Isaiah 3:2

3:2 the mighty men and warriors,

judges and prophets,

omen readers and leaders, ¹ 

Isaiah 9:15

9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people ²  are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

Isaiah 29:10

29:10 For the Lord has poured out on you

a strong urge to sleep deeply. ³ 

He has shut your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

Isaiah 28:7

28:7 Even these men ⁴  stagger because of wine,

they stumble around because of beer –

priests and prophets stagger because of beer,

they are confused ⁵  because of wine,

they stumble around because of beer;

they stagger while seeing prophetic visions, ⁶ 

they totter while making legal decisions. ⁷ 

Isaiah 37:2

37:2 Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, ⁸  clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:

Isaiah 38:1

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. ⁹  The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’”

Isaiah 39:3

39:3 Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.”

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “elder” (so ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “older leaders.”

[9:15]  ² tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

[29:10]  ³ tn Heb “a disposition [or “spirit”] of deep sleep.” Through this mixed metaphor (sleep is likened to a liquid which one pours and in turn symbolizes spiritual dullness) the prophet emphasizes that God himself has given the people over to their spiritual insensitivity as a form of judgment.

[28:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “these.” The demonstrative pronoun anticipates “priests and prophets” two lines later.

[28:7]  ⁵ tn According to HALOT 135 s.v. III בלע, the verb form is derived from בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”), not the more common בָּלַע (“swallow”). See earlier notes at 3:12 and 9:16.

[28:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the seeing.”

[28:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “[in] giving a decision.”

[37:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “elders of the priests” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NCV “the older priests”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “the senior priests.”

[38:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying”; NRSV “became sick and was at the point of death.”