Isaiah 29:24

29:24 Those who stray morally will gain understanding; ¹ 

those who complain will acquire insight. ² 

Isaiah 11:2

11:2 The Lord’s spirit will rest on him ³  –

a spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom, ⁴ 

a spirit that provides the ability to execute plans, ⁵ 

a spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord. ⁶ 

Isaiah 29:14

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed. ⁷ 

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.” ⁸ 

Isaiah 33:19

33:19 You will no longer see a defiant ⁹  people

whose language you do not comprehend, ¹⁰ 

whose derisive speech you do not understand. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ¹²  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ¹³ 

For these people lack understanding, ¹⁴ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

[29:24]  ¹ tn Heb “and the ones who stray in spirit will know understanding.”

[29:24]  ² tn Heb “will learn instruction”; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “will accept instruction.”

[11:2]  ³ sn Like David (1 Sam 16:13), this king will be energized by the Lord’s spirit.

[11:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “a spirit of wisdom and understanding.” The synonyms are joined here to emphasize the degree of wisdom he will possess. His wisdom will enable him to make just legal decisions (v. 3). A very similar phrase occurs in Eph 1:17.

[11:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “a spirit of counsel [or “strategy”] and strength.” The construction is a hendiadys; the point is that he will have the strength/ability to execute the plans/strategies he devises. This ability will enable him to suppress oppressors and implement just policies (v. 4).

[11:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.” “Knowledge” is used here in its covenantal sense and refers to a recognition of God’s authority and a willingness to submit to it. See Jer 22:16. “Fear” here refers to a healthy respect for God’s authority which produces obedience. Taken together the two terms emphasize the single quality of loyalty to the Lord. This loyalty guarantees that he will make just legal decisions and implement just policies (vv. 4-5).

[29:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.

[29:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”

[33:19]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew form נוֹעָז (no’az) is a Niphal participle derived from יָעַז (ya’az, an otherwise unattested verb) or from עָזָז (’azaz, “be strong,” unattested elsewhere in the Niphal). Some prefer to emend the form to לוֹעֵז (lo’ez) which occurs in Ps 114:1 with the meaning “speak a foreign language.” See HALOT 809 s.v. עזז, 533 s.v. לעז. In this case, one might translate “people who speak a foreign language.”

[33:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “a people too deep of lip to hear.” The phrase “deep of lip” must be an idiom meaning “lips that speak words that are unfathomable [i.e., incomprehensible].”

[33:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “derision of tongue there is no understanding.” The Niphal of לָעַג (la’ag) occurs only here. In the Qal and Hiphil the verb means “to deride, mock.” A related noun is used in 28:11.

[27:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”