Isaiah 22:4-5

22:4 So I say:

“Don’t look at me! ¹ 

I am weeping bitterly.

Don’t try ²  to console me

concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” ³ 

22:5 For the sovereign master, ⁴  the Lord who commands armies,

has planned a day of panic, defeat, and confusion. ⁵ 

In the Valley of Vision ⁶  people shout ⁷ 

and cry out to the hill. ⁸ 

Micah 7:4

7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;

the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ⁹ 

The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –

your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ¹⁰ 

and then you will experience confusion. ¹¹ 

[22:4]  ¹ tn Heb “look away from me” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:4]  ² tn Heb “don’t hurry” (so NCV).

[22:4]  ³ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.” “Daughter” is here used metaphorically to express the speaker’s emotional attachment to his people, as well as their vulnerability and weakness.

[22:5]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 12, 14, 15 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[22:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “For [there is] a day of panic, and trampling, and confusion for the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

[22:5]  ⁶ tn The traditional accentuation of the Hebrew text suggests that this phrase goes with what precedes.

[22:5]  ⁷ tn The precise meaning of this statement is unclear. Some take קִר (qir) as “wall” and interpret the verb to mean “tear down.” However, tighter parallelism (note the reference to crying for help in the next line) is achieved if one takes both the verb and noun from a root, attested in Ugaritic and Arabic, meaning “make a sound.” See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:404, n. 5.

[22:5]  ⁸ sn Perhaps “the hill” refers to the temple mount.

[7:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “[the] godly from a row of thorn bushes.” The preposition מִן (min) is comparative and the comparative element (perhaps “sharper” is the idea) is omitted. See BDB 582 s.v. 6 and GKC 431 §133.e.

[7:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the day of your watchmen, your appointed [time], is coming.” The present translation takes “watchmen” to refer to actual sentries. However, the “watchmen” could refer figuratively to the prophets who had warned Judah of approaching judgment. In this case one could translate, “The day your prophets warned about – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way.”

[7:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and now will be their confusion.”