Isaiah 28:24

28:24 Does a farmer just keep on plowing at planting time? ¹ 

Does he keep breaking up and harrowing his ground?

Isaiah 17:9

17:9 At that time ²  their fortified cities will be

like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, ³ 

which they abandoned because of the Israelites;

there will be desolation.

[28:24]  ¹ tn Heb “All the day does the plowman plow in order to plant?” The phrase “all the day” here has the sense of “continually, always.” See BDB 400 s.v. יוֹם.

[17:9]  ² tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

[17:9]  ³ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “like the abandonment of the wooded height and the top one.” The following relative clause appears to allude back to the Israelite conquest of the land, so it seems preferable to emend הַחֹרֶשׁ וְהָאָמִיר (hakhoresh vÿha’amir, “the wooded height and the top one”) to חֹרֵשֵׁי הָאֱמֹרִי (khoreshe ha’emori, “[like the abandonment] of the wooded heights of the Amorites”).