Isaiah 31:8

31:8 Assyria will fall by a sword, but not one human-made; ¹ 

a sword not made by humankind will destroy them. ² 

They will run away from this sword ³ 

and their young men will be forced to do hard labor.

Isaiah 3:25

3:25 Your ⁴  men will fall by the sword,

your strong men will die in battle. ⁵ 

Isaiah 21:15

21:15 For they flee from the swords –

from the drawn sword

and from the battle-ready bow

and from the severity of the battle.

Isaiah 13:15

13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;

everyone who is seized ⁶  will die ⁷  by the sword.

Isaiah 1:20

1:20 But if you refuse and rebel,

you will be devoured ⁸  by the sword.”

Know for certain that the Lord has spoken. ⁹ 

Isaiah 34:5

34:5 He says, ¹⁰  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ¹¹ 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ¹² 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

Isaiah 37:7

37:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹³  he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ¹⁴  with a sword in his own land.”’”

Isaiah 49:2

49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,

he hid me in the hollow of his hand;

he made me like a sharpened ¹⁵  arrow,

he hid me in his quiver. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 51:19

51:19 These double disasters confronted you.

But who feels sorry for you?

Destruction and devastation,

famine and sword.

But who consoles you? ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 66:16

66:16 For the Lord judges all humanity ¹⁸ 

with fire and his sword;

the Lord will kill many. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 2:4

2:4 He will judge disputes between nations;

he will settle cases for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares, ²⁰ 

and their spears into pruning hooks. ²¹ 

Nations will not take up the sword against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

Isaiah 14:19

14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave

like a shoot that is thrown away. ²² 

You lie among ²³  the slain,

among those who have been slashed by the sword,

among those headed for ²⁴  the stones of the pit, ²⁵ 

as if you were a mangled corpse. ²⁶ 

Isaiah 22:2

22:2 The noisy city is full of raucous sounds;

the town is filled with revelry. ²⁷ 

Your slain were not cut down by the sword;

they did not die in battle. ²⁸ 

Isaiah 41:2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? ²⁹ 

Who ³⁰  officially commissions him for service? ³¹ 

He hands nations over to him, ³² 

and enables him to subdue ³³  kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow. ³⁴ 

Isaiah 27:1

27:1 At that time ³⁵  the Lord will punish

with his destructive, ³⁶  great, and powerful sword

Leviathan the fast-moving ³⁷  serpent,

Leviathan the squirming serpent;

he will kill the sea monster. ³⁸ 

Isaiah 34:6

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ³⁹  with fat;

it drips ⁴⁰  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ⁴¹  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁴²  in Bozrah, ⁴³ 

a bloody ⁴⁴  slaughter in the land of Edom.

Isaiah 37:38

37:38 One day, ⁴⁵  as he was worshiping ⁴⁶  in the temple of his god Nisroch, ⁴⁷  his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. ⁴⁸  They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

Isaiah 65:12

65:12 I predestine you to die by the sword, ⁴⁹ 

all of you will kneel down at the slaughtering block, ⁵⁰ 

because I called to you, and you did not respond,

I spoke and you did not listen.

You did evil before me; ⁵¹ 

you chose to do what displeases me.”

[31:8]  ¹ tn Heb “Assyria will fall by a sword, not of a man.”

[31:8]  ² tn Heb “and a sword not of humankind will devour him.”

[31:8]  ³ tn Heb “he will flee for himself from before a sword.”

[3:25]  ⁴ tn The pronoun is feminine singular, suggesting personified Zion, as representative of its women, is the addressee. The reference to “her gates’ in v. 26 makes this identification almost certain.

[3:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “your strength in battle.” The verb in the first clause provides the verbal idea for the second clause.

[13:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “carried off,” i.e., grabbed from the fleeing crowd. See HALOT 764 s.v. ספה.

[13:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “will fall” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NLT “will be run through with a sword.”

[1:20]  ¹⁰ sn The wordplay in the Hebrew draws attention to the options. The people can obey, in which case they will “eat” v. 19 (תֹּאכֵלוּ [to’khelu], Qal active participle of אָכַל) God’s blessing, or they can disobey, in which case they will be devoured (Heb “eaten,” תְּאֻכְּלוּ, [tÿ’ukkÿlu], Qal passive/Pual of אָכַל) by God’s judgment.

[1:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” The introductory כִּי (ki) may be asseverative (as reflected in the translation) or causal/explanatory, explaining why the option chosen by the people will become reality (it is guaranteed by the divine word).

[34:5]  ¹³ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”

[34:5]  ¹⁵ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[37:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.

