.

[14:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “like a trampled corpse.” Some take this line with what follows.

[33:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”

[33:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.

[33:1]  ⁹ tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”

[38:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”

[38:17]  ¹¹ tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).

[38:17]  ¹² tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”

[38:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”