Isaiah 14:25

14:25 I will break Assyria ¹  in my land,

I will trample them ²  underfoot on my hills.

Their yoke will be removed from my people,

the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. ³ 

Isaiah 14:29

14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,

just because the club that beat you has been broken! ⁴ 

For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,

and its fruit will be a darting adder. ⁵ 

Isaiah 21:9

21:9 Look what’s coming!

A charioteer,

a team of horses.” ⁶ 

When questioned, he replies, ⁷ 

“Babylon has fallen, fallen!

All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

Isaiah 30:14

30:14 It shatters in pieces like a clay jar,

so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. ⁸ 

Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough ⁹ 

to scoop a hot coal from a fire ¹⁰ 

or to skim off water from a cistern.” ¹¹ 

[14:25]  ¹ tn Heb “to break Assyria.”

[14:25]  ² tn Heb “him.” This is a collective singular referring to the nation, or a reference to the king of Assyria who by metonymy stands for the entire nation.

[14:25]  ³ tn Heb “and his [i.e., Assyria’s] yoke will be removed from them [the people?], and his [Assyria’s] burden from his [the nation’s?] shoulder will be removed.” There are no antecedents in this oracle for the suffixes in the phrases “from them” and “from his shoulder.” Since the Lord’s land and hills are referred to in the preceding line and the statement seems to echo 10:27, it is likely that God’s people are the referents of the suffixes; the translation uses “my people” to indicate this.

[14:29]  ⁴ sn The identity of this “club” (also referred to as a “serpent” in the next line) is uncertain. It may refer to an Assyrian king, or to Ahaz. For discussion see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:331-32. The viper/adder referred to in the second half of the verse is his successor.

[14:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “flying burning one.” The designation “burning one” may allude to the serpent’s appearance or the effect of its poisonous bite. (See the note at 6:2.) The qualifier “flying” probably refers to the serpent’s quick, darting movements, though one might propose a homonym here, meaning “biting.” (See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:332, n. 18.) Some might think in terms of a mythological flying, fire breathing dragon (cf. NAB “a flying saraph”; CEV “a flying fiery dragon”), but this proposal does not make good sense in 30:6, where the phrase “flying burning one” appears again in a list of desert animals.

[21:9]  ⁷ tn Or “[with] teams of horses,” or perhaps, “with a pair of horsemen.”

[21:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he answered and said” (so KJV, ASV).

[30:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Its shattering is like the shattering of a jug of [i.e., “made by”] potters, [so] shattered one cannot save [any of it].”

[30:14]  ¹¹ tn The words “large enough” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:14]  ¹² tn Heb “to remove fire from the place of kindling.”

[30:14]  ¹³ tn On the meaning of גֶבֶא (geveh, “cistern”) see HALOT 170 s.v.