Isaiah 2:14

2:14 for all the tall mountains,

for all the high hills, ¹ 

Isaiah 10:32

10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,

they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain ²  –

at the hill of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 40:4

40:4 Every valley must be elevated,

and every mountain and hill leveled.

The rough terrain will become a level plain,

the rugged landscape a wide valley.

Isaiah 42:15

42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; ³ 

I will dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn streams into islands, ⁴ 

and dry up pools of water. ⁵ 

Isaiah 2:2

2:2 In the future ⁶ 

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure ⁷ 

as the most important of mountains,

and will be the most prominent of hills. ⁸ 

All the nations will stream to it,

Isaiah 30:25

30:25 On every high mountain

and every high hill

there will be streams flowing with water,

at the time of ⁹  great slaughter when the fortified towers collapse.

Isaiah 40:12

The Lord is Incomparable

40:12 Who has measured out the waters ¹⁰  in the hollow of his hand,

or carefully ¹¹  measured the sky, ¹² 

or carefully weighed ¹³  the soil of the earth,

or weighed the mountains in a balance,

or the hills on scales? ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 41:15

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ¹⁵  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ¹⁶ 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 54:10

54:10 Even if the mountains are removed

and the hills displaced,

my devotion will not be removed from you,

nor will my covenant of friendship ¹⁸  be displaced,”

says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 55:12

55:12 Indeed you will go out with joy;

you will be led along in peace;

the mountains and hills will give a joyful shout before you,

and all the trees in the field will clap their hands.

Isaiah 30:17

30:17 One thousand will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier; ¹⁹ 

at the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away, ²⁰ 

until the remaining few are as isolated ²¹ 

as a flagpole on a mountaintop

or a signal flag on a hill.”

Isaiah 65:7

65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” ²²  says the Lord.

“Because they burned incense on the mountains

and offended ²³  me on the hills,

I will punish them in full measure.” ²⁴ 

Isaiah 31:4

The Lord Will Defend Zion

31:4 Indeed, this is what the Lord says to me:

“The Lord will be like a growling lion,

like a young lion growling over its prey. ²⁵ 

Though a whole group of shepherds gathers against it,

it is not afraid of their shouts

or intimidated by their yelling. ²⁶ 

In this same way the Lord who commands armies will descend

to do battle on Mount Zion and on its hill. ²⁷ 

[2:14]  ¹ sn The high mountains and hills symbolize the apparent security of proud men, as do the high tower and fortified wall of v. 15.

[10:32]  ² tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “a mountain of a house (בֵּית, bet), Zion,” but the marginal reading (Qere) correctly reads “the mountain of the daughter (בַּת, bat) of Zion.” On the phrase “Daughter Zion,” see the note on the same phrase in 1:8.

[42:15]  ³ tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”

[42:15]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).

[42:15]  ⁵ sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the end of the days.” This phrase may refer generally to the future, or more technically to the final period of history. See BDB 31 s.v. ַאחֲרִית. The verse begins with a verb that functions as a “discourse particle” and is not translated. In numerous places throughout the OT, the “to be” verb with a prefixed conjunction (וְהָיָה [vÿhayah] and וַיְהִי [vayÿhi]) occurs in this fashion to introduce a circumstantial clause and does not require translation.

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Or “be established” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “as the chief of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills.” The image of Mount Zion being elevated above other mountains and hills pictures the prominence it will attain in the future.

[30:25]  ⁵ tn Or “in the day of” (KJV).

[40:12]  ⁶ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.

[40:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).

[40:12]  ⁸ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[40:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”

[40:12]  ¹⁰ sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is “no one but the Lord. The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.

[41:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ⁹ sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.

[54:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “peace” (so many English versions); NLT “of blessing.”

[30:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “One thousand from before [or “because of”] one battle cry.” גְּעָרָה (gÿ’arah) is often defined as “threat,” but in war contexts it likely refers to a shout or battle cry. See Ps 76:6.

[30:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from before [or “because of”] the battle cry of five you will flee.

[30:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until you are left” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[65:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the iniquities of your fathers.”

[65:7]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps, “taunted”; KJV “blasphemed”; NAB “disgraced”; NASB “scorned”; NIV “defied”; NRSV “reviled.”

[65:7]  ¹² tn Heb “I will measure out their pay [from the] beginning into their lap,” i.e., he will give them everything they have earned.

[31:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “As a lion growls, a young lion over its prey.” In the Hebrew text the opening comparison is completed later in the verse (“so the Lord will come down…”), after a parenthesis describing how fearless the lion is. The present translation divides the verse into three sentences for English stylistic reasons.

[31:4]  ¹² tn Heb “Though there is summoned against it fullness of shepherds, by their voice it is not terrified, and to their noise it does not respond.”

[31:4]  ¹³ tn Some prefer to translate the phrase לִצְבֹּא עַל (litsbo’ ’al) as “fight against,” but the following context pictures the Lord defending, not attacking, Zion.