Isaiah 14:29

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

just because the club that beat you has been broken! ¹ 

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

and its fruit will be a darting adder. ² 

Isaiah 17:3

17:3 Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim,

and Damascus will lose its kingdom. ³ 

The survivors in Syria

will end up like the splendor of the Israelites,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 27:12

27:12 At that time ⁴  the Lord will shake the tree, ⁵  from the Euphrates River ⁶  to the Stream of Egypt. Then you will be gathered up one by one, O Israelites. ⁷ 

Isaiah 49:18

49:18 Look all around you! ⁸ 

All of them gather to you.

As surely as I live,” says the Lord,

“you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry;

you will put them on as if you were a bride.

Isaiah 49:25

49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,

“captives will be taken from a warrior;

spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.

I will oppose your adversary

and I will rescue your children.

Isaiah 58:12

58:12 Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; ⁹ 

you will reestablish the ancient foundations.

You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls,

the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ ¹⁰ 

[14:29]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.

[17:3]  ³ tn Heb “and kingship from Damascus”; cf. NASB “And sovereignty from Damascus.”

[27:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[27:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord will beat out.” The verb is used of beating seeds or grain to separate the husk from the kernel (see Judg 6:11; Ruth 2:17; Isa 28:27), and of beating the olives off the olive tree (Deut 24:20). The latter metaphor may be in view here, where a tree metaphor has been employed in the preceding verses. See also 17:6.

[27:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “the river,” a frequent designation in the OT for the Euphrates. For clarity most modern English versions substitute the name “Euphrates” for “the river” here.

[27:12]  ⁸ sn The Israelites will be freed from exile (likened to beating the olives off the tree) and then gathered (likened to collecting the olives).

[49:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”

[58:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they will build from you ancient ruins.”

[58:12]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text has “the one who restores paths for dwelling.” The idea of “paths to dwell in” is not a common notion. Some have proposed emending נְתִיבוֹת (nÿtivot, “paths”) to נְתִיצוֹת (nÿtitsot, “ruins”), a passive participle from נָתַץ (natats, “tear down”; see HALOT 732 s.v. *נְתִיצָה), because tighter parallelism with the preceding line is achieved. However, none of the textual sources support this emendation. The line may mean that paths must be repaired in order to dwell in the land.