Isaiah 14:19-22

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

like a shoot that is thrown away. ¹ 

You lie among ²  the slain,

among those who have been slashed by the sword,

among those headed for ³  the stones of the pit, ⁴ 

as if you were a mangled corpse. ⁵ 

14:20 You will not be buried with them, ⁶ 

because you destroyed your land

and killed your people.

The offspring of the wicked

will never be mentioned again.

14:21 Prepare to execute ⁷  his sons

for the sins their ancestors have committed. ⁸ 

They must not rise up and take possession of the earth,

or fill the surface of the world with cities.” ⁹ 

14:22 “I will rise up against them,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

“I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people, ¹⁰ 

including the offspring she produces,” ¹¹ 

says the Lord.

Psalms 9:6

9:6 The enemy’s cities have been reduced to permanent ruins; ¹² 

you destroyed their cities; ¹³ 

all memory of the enemies has perished. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 109:13

109:13 May his descendants ¹⁵  be cut off! ¹⁶ 

May the memory of them be wiped out by the time the next generation arrives! ¹⁷ 

Proverbs 10:7

10:7 The memory ¹⁸  of the righteous is a blessing,

but the reputation ¹⁹  of the wicked will rot. ²⁰ 

[14:19]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “are clothed with.”

[14:19]  ³ tn Heb “those going down to.”

[14:19]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “like a trampled corpse.” Some take this line with what follows.

[14:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will not be united with them in burial” (so NASB).

[14:21]  ⁷ tn Or “the place of slaughter for.”

[14:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “for the sin of their fathers.”

[14:21]  ⁹ sn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:320, n. 10) suggests that the garrison cities of the mighty empire are in view here.

[14:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant” (ASV, NAB, and NRSV all similar).

[14:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “descendant and child.”

[9:6]  ¹² tn Heb “the enemy – they have come to an end [in] ruins permanently.” The singular form אוֹיֵב (’oyev, “enemy”) is collective. It is placed at the beginning of the verse to heighten the contrast with יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) in v. 7.

[9:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “you uprooted cities.”

[9:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it has perished, their remembrance, they.” The independent pronoun at the end of the line is in apposition to the preceding pronominal suffix and lends emphasis (see IBHS 299 §16.3.4). The referent of the masculine pronoun is the nations/enemies (cf. v. 5), not the cities (the Hebrew noun עָרִים [’arim, “cities”] is grammatically feminine). This has been specified in the present translation for clarity; many modern translations retain the pronoun “them,” resulting in ambiguity (cf. NRSV “their cities you have rooted out; the very memory of them has perished”).

[109:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “offspring.”

[109:13]  ¹⁶ sn On the expression cut off see Ps 37:28.

[109:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in another generation may their name be wiped out.”

[10:7]  ¹⁸ sn “Memory” (זֵכֶר, zekher) and “name” are often paired as synonyms. “Memory” in this sense has to do with reputation, fame. One’s reputation will be good or bad by righteousness or wickedness respectively.

[10:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “name.” The term “name” often functions as a metonymy of association for reputation (BDB 1028 s.v. שֵׁם 2.b).

[10:7]  ²⁰ tn The editors of BHS suggest a reading “will be cursed” to make a better parallelism, but the reading of the MT is more striking as a metaphor.