Isaiah 33:8

33:8 Highways are empty, ¹ 

there are no travelers. ² 

Treaties are broken, ³ 

witnesses are despised, ⁴ 

human life is treated with disrespect. ⁵ 

Isaiah 40:3

40:3 A voice cries out,

“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;

construct in the desert a road for our God.

[33:8]  ¹ tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”

[33:8]  ² tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”

[33:8]  ³ tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”

[33:8]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.

[33:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”