Isaiah 17:10

17:10 For you ignore ¹  the God who rescues you;

you pay no attention to your strong protector. ² 

So this is what happens:

You cultivate beautiful plants

and plant exotic vines. ³ 

Isaiah 25:2

25:2 Indeed, ⁴  you have made the city ⁵  into a heap of rubble,

the fortified town into a heap of ruins;

the fortress of foreigners ⁶  is no longer a city,

it will never be rebuilt.

Isaiah 28:21

28:21 For the Lord will rise up, as he did at Mount Perazim, ⁷ 

he will rouse himself, as he did in the Valley of Gibeon, ⁸ 

to accomplish his work,

his peculiar work,

to perform his task,

his strange task. ⁹ 

Isaiah 43:12

43:12 I decreed and delivered and proclaimed,

and there was no other god among you.

You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I am God.

[17:10]  ¹ tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[17:10]  ² tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”

[17:10]  ³ tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.

[25:2]  ⁴ tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[25:2]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text has “you have made from the city.” The prefixed mem (מ) on עִיר (’ir, “city”) was probably originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:456, n. 3.

[25:2]  ⁶ tc Some with support from the LXX emend זָרִים (zarim, “foreigners”) to זֵדִים (zedim, “the insolent”).

[28:21]  ⁷ sn This probably alludes to David’s victory over the Philistines at Baal Perazim. See 2 Sam 5:20.

[28:21]  ⁸ sn This probably alludes to the Lord’s victory over the Canaanites at Gibeon, during the days of Joshua. See Josh 10:10-11.

[28:21]  ⁹ sn God’s judgment of his own people is called “his peculiar work” and “his strange task,” because he must deal with them the way he treated their enemies in the past.