Isaiah 14:4

14:4 you will taunt the king of Babylon with these words: ¹ 

“Look how the oppressor has met his end!

Hostility ²  has ceased!

Isaiah 30:7

30:7 Egypt is totally incapable of helping. ³ 

For this reason I call her

‘Proud one ⁴  who is silenced.’” ⁵ 

Isaiah 33:8

33:8 Highways are empty, ⁶ 

there are no travelers. ⁷ 

Treaties are broken, ⁸ 

witnesses are despised, ⁹ 

human life is treated with disrespect. ¹⁰ 

[14:4]  ¹ tn Heb “you will lift up this taunt over the king of Babylon, saying.”

[14:4]  ² tc The word in the Hebrew text (מַדְהֵבָה, madhevah) is unattested elsewhere and of uncertain meaning. Many (following the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a) assume a dalet-resh (ד-ר) confusion and emend the form to מַרְהֵבָה (marhevah, “onslaught”). See HALOT 548 s.v. II *מִדָּה and HALOT 633 s.v. *מַרְהֵבָה.

[30:7]  ³ tn Heb “As for Egypt, with vanity and emptiness they help.”

[30:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “Rahab” (רַהַב, rahav), which also appears as a name for Egypt in Ps 87:4. The epithet is also used in the OT for a mythical sea monster symbolic of chaos. See the note at 51:9. A number of English versions use the name “Rahab” (e.g., ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) while others attempt some sort of translation (cf. CEV “a helpless monster”; TEV, NLT “the Harmless Dragon”).

[30:7]  ⁵ tn The MT reads “Rahab, they, sitting.” The translation above assumes an emendation of הֵם שָׁבֶת (hem shavet) to הַמָּשְׁבָּת (hammashbat), a Hophal participle with prefixed definite article, meaning “the one who is made to cease,” i.e., “destroyed,” or “silenced.” See HALOT 444-45 s.v. ישׁב.

[33:8]  ⁵ tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”

[33:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”

[33:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”

[33:8]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.

[33:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”