Isaiah 4:5

4:5 Then the Lord will create

over all of Mount Zion ¹ 

and over its convocations

a cloud and smoke by day

and a bright flame of fire by night; ² 

indeed a canopy will accompany the Lord’s glorious presence. ³ 

Isaiah 8:7

8:7 So look, the sovereign master ⁴  is bringing up against them the turbulent and mighty waters of the Euphrates River ⁵  – the king of Assyria and all his majestic power. It will reach flood stage and overflow its banks. ⁶ 

Isaiah 9:17

9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased ⁷  with their young men,

he took no pity ⁸  on their orphans and widows;

for the whole nation was godless ⁹  and did wicked things, ¹⁰ 

every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. ¹¹ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹² 

Isaiah 10:20

10:20 At that time ¹³  those left in Israel, those who remain of the family ¹⁴  of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. ¹⁵  Instead they will truly ¹⁶  rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 30:6

30:6 This is a message ¹⁸  about the animals in the Negev:

Through a land of distress and danger,

inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, ¹⁹ 

by snakes and darting adders, ²⁰ 

they transport ²¹  their wealth on the backs of donkeys,

their riches on the humps of camels,

to a nation that cannot help them. ²² 

Isaiah 30:17

30:17 One thousand will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier; ²³ 

at the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away, ²⁴ 

until the remaining few are as isolated ²⁵ 

as a flagpole on a mountaintop

or a signal flag on a hill.”

Isaiah 36:6

36:6 Look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If someone leans on it for support, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him!

Isaiah 36:12

36:12 But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. ²⁶  His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!” ²⁷ 

Isaiah 65:7

65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” ²⁸  says the Lord.

“Because they burned incense on the mountains

and offended ²⁹  me on the hills,

I will punish them in full measure.” ³⁰ 

[4:5]  ¹ tn Heb “over all the place, Mount Zion.” Cf. NLT “Jerusalem”; CEV “the whole city.”

[4:5]  ² tn Heb “a cloud by day, and smoke, and brightness of fire, a flame by night.” Though the accents in the Hebrew text suggest otherwise, it might be preferable to take “smoke” with what follows, since one would expect smoke to accompany fire.

[4:5]  ³ tn Heb “indeed (or “for”) over all the glory, a canopy.” This may allude to Exod 40:34-35, where a cloud overshadows the meeting tent as it is filled with God’s glory.

[8:7]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[8:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “the mighty and abundant waters of the river.” The referent of “the river” here, the Euphrates River, has been specified in the translation for clarity. As the immediately following words indicate, these waters symbolize the Assyrian king and his armies which will, as it were, inundate the land.

[8:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “it will go up over all its stream beds and go over all its banks.”

[9:17]  ⁷ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”

[9:17]  ⁸ tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)

[9:17]  ⁹ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”

[9:17]  ¹⁰ tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.

[9:17]  ¹¹ tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.

[9:17]  ¹² tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[10:20]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “house” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[10:20]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Or “sincerely”; KJV, ASV, NAB, NRSV “in truth.”

[10:20]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[30:6]  ¹³ tn Traditionally, “burden” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “oracle.”

[30:6]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “[a land of] a lioness and a lion, from them.” Some emend מֵהֶם (mehem, “from them”) to מֵהֵם (mehem), an otherwise unattested Hiphil participle from הָמַם (hamam, “move noisily”). Perhaps it would be better to take the initial mem (מ) as enclitic and emend the form to הֹמֶה (homeh), a Qal active participle from הָמָה (hamah, “to make a noise”); cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:542, n. 9.

[30:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “flying fiery one.” See the note at 14:29.

[30:6]  ¹⁶ tn Or “carry” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:6]  ¹⁷ sn This verse describes messengers from Judah transporting wealth to Egypt in order to buy Pharaoh’s protection through a treaty.

[30:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “One thousand from before [or “because of”] one battle cry.” גְּעָרָה (gÿ’arah) is often defined as “threat,” but in war contexts it likely refers to a shout or battle cry. See Ps 76:6.

[30:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from before [or “because of”] the battle cry of five you will flee.

[30:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “until you are left” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[36:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

[36:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”

[65:7]  ²² tn Heb “the iniquities of your fathers.”

[65:7]  ²³ tn Or perhaps, “taunted”; KJV “blasphemed”; NAB “disgraced”; NASB “scorned”; NIV “defied”; NRSV “reviled.”

[65:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I will measure out their pay [from the] beginning into their lap,” i.e., he will give them everything they have earned.