Isaiah 17:11-14

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.

17:12 The many nations massing together are as good as dead, ³ 

those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. ⁴ 

The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, ⁵ 

those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. ⁶ 

17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ⁷ 

when he shouts at ⁸  them, they will flee to a distant land,

driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,

or like dead thistles ⁹  before a strong gale.

17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror; ¹⁰ 

by morning they vanish. ¹¹ 

This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,

the destiny of those who try to loot us! ¹² 

[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.”

[17:12]  ³ tn Heb “Woe [to] the massing of the many nations.” The word הוֹי (hoy) could be translated as a simple interjection here (“ah!”), but since the following verses announce the demise of these nations, it is preferable to take הוֹי as a funeral cry. See the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

[17:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “like the loud noise of the seas, they make a loud noise.”

[17:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “the uproar of the peoples.” The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse; the words “are as good as dead” are supplied in the translation to reflect this.

[17:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “like the uproar of mighty waters they are in an uproar.”

[17:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”

[17:13]  ⁸ tn Or “rebukes.” The verb and related noun are used in theophanies of God’s battle cry which terrifies his enemies. See, for example, Pss 18:15; 76:7; 106:9; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4, and A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.

[17:13]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”

[17:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “at the time of evening, look, sudden terror.”

[17:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “before morning he is not.”

[17:14]  ¹² tn Heb “this is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who loot us.”