Discovery BoxIsaiah 37:26-27
Context37:26 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
37:27 Their residents are powerless; 5
they are terrified and ashamed.
They are as short-lived as plants in the field
or green vegetation. 6
They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops 7
when it is scorched by the east wind. 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.
[37:27] 5 tn Heb “short of hand”; KJV, ASV “of small power”; NASB “short of strength.”
[37:27] 6 tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.
[37:27] 7 tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.
[37:27] 8 tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah, “standing grain”) to קָדִים (qadim, “east wind”) with the support of 1Q Isaa; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:657, n. 8.
