Isaiah 2:13

2:13 for all the cedars of Lebanon,

that are so high and mighty,

for all the oaks of Bashan; ¹ 

Isaiah 21:4

21:4 My heart palpitates, ² 

I shake in fear; ³ 

the twilight I desired

has brought me terror.

Isaiah 22:8

22:8 They ⁴  removed the defenses ⁵  of Judah.

At that time ⁶  you looked

for the weapons in the House of the Forest. ⁷ 

Isaiah 24:5

24:5 The earth is defiled by ⁸  its inhabitants, ⁹ 

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation, ¹⁰ 

and broken the permanent treaty. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 26:7

God’s People Anticipate Vindication

26:7 ¹² The way of the righteous is level,

the path of the righteous that you make is straight. ¹³ 

Isaiah 26:12

26:12 O Lord, you make us secure, ¹⁴ 

for even all we have accomplished, you have done for us. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 29:1-2

Ariel is Besieged

29:1 Ariel is as good as dead ¹⁶  –

Ariel, the town David besieged! ¹⁷ 

Keep observing your annual rituals,

celebrate your festivals on schedule. ¹⁸ 

29:2 I will threaten Ariel,

and she will mourn intensely

and become like an altar hearth ¹⁹  before me.

Isaiah 32:3

32:3 Eyes ²⁰  will no longer be blind ²¹ 

and ears ²²  will be attentive.

Isaiah 40:16

40:16 Not even Lebanon could supply enough firewood for a sacrifice; ²³ 

its wild animals would not provide enough burnt offerings. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 41:24

41:24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;

the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting. ²⁵ 

Isaiah 43:7

43:7 everyone who belongs to me, ²⁶ 

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed – yes, whom I made!

Isaiah 48:12

48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob,

Israel, whom I summoned!

I am the one;

I am present at the very beginning

and at the very end. ²⁷ 

Isaiah 49:3

49:3 He said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.” ²⁸ 

Isaiah 59:14

59:14 Justice is driven back;

godliness ²⁹  stands far off.

Indeed, ³⁰  honesty stumbles in the city square

and morality is not even able to enter.

Isaiah 65:3

65:3 These people continually and blatantly offend me ³¹ 

as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards ³² 

and burn incense on brick altars. ³³ 

[2:13]  ¹ sn The cedars of Lebanon and oaks of Bashan were well-known for their size and prominence. They make apt symbols here for powerful men who think of themselves as prominent and secure.

[21:4]  ² tn Heb “wanders,” perhaps here, “is confused.”

[21:4]  ³ tn Heb “shuddering terrifies me.”

[22:8]  ³ tn Heb “he,” i.e., the enemy invader. NASB, by its capitalization of the pronoun, takes this to refer to the Lord.

[22:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “covering.”

[22:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV), likewise at the beginning of v. 12.

[22:8]  ⁶ sn Perhaps this refers to a royal armory, or to Solomon’s “House of the Forest of Lebanon,” where weapons may have been kept (see 1 Kgs 10:16-17).

[24:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”

[24:5]  ⁵ sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.

[24:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”

[24:5]  ⁷ tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”

[26:7]  ⁵ sn The literary structure of chap. 26 is not entirely clear. The chapter begins with an eschatological song of praise and ends with a lament and prophetic response (vv. 16-21). It is not certain where the song of praise ends or how vv. 7-15 fit into the structure. Verses 10-11a seem to lament the presence of evil and v. 11b anticipates the arrival of judgment, so it is possible that vv. 7-15 are a prelude to the lament and announcement that conclude the chapter.

[26:7]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew text has, “upright, the path of the righteous you make level.” There are three possible ways to translate this line. Some take יָשָׁר (yashar) as a divine title: “O Upright One” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NRSV, NLT). Others regard יָשָׁר as the result of dittography (מֵישָׁרִים יָשָׁר ַמעְגַּל, mesharim yashar ma’gal) and do not include it in the translation. Another possibility is to keep יָשָׁר and render the line as “the path of the righteous that you prepare is straight.”

[26:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “O Lord, you establish peace for us.”

[26:12]  ⁷ tc Some suggest emending גַּם כָּל (gam kol, “even all”) to כִּגְמֻל (kigmul, “according to the deed[s] of”) One might then translate “for according to what our deeds deserve, you have acted on our behalf.” Nevertheless, accepting the MT as it stands, the prophet affirms that Yahweh deserved all the credit for anything Israel had accomplished.

[29:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] Ariel.” The meaning of the name “Ariel” is uncertain. The name may mean “altar hearth” (see v. 2) or, if compound, “lion of God.” The name is used here as a title for Mount Zion/Jerusalem (see v. 8).

[29:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “the town where David camped.” The verb חָנָה (khanah, “camp”) probably has the nuance “lay siege to” here. See v. 3. Another option is to take the verb in the sense of “lived, settled.”

[29:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Add year to year, let your festivals occur in cycles.” This is probably a sarcastic exhortation to the people to keep up their religious rituals, which will not prevent the coming judgment. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:527.

[29:2]  ⁸ tn The term אֲרִיאֵל (’ari’el, “Ariel”) is the word translated “altar hearth” here. The point of the simile is not entirely clear. Perhaps the image likens Jerusalem’s coming crisis to a sacrificial fire.

[32:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “Eyes that see.”

[32:3]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text as vocalized reads literally “will not gaze,” but this is contradictory to the context. The verb form should be revocalized as תְּשֹׁעֶינָה (tÿsho’enah) from שָׁעַע (sha’a’, “be blinded”); see Isa 6:10; 29:9.

[32:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “ears that hear.”

[40:16]  ¹⁰ tn The words “for a sacrifice” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[40:16]  ¹¹ sn The point is that not even the Lebanon forest could supply enough wood and animals for an adequate sacrifice to the Lord.

[41:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “an object of disgust [is he who] chooses you.”

[43:7]  ¹² tn Heb “everyone who is called by my name” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[48:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “I [am] he, I [am the] first, also I [am the] last.”

[49:3]  ¹⁴ sn This verse identifies the servant as Israel. This seems to refer to the exiled nation (cf. 41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20), but in vv. 5-6 this servant says he has been commissioned to reconcile Israel to God, so he must be distinct from the exiled nation. This servant is an ideal “Israel” who, like Moses of old, mediates a covenant for the nation (see v. 8), leads them out of bondage (v. 9a), and carries out God’s original plan for Israel by positively impacting the pagan nations (see v. 6b). By living according to God’s law, Israel was to be a model of God’s standards of justice to the surrounding nations (Deut 4:6-8). The sinful nation failed, but the servant, the ideal “Israel,” will succeed by establishing justice throughout the earth.

[59:14]  ¹⁵ tn Or “righteousness” (ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NAB “justice.”

[59:14]  ¹⁶ tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).

[65:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the people who provoke me to anger to my face continually.”

[65:3]  ¹⁷ tn Or “gardens” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[65:3]  ¹⁸ tn Or perhaps, “on tiles.”