Isaiah 38:13

38:13 I cry out ¹  until morning;

like a lion he shatters all my bones;

you turn day into night and end my life. ² 

Isaiah 42:3

42:3 A crushed reed he will not break,

a dim wick he will not extinguish; ³ 

he will faithfully make just decrees. ⁴ 

Isaiah 45:2

45:2 “I will go before you

and level mountains. ⁵ 

Bronze doors I will shatter

and iron bars ⁶  I will hack through.

Isaiah 66:9

66:9 “Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?”

asks the Lord.

“Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?”

asks your God. ⁷ 

[38:13]  ¹ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Piel from שָׁוַה (shavah). There are two homonyms שָׁוַה, one meaning in the Piel “level, smooth out,” the other “set, place.” Neither fits in v. 13. It is likely that the original reading was שִׁוַּעְתִּי (shivva’ti, “I cry out”) from the verbal root שָׁוַע (shava’), which occurs exclusively in the Piel.

[38:13]  ² tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”

[42:3]  ³ sn The “crushed reed” and “dim wick” symbolize the weak and oppressed who are on the verge of extinction.

[42:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “faithfully he will bring out justice” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[45:2]  ⁵ tc The form הֲדוּרִים (hadurim) makes little, if any, sense here. It is probably a corruption of an original הָרָרִים (hararim, “mountains”), the reduplicated form of הָר (har, “mountain”).

[45:2]  ⁶ tn That is, on the gates. Cf. CEV “break the iron bars on bronze gates.”

[66:9]  ⁷ sn The rhetorical questions expect the answer, “Of course not!”