Isaiah 19:12

19:12 But where, oh where, are your wise men? ¹ 

Let them tell you, let them find out

what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.

Isaiah 29:14

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed. ² 

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.” ³ 

Isaiah 31:2

31:2 Yet he too is wise ⁴  and he will bring disaster;

he does not retract his decree. ⁵ 

He will attack the wicked nation, ⁶ 

and the nation that helps ⁷  those who commit sin. ⁸ 

Isaiah 40:20

40:20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; ⁹ 

he then seeks a skilled craftsman

to make ¹⁰  an idol that will not fall over.

[19:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Where are they? Where are your wise men?” The juxtaposition of the interrogative pronouns is emphatic. See HALOT 38 s.v. אֶי.

[29:14]  ² tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.

[29:14]  ³ tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”

[31:2]  ³ sn This statement appears to have a sarcastic tone. The royal advisers who are advocating an alliance with Egypt think they are wise, but the Lord possesses wisdom as well and will thwart their efforts.

[31:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he does not turn aside [i.e., “retract”] his words”; NIV “does not take back his words.”

[31:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he will arise against the house of the wicked.”

[31:2]  ⁶ sn That is, Egypt.

[31:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and against the help of the doers of sin.”

[40:20]  ⁴ tn The first two words of the verse (הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה, hamsukan tÿrumah) are problematic. Some take מְסֻכָּן as an otherwise unattested Pual participle from סָכַן (sakhan, “be poor”) and translate “the one who is impoverished.” תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah, “contribution”) can then be taken as an adverbial accusative, “with respect to a contribution,” and the entire line translated, “the one who is too impoverished for such a contribution [i.e., the metal idol of v. 19?] selects wood that will not rot.” However, מְסֻכָּן is probably the name of a tree used in idol manufacturing (cognate with Akkadian musukkanu, cf. H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 133). מְסֻכָּן may be a scribal interpretive addition attempting to specify עֵץ (’ets) or עֵץ may be a scribal attempt to categorize מְסֻכָּן. How an idol constitutes a תְּרוּמָה (“contribution”) is not entirely clear.

[40:20]  ⁵ tn Or “set up” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NASB “to prepare.”