Isaiah 37:26

37:26 ¹ Certainly you must have heard! ² 

Long ago I worked it out,

in ancient times I planned ³  it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ⁴ 

Isaiah 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ⁵  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ⁶ 

For these people lack understanding, ⁷ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Isaiah 28:4

28:4 The withering flower, its beautiful splendor,

situated at the head of a rich valley,

will be like an early fig before harvest –

as soon as someone notices it,

he grabs it and swallows it. ⁸ 

[37:26]  ¹ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[37:26]  ² tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.

[37:26]  ³ tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).

[37:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.

[27:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[28:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “which the one seeing sees, while still it is in his hand he swallows it.”