Isaiah 3:26

3:26 Her gates will mourn and lament;

deprived of her people, she will sit on the ground. ¹ 

Isaiah 32:16

32:16 Justice will settle down in the desert

and fairness will live in the orchard. ² 

Isaiah 42:11

42:11 Let the desert and its cities shout out,

the towns where the nomads of Kedar live!

Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully;

let them shout loudly from the mountaintops.

Isaiah 13:20

13:20 No one will live there again;

no one will ever reside there again. ³ 

No bedouin ⁴  will camp ⁵  there,

no shepherds will rest their flocks ⁶  there.

[3:26]  ¹ tn Heb “she will be empty, on the ground she will sit.” Jerusalem is personified as a destitute woman who sits mourning the empty city.

[32:16]  ² sn This new era of divine blessing will also include a moral/ethical transformation, as justice and fairness fill the land and replace the social injustice so prevalent in Isaiah’s time.

[13:20]  ³ tn Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.

[13:20]  ⁴ tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”

[13:20]  ⁵ tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל (ye’ehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.

[13:20]  ⁶ tn The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12.