Isaiah 33:23

33:23 Though at this time your ropes are slack, ¹ 

the mast is not secured, ² 

and the sail ³  is not unfurled,

at that time you will divide up a great quantity of loot; ⁴ 

even the lame will drag off plunder. ⁵ 

Isaiah 33:2

33:2 Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for you.

Give us strength each morning! ⁶ 

Deliver us when distress comes. ⁷ 

Isaiah 7:15-16

7:15 He will eat sour milk ⁸  and honey, which will help him know how ⁹  to reject evil and choose what is right. 7:16 Here is why this will be so: ¹⁰  Before the child knows how to reject evil and choose what is right, the land ¹¹  whose two kings you fear will be desolate. ¹² 

Isaiah 7:2

7:2 It was reported to the family ¹³  of David, “Syria has allied with ¹⁴  Ephraim.” They and their people were emotionally shaken, just as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 14:13

14:13 You said to yourself, ¹⁶ 

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El ¹⁷ 

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 20:1

20:1 The Lord revealed the following message during the year in which King Sargon of Assyria sent his commanding general to Ashdod, and he fought against it and captured it. ¹⁹ 

[33:23]  ¹ tn The words “though at this time” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first half of the verse is addressed to Judah and contrasts the nation’s present weakness with its future prosperity. Judah is compared to a ship that is incapable of sailing.

[33:23]  ² tn Heb “they do not fasten the base of their mast.” On כֵּן (ken, “base”) see BDB 487 s.v. III כֵּן and HALOT 483 s.v. III כֵּן.

[33:23]  ³ tn Or perhaps, “flag.”

[33:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “then there will be divided up loot of plunder [in] abundance.”

[33:23]  ⁵ sn Judah’s victory over its enemies will be so thorough there will be more than enough plunder for everyone, even slow-moving lame men who would normally get left out in the rush to gather the loot.

[33:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “Be their arm each morning.” “Arm” is a symbol for strength. The mem suffixed to the noun has been traditionally understood as a third person suffix, but this is contrary to the context, where the people speak of themselves in the first person. The mem (מ) is probably enclitic with ellipsis of the pronoun, which can be supplied from the context. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:589, n. 1.

[33:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “[Be] also our deliverance in the time of distress.”

[7:15]  ⁸ tn Or, perhaps “cream,” frequently, “curds” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); KJV, ASV “butter”; CEV “yogurt.”

[7:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “for his knowing.” Traditionally the preposition has been translated in a temporal sense, “when he knows.” However, though the preposition לְ (lamed) can sometimes have a temporal force, it never carries such a nuance in any of the 40 other passages where it is used with the infinitive construct of יָדַע (yada’, “to know”). Most often the construction indicates purpose/result. This sense is preferable here. The following context indicates that sour milk and honey will epitomize the devastation that God’s judgment will bring upon the land. Cultivated crops will be gone and the people will be forced to live off the milk produced by their goats and the honey they find in the thickets. As the child is forced to eat a steady diet of this sour milk and honey, he will be reminded of the consequences of sin and motivated to make correct moral decisions in order to avoid further outbreaks of divine discipline.

[7:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for, because.” The particle introduces the entire following context (vv. 16-25), which explains why Immanuel will be an appropriate name for the child, why he will eat sour milk and honey, and why experiencing such a diet will contribute to his moral development.

[7:16]  ¹¹ sn Since “two kings” are referred to later in the verse, the “land” must here refer to Syria-Israel.

[7:16]  ¹² tn Heb “the land will be abandoned, which you fear because of its two kings.” After the verb קוּץ (quts, “loathe, dread”) the phrase מִפְּנֵי (mipney, “from before”) introduces the cause of loathing/dread (see Gen 27:46; Exod 1:12; Num 22:3).

[7:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “house.” In this context the “house of David” includes King Ahaz, his family, and the royal court. See also Jer 21:12; Zech 12:7-8, 10, 12, for a similar use of the phrase.

[7:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “rests upon.” Most understand the verb as נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”), but HALOT 685 s.v. II נחה proposes that this is a hapax legomenon which means “stand by.”

[7:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and his heart shook and the heart of his people shook, like the shaking of the trees of the forest before the wind.” The singular pronoun “his” is collective, referring to the Davidic house/family. לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) here refers to the seat of the emotions.

[14:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”

[14:13]  ¹⁷ sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.

[14:13]  ¹⁸ sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.

[20:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “In the year the commanding general came to Ashdod, when Sargon king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and captured it.”