Isaiah 16:4

16:4 Please let the Moabite fugitives live ¹  among you.

Hide them ²  from the destroyer!”

Certainly ³  the one who applies pressure will cease, ⁴ 

the destroyer will come to an end,

those who trample will disappear ⁵  from the earth.

Isaiah 43:2

43:2 When you pass through the waters, I am with you;

when you pass ⁶  through the streams, they will not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;

the flames will not harm ⁷  you.

Isaiah 47:14

47:14 Look, they are like straw,

which the fire burns up;

they cannot rescue themselves

from the heat ⁸  of the flames.

There are no coals to warm them,

no firelight to enjoy. ⁹ 

[16:4]  ¹ tn That is, “live as resident foreigners.”

[16:4]  ² tn Heb “Be a hiding place for them.”

[16:4]  ³ tn The present translation understands כִּי (ki) as asseverative, but one could take it as explanatory (“for,” KJV, NASB) or temporal (“when,” NAB, NRSV). In the latter case, v. 4b would be logically connected to v. 5.

[16:4]  ⁴ tn A perfect verbal form is used here and in the next two lines for rhetorical effect; the demise of the oppressor(s) is described as if it had already occurred.

[16:4]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text has, “they will be finished, the one who tramples, from the earth.” The plural verb form תַּמּוּ, (tammu, “disappear”) could be emended to agree with the singular subject רֹמֵס (romes, “the one who tramples”) or the participle can be emended to a plural (רֹמֵסִם, romesim) to agree with the verb. The translation assumes the latter. Haplography of mem (ם) seems likely; note that the word after רֹמֵס begins with a mem.

[43:2]  ⁶ tn The verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[43:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “burn” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV, NLT “consume”; NIV “set you ablaze.”

[47:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.

[47:14]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “there is no coal [for?] their food, light to sit before it.” Some emend לַחְמָם (lakhmam, “their food”) to לְחֻמָּם (lÿkhummam, “to warm them”; see HALOT 328 s.v. חמם). This statement may allude to Isa 44:16, where idolaters are depicted warming themselves over a fire made from wood, part of which was used to form idols. The fire of divine judgment will be no such campfire; its flames will devour and destroy.