Isaiah 30:6

30:6 This is a message ¹  about the animals in the Negev:

Through a land of distress and danger,

inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, ² 

by snakes and darting adders, ³ 

they transport ⁴  their wealth on the backs of donkeys,

their riches on the humps of camels,

to a nation that cannot help them. ⁵ 

Isaiah 38:1

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. ⁶  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 50:11

50:11 Look, all of you who start a fire

and who equip yourselves with ⁷  flaming arrows, ⁸ 

walk ⁹  in the light ¹⁰  of the fire you started

and among the flaming arrows you ignited! ¹¹ 

This is what you will receive from me: ¹² 

you will lie down in a place of pain. ¹³ 

Isaiah 66:4

66:4 So I will choose severe punishment ¹⁴  for them;

I will bring on them what they dread,

because I called, and no one responded,

I spoke and they did not listen.

They did evil before me; ¹⁵ 

they chose to do what displeases me.”

[30:6]  ¹ tn Traditionally, “burden” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “oracle.”

[30:6]  ² tc Heb “[a land of] a lioness and a lion, from them.” Some emend מֵהֶם (mehem, “from them”) to מֵהֵם (mehem), an otherwise unattested Hiphil participle from הָמַם (hamam, “move noisily”). Perhaps it would be better to take the initial mem (מ) as enclitic and emend the form to הֹמֶה (homeh), a Qal active participle from הָמָה (hamah, “to make a noise”); cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:542, n. 9.

[30:6]  ³ tn Heb “flying fiery one.” See the note at 14:29.

[30:6]  ⁴ tn Or “carry” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:6]  ⁵ sn This verse describes messengers from Judah transporting wealth to Egypt in order to buy Pharaoh’s protection through a treaty.

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

[50:11]  ¹¹ tc Several more recent commentators have proposed an emendation of מְאַזְּרֵי (mÿ’azzÿre, “who put on”) to מְאִירִי (mÿ’iri, “who light”). However, both Qumran scrolls of Isaiah and the Vulgate support the MT reading (cf. NIV, ESV).

[50:11]  ¹² tn On the meaning of זִיקוֹת (ziqot, “flaming arrows”), see HALOT 268 s.v. זִיקוֹת.

[50:11]  ¹³ tn The imperative is probably rhetorical and has a predictive force.

[50:11]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps, “flame” (so ASV).

[50:11]  ¹⁵ sn Perhaps the servant here speaks to his enemies and warns them that they will self-destruct.

[50:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[50:11]  ¹⁷ sn The imagery may be that of a person who becomes ill and is forced to lie down in pain on a sickbed. Some see this as an allusion to a fiery place of damnation because of the imagery employed earlier in the verse.

[66:4]  ¹⁶ tn The precise meaning of the noun is uncertain. It occurs only here and in 3:4 (but see the note there). It appears to be derived from the verbal root עָלַל (’alal), which can carry the nuance “deal severely.”

[66:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “that which is evil in my eyes.”