Discovery BoxIsaiah 2:9
Context2:9 Men bow down to them in homage,
they lie flat on the ground in worship. 1
Don’t spare them! 2
Isaiah 5:15
Context5:15 Men will be humiliated,
they will be brought low;
the proud will be brought low. 3
Isaiah 5:21
Context5:21 Those who think they are wise are as good as dead, 4
those who think they possess understanding. 5
Isaiah 21:15
Context21:15 For they flee from the swords –
from the drawn sword
and from the battle-ready bow
and from the severity of the battle.
Isaiah 34:3
Context34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, 6
their corpses will stink; 7
the hills will soak up their blood. 8
Isaiah 60:1
Context60:1 “Arise! Shine! For your light arrives!
The splendor 9 of the Lord shines on you!
[2:9] 1 tn Heb “men bow down, men are low.” Since the verbs שָׁחָח (shakhakh) and שָׁפַל (shafal) are used later in this discourse to describe how God will humiliate proud men (see vv. 11, 17), some understand v. 9a as a prediction of judgment, “men will be brought down, men will be humiliated.” However, these prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive appear to carry on the description that precedes and are better taken with the accusation. They draw attention to the fact that human beings actually bow down and worship before the lifeless products of their own hands.
[2:9] 2 tn Heb “don’t lift them up.” The idiom “lift up” (נָשָׂא with לְ, nasa’ with preposition lamed) can mean “spare, forgive” (see Gen 18:24, 26). Here the idiom plays on the preceding verbs. The idolaters are bowed low as they worship their false gods; the prophet asks God not to “lift them up.”
[5:15] 3 tn Heb “men are brought down, men are brought low, the eyes of pride are brought low.”
[5:21] 5 tn Heb “Woe [to] the wise in their own eyes.” See the note at v. 8.
[5:21] 6 tn Heb “[who] before their faces are understanding.”
[34:3] 7 tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”
[34:3] 8 tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”
