Isaiah 37:22

37:22 this is what the Lord says about him: ¹ 

“The virgin daughter Zion ² 

despises you – she makes fun of you;

daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you. ³ 

Isaiah 10:30

10:30 Shout out, daughter of Gallim!

Pay attention, Laishah!

Answer her, Anathoth! ⁴ 

Isaiah 23:10

23:10 Daughter Tarshish, travel back to your land, as one crosses the Nile;

there is no longer any marketplace in Tyre. ⁵ 

Isaiah 1:8

1:8 Daughter Zion ⁶  is left isolated,

like a hut in a vineyard,

or a shelter in a cucumber field;

she is a besieged city. ⁷ 

Isaiah 5:10

5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard ⁸  will produce just a few gallons, ⁹ 

and enough seed to yield several bushels ¹⁰  will produce less than a bushel.” ¹¹ 

Isaiah 10:32

10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,

they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain ¹²  –

at the hill of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 16:1

16:1 Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, ¹³ 

from Sela in the desert ¹⁴ 

to the hill of Daughter Zion.

Isaiah 52:2

52:2 Shake off the dirt! ¹⁵ 

Get up, captive ¹⁶  Jerusalem!

Take off the iron chains around your neck,

O captive daughter Zion!

Isaiah 47:1

Babylon Will Fall

47:1 “Fall down! Sit in the dirt,

O virgin ¹⁷  daughter Babylon!

Sit on the ground, not on a throne,

O daughter of the Babylonians!

Indeed, ¹⁸  you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.

Isaiah 22:4

22:4 So I say:

“Don’t look at me! ¹⁹ 

I am weeping bitterly.

Don’t try ²⁰  to console me

concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” ²¹ 

Isaiah 23:12

23:12 He said,

“You will no longer celebrate,

oppressed ²²  virgin daughter Sidon!

Get up, travel to Cyprus,

but you will find no relief there.” ²³ 

Isaiah 47:5

47:5 “Sit silently! Go to a hiding place, ²⁴ 

O daughter of the Babylonians!

Indeed, ²⁵  you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’

[37:22]  ¹ tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”

[37:22]  ² sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.

[37:22]  ³ sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.

[10:30]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads “Poor [is] Anathoth.” The parallelism is tighter if עֲנִיָּה (’aniyyah,“poor”) is emended to עֲנִיהָ (’aniha, “answer her”). Note how the preceding two lines have an imperative followed by a proper name.

[23:10]  ⁷ tc This meaning of this verse is unclear. The Hebrew text reads literally, “Cross over your land, like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish, there is no more waistband.” The translation assumes an emendation of מֵזַח (mezakh, “waistband”) to מָחֹז (makhoz, “harbor, marketplace”; see Ps 107:30). The term עָבַר (’avar, “cross over”) is probably used here of traveling over the water (as in v. 6). The command is addressed to personified Tarshish, who here represents her merchants. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has עבדי (“work, cultivate”) instead of עִבְרִי (’ivri, “cross over”). In this case one might translate “Cultivate your land, like they do the Nile region” (cf. NIV, CEV). The point would be that the people of Tarshish should turn to agriculture because they will no longer be able to get what they need through the marketplace in Tyre.

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “daughter of Zion” (so KJV, NASB, NIV). The genitive is appositional, identifying precisely which daughter is in view. By picturing Zion as a daughter, the prophet emphasizes her helplessness and vulnerability before the enemy.

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like a city besieged.” Unlike the preceding two comparisons, which are purely metaphorical, this third one identifies the reality of Israel’s condition. In this case the comparative preposition, as in v. 7b, has the force, “in every way like,” indicating that all the earmarks of a siege are visible because that is indeed what is taking place. The verb form in MT is Qal passive participle of נָצַר (natsar, “guard”), but since this verb is not often used of a siege (see BDB 666 s.v. I נָצַר), some prefer to repoint the form as a Niphal participle from II צוּר (tsur, “besiege”). However, the latter is not attested elsewhere in the Niphal (see BDB 848 s.v. II צוּר).

[5:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.

[5:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.

[5:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”

[5:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.

[10:32]  ¹⁶ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “a mountain of a house (בֵּית, bet), Zion,” but the marginal reading (Qere) correctly reads “the mountain of the daughter (בַּת, bat) of Zion.” On the phrase “Daughter Zion,” see the note on the same phrase in 1:8.

[16:1]  ¹⁹ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “Send [a plural imperatival form is used] a ram [to] the ruler of the land.” The term כַּר (kar, “ram”) should be emended to the plural כָּרִים (karim). The singular form in the text is probably the result of haplography; note that the next word begins with a mem (מ).

[16:1]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text has “toward [across?] the desert.”

[52:2]  ²² tn Heb “Shake yourself free from the dirt.”

[52:2]  ²³ tc The Hebrew text has שְּׂבִי (shÿvi), which some understand as a feminine singular imperative from יָשַׁב (yashav, “sit”). The LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, and the Targum support the MT reading (the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does indirectly). Some interpret this to mean “take your throne”: The Lord exhorts Jerusalem to get up from the dirt and sit, probably with the idea of sitting in a place of honor (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:361). However, the form is likely a corruption of שְׁבִיָּה (shÿviyyah, “captive”), which appears in the parallel line.

[47:1]  ²⁵ tn בְּתוּלַה (bÿtulah) often refers to a virgin, but the phrase “virgin daughter” is apparently stylized (see also 23:12; 37:22). In the extended metaphor of this chapter, where Babylon is personified as a queen (vv. 5, 7), she is depicted as being both a wife and mother (vv. 8-9).

[47:1]  ²⁶ tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).

[22:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “look away from me” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “don’t hurry” (so NCV).

[22:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.” “Daughter” is here used metaphorically to express the speaker’s emotional attachment to his people, as well as their vulnerability and weakness.

[23:12]  ³¹ tn Or “violated, raped,” the point being that Daughter Sidon has lost her virginity in the most brutal manner possible.

[23:12]  ³² tn Heb “[to the] Kittim, get up, cross over; even there there will be no rest for you.” On “Kittim” see the note on “Cyprus” at v. 1.

[47:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “darkness,” which may indicate a place of hiding where a fugitive would seek shelter and protection.

[47:5]  ³⁵ tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).