Isaiah 41:5

41:5 The coastlands ¹  see and are afraid;

the whole earth ²  trembles;

they approach and come.

Isaiah 13:22

13:22 Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,

jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. ³ 

Her time is almost up, ⁴ 

her days will not be prolonged. ⁵ 

Isaiah 40:15

40:15 Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are regarded as dust on the scales.

He lifts ⁶  the coastlands ⁷  as if they were dust.

Isaiah 41:1

The Lord Challenges the Nations

41:1 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands! ⁸ 

Let the nations find renewed strength!

Let them approach and then speak;

let us come together for debate! ⁹ 

Isaiah 42:4

42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed ¹⁰ 

before establishing justice on the earth;

the coastlands ¹¹  will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” ¹² 

Isaiah 42:10

42:10 Sing to the Lord a brand new song!

Praise him ¹³  from the horizon of the earth,

you who go down to the sea, and everything that lives in it, ¹⁴ 

you coastlands ¹⁵  and those who live there!

[41:5]  ¹ tn Or “islands” (NIV, CEV); NCV “faraway places”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”

[41:5]  ² tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.

[13:22]  ³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “wild dogs will yip among his widows, and jackals in the palaces of pleasure.” The verb “yip” is supplied in the second line; it does double duty in the parallel structure. “His widows” makes little sense in this context; many emend the form (אַלְמנוֹתָיו, ’almnotayv) to the graphically similar אַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ (’armÿnoteha, “her fortresses”), a reading that is assumed in the present translation. The use of “widows” may represent an intentional wordplay on “fortresses,” indicating that the fortresses are like dejected widows (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:308, n. 1).

[13:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “near to come is her time.”

[13:22]  ⁵ sn When was the prophecy of Babylon’s fall fulfilled? Some argue that the prophecy was fulfilled in 689 b.c. when the Assyrians under Sennacherib sacked and desecrated the city (this event is alluded to in 23:13). This may have been an initial phase in the fulfillment of the prophecy, but the reference to the involvement of the Medes (v. 17) and the suggestion that Babylon’s demise will bring about the restoration of Israel (14:1-2) indicate that the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians in 538 b.c. is the primary focus of the prophecy. (After all, the Lord did reveal to Isaiah that the Chaldeans [not the Assyrians] would someday conquer Jerusalem and take the people into exile [see 39:5-7].) However, the vivid picture of destruction in vv. 15-22 raises a problem. The Medes and Persians did not destroy the city; in fact Cyrus’ takeover of Babylon, though preceded by a military campaign, was relatively peaceful and even welcomed by some Babylonian religious officials. How then does one explain the prophecy’s description of the city’s violent fall? As noted above, the events of 689 b.c. and 538 b.c. may have been merged in the prophecy. However, it is more likely that the language is stylized and exaggerated for rhetorical effect. See Isa 34:11-15; Jer 50:39-40 (describing Babylon’s fall in 538 b.c.); 51:36-37 (describing Babylon’s fall in 538 b.c.); Zeph 2:13-15; the extra-biblical Sefire treaty curses; and Ashurbanipal’s description of the destruction of Elam in his royal annals. In other words, the events of 538 b.c. essentially, though not necessarily literally, fulfill the prophecy.

[40:15]  ⁵ tn Or “weighs” (NIV); NLT “picks up.”

[40:15]  ⁶ tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV, NLT).

[41:1]  ⁷ tn Or “islands” (KJV, NIV, CEV); TEV “distant lands”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”

[41:1]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) could be translated “judgment,” but here it seems to refer to the dispute or debate between the Lord and the nations.

[42:4]  ⁹ tn For rhetorical effect the terms used to describe the “crushed (רָצַץ, ratsats) reed” and “dim (כָּהָה, kahah) wick” in v. 3 are repeated here.

[42:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “islands” (NIV); NLT “distant lands beyond the sea.”

[42:4]  ¹¹ tn Or “his law” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV) or “his instruction” (NLT).

[42:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his praise.” The phrase stands parallel to “new song” in the previous line.

[42:10]  ¹² tn Heb “and its fullness”; NASB, NIV “and all that is in it.”

[42:10]  ¹³ tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV); NLT “distant coastlands.”