Isaiah 4:2

The Branch of the Lord

4:2 At that time ¹ 

the crops given by the Lord will bring admiration and honor; ² 

the produce of the land will be a source of pride and delight

to those who remain in Israel. ³ 

Isaiah 5:30

5:30 At that time ⁴  they will growl over their prey, ⁵ 

it will sound like sea waves crashing against rocks. ⁶ 

One will look out over the land and see the darkness of disaster,

clouds will turn the light into darkness. ⁷ 

Isaiah 10:20

10:20 At that time ⁸  those left in Israel, those who remain of the family ⁹  of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. ¹⁰  Instead they will truly ¹¹  rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. ¹² 

Isaiah 20:6

20:6 At that time ¹³  those who live on this coast ¹⁴  will say, ‘Look what has happened to our source of hope to whom we fled for help, expecting to be rescued from the king of Assyria! How can we escape now?’”

Isaiah 27:12

27:12 At that time ¹⁵  the Lord will shake the tree, ¹⁶  from the Euphrates River ¹⁷  to the Stream of Egypt. Then you will be gathered up one by one, O Israelites. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 30:23

30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,

and the ground will produce crops in abundance. ¹⁹ 

At that time ²⁰  your cattle will graze in wide pastures.

[4:2]  ¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[4:2]  ² tn Heb “and the vegetation of the Lord will become beauty and honor.” Many English versions understand the phrase צֶמַח יְהוָה (tsemakh yÿhvah) as a messianic reference and render it, “the Branch of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT, and others). Though צֶמַח (tsemakh) is used by later prophets of a royal descendant (Jer 23;5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12), those passages contain clear contextual indicators that a human ruler is in view and that the word is being used in a metaphorical way of offspring. However, in Isa 4:2 there are no such contextual indicators. To the contrary, in the parallel structure of the verse צֶמַח יְהוָה corresponds to “produce of the land,” a phrase that refers elsewhere exclusively to literal agricultural produce (see Num 13:20, 26; Deut 1:25). In the majority of its uses צֶמַח refers to literal crops or vegetation (in Ps 65:10 the Lord is the source of this vegetation). A reference to the Lord restoring crops would make excellent sense in Isa 4 and the prophets frequently included this theme in their visions of the future age (see Isa 30:23-24; 32:20; Jer 31:12; Ezek 34:26-29; and Amos 9:13-14).

[4:2]  ³ tn Heb “and the fruit of the land will become pride and beauty for the remnant of Israel.”

[5:30]  ⁴ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[5:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “over it”; the referent (the prey) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “like the growling of the sea.”

[5:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “and one will gaze toward the land, and look, darkness of distress, and light will grow dark by its [the land’s?] clouds.”

[10:20]  ⁷ tn Or “in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “house” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[10:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “on one who strikes him down.” This individual is the king (“foreign leader”) of the oppressing nation (which NLT specifies as “the Assyrians”).

[10:20]  ¹⁰ tn Or “sincerely”; KJV, ASV, NAB, NRSV “in truth.”

[10:20]  ¹¹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[20:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

[20:6]  ¹¹ sn This probably refers to the coastal region of Philistia (cf. TEV).

[27:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[27:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the Lord will beat out.” The verb is used of beating seeds or grain to separate the husk from the kernel (see Judg 6:11; Ruth 2:17; Isa 28:27), and of beating the olives off the olive tree (Deut 24:20). The latter metaphor may be in view here, where a tree metaphor has been employed in the preceding verses. See also 17:6.

[27:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the river,” a frequent designation in the OT for the Euphrates. For clarity most modern English versions substitute the name “Euphrates” for “the river” here.

[27:12]  ¹⁶ sn The Israelites will be freed from exile (likened to beating the olives off the tree) and then gathered (likened to collecting the olives).

[30:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”

[30:23]  ¹⁷ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).