[37:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”

[49:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or perhaps, “polished” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NASB “a select arrow.”

[49:2]  ²⁰ sn The figurative language emphasizes the servant’s importance as the Lord’s effective instrument. The servant’s mouth, which stands metonymically for his words, is compared to a sharp sword because he will be an effective spokesman on God’s behalf (see 50:4). The Lord holds his hand on the servant, ready to draw and use him at the appropriate time. The servant is like a sharpened arrow reserved in a quiver for just the right moment.

[51:19]  ²² tc The Hebrew text has אֲנַחֲמֵךְ (’anakhamekh), a first person form, but the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly יִנַחֲמֵךְ (yinakhamekh), a third person form.

[66:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “upon all men”; TEV “all the people of the world.”

[66:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “many are the slain of the Lord.”

[2:4]  ²⁸ sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.

[2:4]  ²⁹ sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:93; M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle. Breaking weapons and fashioning agricultural implements indicates a transition from fear and stress to peace and security.

[14:19]  ³¹ tn Heb “like a shoot that is abhorred.” The simile seems a bit odd; apparently it refers to a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away. Some prefer to emend נֵצֶר (netser, “shoot”); some propose נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”). In this case one might paraphrase: “like a horrible-looking fetus that is delivered when a woman miscarries.”

[14:19]  ³² tn Heb “are clothed with.”

[14:19]  ³³ tn Heb “those going down to.”

[14:19]  ³⁴ tn בּוֹר (bor) literally means “cistern”; cisterns were constructed from stones. On the metaphorical use of “cistern” for the underworld, see the note at v. 15.

[14:19]  ³⁵ tn Heb “like a trampled corpse.” Some take this line with what follows.

[22:2]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the boisterous town.” The phrase is parallel to “the noisy city” in the preceding line.

[22:2]  ³⁵ sn Apparently they died from starvation during the siege that preceded the final conquest of the city. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:409.

[41:2]  ³⁷ sn The expression this one from the east refers to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, as later texts indicate (see 44:28-45:6; 46:11; 48:14-16).

[41:2]  ³⁸ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.

[41:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”

[41:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”

[41:2]  ⁴¹ tn The verb יַרְדְּ (yardÿ) is an otherwise unattested Hiphil form from רָדָה (radah, “rule”). But the Hiphil makes no sense with “kings” as object; one must understand an ellipsis and supply “him” (Cyrus) as the object. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has יוֹרִד (yorid), which appears to be a Hiphil form from יָרַד (yarad, “go down”). Others suggest reading יָרֹד (yarod), a Qal form from רָדַד (radad, “beat down”).

[41:2]  ⁴² sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.

[27:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

[27:1]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “hard, severe”; cf. NAB, NRSV “cruel”; KJV “sore”; NLT “terrible.”

[27:1]  ⁴² tn Heb “fleeing” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Some translate “slippery” or “slithering.”

[27:1]  ⁴³ tn The description of Leviathan should be compared with the following excerpts from Ugaritic mythological texts: (1) “Was not the dragon (Ugaritic tnn, cognate with Hebrew תַנִּין [tannin, translated “sea monster” here]) vanquished and captured? I did destroy the wriggling (Ugaritic ’qltn, cognate to Hebrew עֲקַלָּתוֹן [’aqallaton, translated “squirming” here]) serpent, the tyrant with seven heads (cf. Ps 74:14).” (See CTA 3 iii 38-39.) (2) “for all that you smote Leviathan the slippery (Ugaritic brh, cognate to Hebrew בָּרִחַ [bariakh, translated “fast-moving” here]) serpent, [and] made an end of the wriggling serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (See CTA 5 i 1-3.)

[34:6]  ⁴³ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ⁴⁴ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁴⁵ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ⁴⁷ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[37:38]  ⁴⁶ sn The assassination of King Sennacherib probably took place in 681 b.c.

[37:38]  ⁴⁷ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[37:38]  ⁴⁸ sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name Nisroch is a corruption of Nusku.

[37:38]  ⁴⁹ sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.

[65:12]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “I assign you to the sword.” Some emend the Qal verb form מָנִיתִי (maniti, “I assign”) to the Piel מִנִּיתִי (minniti, “ I ordain”). The verb sounds like the name of the god Meni (מְנִי, mÿni, “Destiny, Fate”). The sound play draws attention to the irony of the statement. The sinners among God’s people worship the god Meni, apparently in an effort to ensure a bright destiny for themselves. But the Lord is the one who really determines their destiny and he has decreed their demise.

[65:12]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “at the slaughter”; NIV “for the slaughter”; NLT “before the executioner.”

[65:12]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “that which is evil in my eyes.”