Isaiah 3:16

Washing Away Impurity

3:16 The Lord says,

“The women ¹  of Zion are proud.

They walk with their heads high ² 

and flirt with their eyes.

They skip along ³ 

and the jewelry on their ankles jingles. ⁴ 

Isaiah 14:19

14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave

like a shoot that is thrown away. ⁵ 

You lie among ⁶  the slain,

among those who have been slashed by the sword,

among those headed for ⁷  the stones of the pit, ⁸ 

as if you were a mangled corpse. ⁹ 

Isaiah 21:2

21:2 I have received a distressing message: ¹⁰ 

“The deceiver deceives,

the destroyer destroys.

Attack, you Elamites!

Lay siege, you Medes!

I will put an end to all the groaning!” ¹¹ 

Isaiah 35:8

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness. ¹² 

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it ¹³  –

fools ¹⁴  will not stray into it.

Isaiah 58:6

58:6 No, this is the kind of fast I want. ¹⁵ 

I want you ¹⁶  to remove the sinful chains,

to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke,

to set free the oppressed, ¹⁷ 

and to break every burdensome yoke.

[3:16]  ¹ tn Heb “daughters” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).

[3:16]  ² tn Heb “with an outstretched neck.” They proudly hold their heads high so that others can see the jewelry around their necks.

[3:16]  ³ tn Heb “walking and skipping, they walk.”

[3:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “and with their feet they jingle.”

[14:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “like a shoot that is abhorred.” The simile seems a bit odd; apparently it refers to a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away. Some prefer to emend נֵצֶר (netser, “shoot”); some propose נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”). In this case one might paraphrase: “like a horrible-looking fetus that is delivered when a woman miscarries.”

[14:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “are clothed with.”

[14:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “those going down to.”

[14:19]  ⁸ tn בּוֹר (bor) literally means “cistern”; cisterns were constructed from stones. On the metaphorical use of “cistern” for the underworld, see the note at v. 15.

[14:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “like a trampled corpse.” Some take this line with what follows.

[21:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “a severe revelation has been related to me.”

[21:2]  ¹⁰ sn This is often interpreted to mean “all the groaning” that Babylon has caused others.

[35:8]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.

[35:8]  ¹⁴ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.

[35:8]  ¹⁵ tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

[58:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Is this not a fast I choose?” “No” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:6]  ¹⁸ tn The words “I want you” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[58:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “crushed.”