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 47:1

Babylon Will Fall

47:1 “Fall down! Sit in the dirt,

O virgin ⁴  daughter Babylon!

Sit on the ground, not on a throne,

O daughter of the Babylonians!

Indeed, ⁵  you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.

Isaiah 47:5

47:5 “Sit silently! Go to a hiding place, ⁶ 

O daughter of the Babylonians!

Indeed, ⁷  you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’

Isaiah 52:2

52:2 Shake off the dirt! ⁸ 

Get up, captive ⁹  Jerusalem!

Take off the iron chains around your neck,

O captive daughter Zion!

Isaiah 10:30

10:30 Shout out, daughter of Gallim!

Pay attention, Laishah!

Answer her, Anathoth! ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 16:1

16:1 Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, ¹¹ 

from Sela in the desert ¹² 

to the hill of Daughter Zion.

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. ¹³ 

Isaiah 23:12

23:12 He said,

“You will no longer celebrate,

oppressed ¹⁴  virgin daughter Sidon!

Get up, travel to Cyprus,

but you will find no relief there.” ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 1:8

1:8 Daughter Zion ¹⁶  is left isolated,

like a hut in a vineyard,

or a shelter in a cucumber field;

she is a besieged city. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 10:32

10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,

they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain ¹⁸  –

at the hill of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 62:11

62:11 Look, the Lord announces to the entire earth: ¹⁹ 

“Say to Daughter Zion,

‘Look, your deliverer comes!

Look, his reward is with him

and his reward goes before him!’” ²⁰ 

Isaiah 22:4

22:4 So I say:

“Don’t look at me! ²¹ 

I am weeping bitterly.

Don’t try ²²  to console me

concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” ²³ 

Isaiah 12:6

12:6 Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion,

for the Holy One of Israel ²⁴  acts mightily ²⁵  among you!”

Isaiah 23:7

23:7 Is this really your boisterous city ²⁶ 

whose origins are in the distant past, ²⁷ 

and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

Isaiah 15:2

15:2 They went up to the temple, ²⁸ 

the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ²⁹ 

Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ³⁰  Moab wails.

Every head is shaved bare,

every beard is trimmed off. ³¹ 

[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.

[47:1]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).

[47:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “darkness,” which may indicate a place of hiding where a fugitive would seek shelter and protection.

[47:5]  ⁸ tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).

[52:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Shake yourself free from the dirt.”

[52:2]  ¹¹ 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.

[10:30]  ¹³ 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.

[16:1]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text has “toward [across?] the desert.”

[23:10]  ¹⁹ 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.

[23:12]  ²² tn Or “violated, raped,” the point being that Daughter Sidon has lost her virginity in the most brutal manner possible.

[23:12]  ²³ 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.

[1:8]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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).

[10:32]  ²⁸ 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.

[62:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so NASB, NRSV).

[62:11]  ³² sn As v. 12 indicates, the returning exiles are the Lord’s reward/prize. See also 40:10 and the note there.

[22:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “look away from me” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:4]  ³⁵ tn Heb “don’t hurry” (so NCV).

[22:4]  ³⁶ 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.

[12:6]  ³⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[12:6]  ³⁸ tn Or “is great” (TEV). However, the context emphasizes his mighty acts of deliverance (cf. NCV), not some general or vague character quality.

[23:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Is this to you, boisterous one?” The pronoun “you” is masculine plural, like the imperatives in v. 6, so it is likely addressed to the Egyptians and residents of the coast. “Boisterous one” is a feminine singular form, probably referring to the personified city of Tyre.

[23:7]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “in the days of antiquity [is] her beginning.”

[15:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “house.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “even Dibon [to] the high places to weep.” The verb “went up” does double duty in the parallel structure.

[15:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “over [or “for”] Nebo and over [or “for”] Medeba.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁶ sn Shaving the head and beard were outward signs of mourning and grief.