Discovery BoxIsaiah 14:13
Context“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 37:16
Context37:16 “O Lord who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim! 4 You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky 5 and the earth.
Isaiah 38:14
Context38:14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,
I coo 6 like a dove;
my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. 7
O sovereign master, 8 I am oppressed;
help me! 9
Isaiah 40:12
Context40:12 Who has measured out the waters 10 in the hollow of his hand,
or carefully 11 measured the sky, 12
or carefully weighed 13 the soil of the earth,
or weighed the mountains in a balance,
or the hills on scales? 14
Isaiah 40:22
Context40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; 15
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. 16
He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, 17
and spreads it out 18 like a pitched tent. 19
Isaiah 42:5
Context42:5 This is what the true God, 20 the Lord, says –
the one who created the sky and stretched it out,
the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, 21
the one who gives breath to the people on it,
and life to those who live on it: 22
Isaiah 44:23-24
Context44:23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; 23
shout out, you subterranean regions 24 of the earth.
O mountains, give a joyful shout;
you too, O forest and all your trees! 25
For the Lord protects 26 Jacob;
he reveals his splendor through Israel. 27
44:24 This is what the Lord, your protector, 28 says,
the one who formed you in the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made everything,
who alone stretched out the sky,
who fashioned the earth all by myself, 29
Isaiah 47:13
Context47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice. 30
Let them take their stand –
the ones who see omens in the sky,
who gaze at the stars,
who make monthly predictions –
let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! 31
Isaiah 51:16
Context51:16 I commission you 32 as my spokesman; 33
I cover you with the palm of my hand, 34
to establish 35 the sky and to found the earth,
to say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” 36
Isaiah 55:10
Context55:10 37 The rain and snow fall from the sky
and do not return,
but instead water the earth
and make it produce and yield crops,
and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.
[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.
[37:16] 4 sn Cherubim (singular “cherub”) refers to the images of winged angelic creatures that were above the ark of the covenant.
[37:16] 5 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
[38:14] 7 tn Or “moan” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); KJV, CEV “mourn.”
[38:14] 8 tn Heb “my eyes become weak, toward the height.”
[38:14] 9 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
[38:14] 10 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.
[40:12] 10 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.
[40:12] 11 tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).
[40:12] 12 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
[40:12] 13 tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”
[40:12] 14 sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is “no one but the Lord. The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.
[40:22] 13 tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[40:22] 14 tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[40:22] 15 tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).
[40:22] 16 tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.
[40:22] 17 tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”
[42:5] 16 tn Heb “the God.” The definite article here indicates distinctiveness or uniqueness.
[42:5] 17 tn Heb “and its offspring” (so NASB); NIV “all that comes out of it.”
[42:5] 18 tn Heb “and spirit [i.e., “breath”] to the ones walking in it” (NAB, NASB, and NRSV all similar).
[44:23] 19 tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”
[44:23] 20 tn Heb “lower regions.” This refers to Sheol and forms a merism with “sky” in the previous line. See Pss 63:9; 71:20.
[44:23] 21 tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”
[44:23] 22 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
[44:23] 23 tn That is, by delivering Israel. Cf. NCV “showed his glory when he saved Israel”; TEV “has shown his greatness by saving his people Israel.”
[44:24] 22 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
[44:24] 23 tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “Who [was] with me?” The marginal reading (Qere) is “from with me,” i.e., “by myself.” See BDB 87 s.v. II אֵת 4.c.
[47:13] 25 tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”
[47:13] 26 tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months – from those things which are coming upon you.”
[51:16] 28 tn The addressee (second masculine singular, as in vv. 13, 15) in this verse is unclear. The exiles are addressed in the immediately preceding verses (note the critical tone of vv. 12-13 and the reference to the exiles in v. 14). However, it seems unlikely that they are addressed in v. 16, for the addressee appears to be commissioned to tell Zion, who here represents the restored exiles, “you are my people.” The addressee is distinct from the exiles. The language of v. 16a is reminiscent of 49:2 and 50:4, where the Lord’s special servant says he is God’s spokesman and effective instrument. Perhaps the Lord, having spoken to the exiles in vv. 1-15, now responds to this servant, who spoke just prior to this in 50:4-11.
[51:16] 29 tn Heb “I place my words in your mouth.”
[51:16] 30 tn Heb “with the shadow of my hand.”
[51:16] 31 tc The Hebrew text has לִנְטֹעַ (lintoa’, “to plant”). Several scholars prefer to emend this form to לִנְטֹת (lintot) from נָטָה (natah, “to stretch out”); see v. 13, as well as 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; cf. NAB, NCV, NRSV. However, since the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa, LXX (and Aquila and Symmachus), and Vulgate support the MT reading, there is no need to emend the form. The interpretation is clear enough: Yahweh fixed the sky in its place.
[51:16] 32 tn The infinitives in v. 16b are most naturally understood as indicating the purpose of the divine actions described in v. 16a. The relationship of the third infinitive to the commission is clear enough – the Lord has made the addressee (his special servant?) his spokesman so that the latter might speak encouraging words to those in Zion. But how do the first two infinitives relate? The text seems to indicate that the Lord has commissioned the addressee so that the latter might create the universe! Perhaps creation imagery is employed metaphorically here to refer to the transformation that Jerusalem will experience (see 65:17-18).
[55:10] 31 tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.
