Isaiah 30:1-2

Egypt Will Prove Unreliable

30:1 “The rebellious ¹  children are as good as dead,” ²  says the Lord,

“those who make plans without consulting me, ³ 

who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, ⁴ 

and thereby compound their sin. ⁵ 

30:2 They travel down to Egypt

without seeking my will, ⁶ 

seeking Pharaoh’s protection,

and looking for safety in Egypt’s protective shade. ⁷ 

Isaiah 31:1

Egypt Will Disappoint

31:1 Those who go down to Egypt for help are as good as dead, ⁸ 

those who rely on war horses,

and trust in Egypt’s many chariots ⁹ 

and in their many, many horsemen. ¹⁰ 

But they do not rely on the Holy One of Israel ¹¹ 

and do not seek help from the Lord.

Exodus 8:21

8:21 If you do not release ¹²  my people, then I am going to send ¹³  swarms of flies ¹⁴  on you and on your servants and on your people and in your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground they stand on. ¹⁵ 

Exodus 8:24

8:24 The Lord did so; a ¹⁶  thick ¹⁷  swarm of flies came into ¹⁸  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ¹⁹  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ²⁰  because of the swarms of flies.

Deuteronomy 1:44

1:44 The Amorite inhabitants of that area ²¹  confronted ²²  you and chased you like a swarm of bees, striking you down from Seir as far as Hormah. ²³ 

Deuteronomy 7:20

7:20 Furthermore, the Lord your God will release hornets ²⁴  among them until the very last ones who hide from you ²⁵  perish.

Joshua 24:12

24:12 I sent terror ²⁶  ahead of you to drive out before you the two ²⁷  Amorite kings. I gave you the victory; it was not by your swords or bows. ²⁸ 

Psalms 118:12

118:12 They surrounded me like bees.

But they disappeared as quickly ²⁹  as a fire among thorns. ³⁰ 

Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.

[30:1]  ¹ tn Or “stubborn” (NCV); cf. NIV “obstinate.”

[30:1]  ² tn Heb “Woe [to] rebellious children.”

[30:1]  ³ tn Heb “making a plan, but not from me.”

[30:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “and pouring out a libation, but not [from] my spirit.” This translation assumes that the verb נָסַךְ (nasakh) means “pour out,” and that the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה (massekhah) means “libation.” In this case “pouring out a libation” alludes to a ceremony that formally ratifies an alliance. Another option is to understand the verb נָסַךְ as a homonym meaning “weave,” and the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה as a homonym meaning “covering.” In this case forming an alliance is likened to weaving a garment.

[30:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “consequently adding sin to sin.”

[30:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “those who go to descend to Egypt, but [of] my mouth they do not inquire.”

[30:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “to seek protection in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek refuge in the shade of Egypt.”

[31:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who go down to Egypt for help.”

[31:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “and trust in chariots for they are many.”

[31:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and in horsemen for they are very strong [or “numerous”].”

[31:1]  ¹¹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[8:21]  ¹² tn The construction uses the predicator of nonexistence – אֵין (’en, “there is not”) – with a pronominal suffix prior to the Piel participle. The suffix becomes the subject of the clause. Heb “but if there is not you releasing.”

[8:21]  ¹³ tn Here again is the futur instans use of the participle, now Qal with the meaning “send”: הִנְנִי מַשְׁלִיחַ (hinni mashliakh, “here I am sending”).

[8:21]  ¹⁴ tn The word עָרֹב (’arov) means “a mix” or “swarm.” It seems that some irritating kind of flying insect is involved. Ps 78:45 says that the Egyptians were eaten or devoured by them. Various suggestions have been made over the years: (1) it could refer to beasts or reptiles; (2) the Greek took it as the dog-fly, a vicious blood-sucking gadfly, more common in the spring than in the fall; (3) the ordinary house fly, which is a symbol of Egypt in Isa 7:18 (Hebrew זְבוּב, zÿvuv); and (4) the beetle, which gnaws and bites plants, animals, and materials. The fly probably fits the details of this passage best; the plague would have greatly intensified a problem with flies that already existed.

[8:21]  ¹⁵ tn Or perhaps “the land where they are” (cf. NRSV “the land where they live”).

[8:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and there came a….”

[8:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “heavy,” or “severe.”

[8:24]  ¹⁸ tn Here, and in the next phrase, the word “house” has to be taken as an adverbial accusative of termination.

[8:24]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text has the singular here.

[8:24]  ²⁰ tc Concerning the connection of “the land was ruined” with the preceding, S. R. Driver (Exodus, 68) suggests reading with the LXX, Smr, and Peshitta; this would call for adding a conjunction before the last clause to make it read, “into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt; and the land was…”

[1:44]  ²¹ tn Heb “in that hill country,” repeating the end of v. 43.

[1:44]  ²² tn Heb “came out to meet.”

[1:44]  ²³ sn Hormah is probably Khirbet el-Meshash, 5.5 mi (9 km) west of Arad and 7.5 mi (12 km) SE of Beer Sheba. Its name is a derivative of the verb חָרָם (kharam, “to ban; to exterminate”). See Num 21:3.

[7:20]  ²⁴ tn The meaning of the term translated “hornets” (צִרְעָה, tsir’ah) is debated. Various suggestions are “discouragement” (HALOT 1056-57 s.v.; cf. NEB, TEV, CEV “panic”; NCV “terror”) and “leprosy” (J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 360, n. 33; cf. NRSV “the pestilence”), as well as “hornet” (BDB 864 s.v.; cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT). The latter seems most suitable to the verb שָׁלַח (shalakh, “send”; cf. Exod 23:28; Josh 24:12).

[7:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the remnant and those who hide themselves.”

[24:12]  ²⁶ tn Traditionally, “the hornet” (so KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV) but the precise meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain (cf. NEB “panic”).

[24:12]  ²⁷ tn The LXX has “twelve,” apparently understanding this as a reference to Amorite kings west of the Jordan (see Josh 5:1, rather than the trans-Jordanian Amorite kings Sihon and Og (see Josh 2:10; 9:10).

[24:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and it drove them out from before you, the two kings of the Amorites, not by your sword and not by your bow.” The words “I gave you the victory” are supplied for clarification.

[118:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “were extinguished.”

[118:12]  ³⁰ tn The point seems to be that the hostility of the nations (v. 10) is short-lived, like a fire that quickly devours thorns and then burns out. Some, attempting to create a better parallel with the preceding line, emend דֹּעֲכוּ (do’akhu, “they were extinguished”) to בָּעֲרוּ (ba’aru, “they burned”). In this case the statement emphasizes their hostility.