Isaiah 30:31

30:31 Indeed, the Lord’s shout will shatter Assyria; ¹ 

he will beat them with a club.

Isaiah 7:8

7:8 For Syria’s leader is Damascus,

and the leader of Damascus is Rezin.

Within sixty-five years Ephraim will no longer exist as a nation. ² 

Isaiah 31:4

The Lord Will Defend Zion

31:4 Indeed, this is what the Lord says to me:

“The Lord will be like a growling lion,

like a young lion growling over its prey. ³ 

Though a whole group of shepherds gathers against it,

it is not afraid of their shouts

or intimidated by their yelling. ⁴ 

In this same way the Lord who commands armies will descend

to do battle on Mount Zion and on its hill. ⁵ 

[30:31]  ¹ tn Heb “Indeed by the voice of the Lord Assyria will be shattered.”

[7:8]  ² tn Heb “Ephraim will be too shattered to be a nation”; NIV “to be a people.”

[31:4]  ³ tn Heb “As a lion growls, a young lion over its prey.” In the Hebrew text the opening comparison is completed later in the verse (“so the Lord will come down…”), after a parenthesis describing how fearless the lion is. The present translation divides the verse into three sentences for English stylistic reasons.

[31:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “Though there is summoned against it fullness of shepherds, by their voice it is not terrified, and to their noise it does not respond.”

[31:4]  ⁵ tn Some prefer to translate the phrase לִצְבֹּא עַל (litsbo’ ’al) as “fight against,” but the following context pictures the Lord defending, not attacking, Zion.