Isaiah 17:11

17:11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; ¹ 

the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.

Yet the harvest will disappear ²  in the day of disease

and incurable pain.

Isaiah 43:5

43:5 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.

From the east I will bring your descendants;

from the west I will gather you.

Isaiah 48:19

48:19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, ³ 

and your children ⁴  like its granules.

Their name would not have been cut off

and eliminated from my presence. ⁵ 

[17:11]  ¹ tn Heb “in the day of your planting you [?].” The precise meaning of the verb תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי (tÿsagsegi) is unclear. It is sometimes derived from שׂוּג/סוּג (sug, “to fence in”; see BDB 691 s.v. II סוּג). In this case one could translate “you build a protective fence.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one derives the form from שָׂגָא/שָׂגָה (saga’/sagah, “to grow”); see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:351, n. 4. For this verb, see BDB 960 s.v. שָׂגָא.

[17:11]  ² tc The Hebrew text has, “a heap of harvest.” However, better sense is achieved if נֵד (ned, “heap”) is emended to a verb. Options include נַד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד [nadad, “flee, depart”]), נָדַד (Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד), נֹדֵד (noded, Qal active participle from נָדַד), and נָד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular, or participle masculine singular, from נוּד [nud, “wander, flutter”]). See BDB 626 s.v. נוּד and HALOT 672 s.v. I נדד. One could translate literally: “[the harvest] departs,” or “[the harvest] flies away.”

[48:19]  ³ tn Heb “like sand”; NCV “as many as the grains of sand.”

[48:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the issue from your inner parts.”

[48:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”