Isaiah 3:1

A Coming Leadership Crisis

3:1 Look, the sovereign Lord who commands armies ¹ 

is about to remove from Jerusalem ²  and Judah

every source of security, including ³ 

all the food and water, ⁴ 

Isaiah 9:12

9:12 Syria from the east,

and the Philistines from the west,

they gobbled up Israelite territory. ⁵ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ⁶ 

Isaiah 14:9

14:9 Sheol ⁷  below is stirred up about you,

ready to meet you when you arrive.

It rouses ⁸  the spirits of the dead for you,

all the former leaders of the earth; ⁹ 

it makes all the former kings of the nations

rise from their thrones. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 15:2

15:2 They went up to the temple, ¹¹ 

the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ¹² 

Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ¹³  Moab wails.

Every head is shaved bare,

every beard is trimmed off. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 25:7

25:7 On this mountain he will swallow up

the shroud that is over all the peoples, ¹⁵ 

the woven covering that is over all the nations; ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 29:7

29:7 It will be like a dream, a night vision.

There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,

those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.

Isaiah 30:25

30:25 On every high mountain

and every high hill

there will be streams flowing with water,

at the time of ¹⁷  great slaughter when the fortified towers collapse.

Isaiah 34:2

34:2 For the Lord is angry at all the nations

and furious with all their armies.

He will annihilate them and slaughter them.

Isaiah 34:4

34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, ¹⁸ 

the sky will roll up like a scroll;

all its stars will wither,

like a leaf withers and falls from a vine

or a fig withers and falls from a tree. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 40:6

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ²⁰  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ²¹  “All people are like grass, ²² 

and all their promises ²³  are like the flowers in the field.

Isaiah 44:11

44:11 Look, all his associates ²⁴  will be put to shame;

the craftsmen are mere humans. ²⁵ 

Let them all assemble and take their stand!

They will panic and be put to shame.

Isaiah 45:23

45:23 I solemnly make this oath ²⁶  –

what I say is true and reliable: ²⁷ 

‘Surely every knee will bow to me,

every tongue will solemnly affirm; ²⁸ 

Isaiah 49:18

49:18 Look all around you! ²⁹ 

All of them gather to you.

As surely as I live,” says the Lord,

“you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry;

you will put them on as if you were a bride.

Isaiah 52:10

52:10 The Lord reveals ³⁰  his royal power ³¹ 

in the sight of all the nations;

the entire ³²  earth sees

our God deliver. ³³ 

Isaiah 56:10

56:10 All their watchmen ³⁴  are blind,

they are unaware. ³⁵ 

All of them are like mute dogs,

unable to bark.

They pant, ³⁶  lie down,

and love to snooze.

Isaiah 62:6

62:6 I ³⁷  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

they should keep praying all day and all night. ³⁸ 

You who pray to ³⁹  the Lord, don’t be silent!

Isaiah 63:9

63:9 Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. ⁴⁰ 

The messenger sent from his very presence ⁴¹  delivered them.

In his love and mercy he protected ⁴²  them;

he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times. ⁴³ 

Isaiah 66:10

66:10 Be happy for Jerusalem

and rejoice with her, all you who love her!

Share in her great joy,

all you who have mourned over her!

[3:1]  ¹ tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at 1:9.

[3:1]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:1]  ³ tn Heb “support and support.” The masculine and feminine forms of the noun are placed side-by-side to emphasize completeness. See GKC 394 §122.v.

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “all the support of food, and all the support of water.”

[9:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “and they devoured Israel with all the mouth”; NIV “with open mouth”; NLT “With bared fangs.”

[9:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.” One could translate in the past tense here (and in 9:17b and 21b), but the appearance of the refrain in 10:4b, where it follows a woe oracle prophesying a future judgment, suggests it is a dramatic portrait of the judge which did not change throughout this period of past judgment and will remain unchanged in the future. The English present tense is chosen to best reflect this dramatic mood. (See also 5:25b, where the refrain appears following a dramatic description of coming judgment.)

[14:9]  ⁹ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead.

[14:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “arousing.” The form is probably a Polel infinitive absolute, rather than a third masculine singular perfect, for Sheol is grammatically feminine (note “stirred up”). See GKC 466 §145.t.

[14:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all the rams of the earth.” The animal epithet is used metaphorically here for leaders. See HALOT 903 s.v. *עַתּוּד.

[14:9]  ¹² tn Heb “lifting from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” הֵקִים (heqim, a Hiphil perfect third masculine singular) should be emended to an infinitive absolute (הָקֵים, haqem). See the note on “rouses” earlier in the verse.

[15:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “house.”

[15:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “even Dibon [to] the high places to weep.” The verb “went up” does double duty in the parallel structure.

[15:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “over [or “for”] Nebo and over [or “for”] Medeba.”

[15:2]  ¹⁶ sn Shaving the head and beard were outward signs of mourning and grief.

[25:7]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads, “the face of the shroud, the shroud over all the nations.” Some emend the second הַלּוֹט (hallot) to a passive participle הַלּוּט (hallut, “that is wrapped”).

[25:7]  ¹⁸ sn The point of the imagery is unclear. Perhaps the shroud/covering referred to was associated with death in some way (see v. 8).

[30:25]  ²¹ tn Or “in the day of” (KJV).

[34:4]  ²⁵ tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”

[34:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”

[40:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

[40:6]  ³⁰ tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

[40:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

[40:6]  ³² tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.

[44:11]  ³³ tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.

[44:11]  ³⁴ sn The point seems to be this: If the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”

[45:23]  ³⁷ tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”

[45:23]  ³⁸ tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”

[45:23]  ³⁹ tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”

[49:18]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”

[52:10]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “lays bare”; NLT “will demonstrate.”

[52:10]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “his holy arm.” This is a metonymy for his power.

[52:10]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the remote regions,” which here stand for the extremities and everything in between.

[52:10]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the deliverance of our God.” “God” is a subjective genitive here.

[56:10]  ⁴⁹ sn The “watchmen” are probably spiritual leaders, most likely prophets and priests, responsible for giving the people moral direction.

[56:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “they do not know”; KJV “they are all ignorant”; NIV “they all lack knowledge.”

[56:10]  ⁵¹ tn The Hebrew text has הֹזִים (hozim), which appears to be derived from an otherwise unattested verbal root הָזָה (hazah). On the basis of alleged cognates, BDB 223 s.v. הָזָה offers the definition “dream, rave” while HALOT 243 s.v. הזה lists “pant.” In this case the dog metaphor of the preceding lines continues. The reference to dogs at the beginning of v. 11 favors the extension of the metaphor. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חזים (“seers”) here. In this case the “watchmen” are directly identified as prophets and depicted as lazy.

[62:6]  ⁵³ sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.

[62:6]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.

[62:6]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”

[63:9]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “in all their distress, there was distress to him” (reading לוֹ [lo] with the margin/Qere).

[63:9]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “the messenger [or “angel”] of his face”; NIV “the angel of his presence.”

[63:9]  ⁵⁹ tn Or “redeemed” (KJV, NAB, NIV), or “delivered.”

[63:9]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “all the days of antiquity”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “days of old.”