Isaiah 42:15

42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; ¹ 

I will dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn streams into islands, ² 

and dry up pools of water. ³ 

Isaiah 40:12

The Lord is Incomparable

40:12 Who has measured out the waters ⁴  in the hollow of his hand,

or carefully ⁵  measured the sky, ⁶ 

or carefully weighed ⁷  the soil of the earth,

or weighed the mountains in a balance,

or the hills on scales? ⁸ 

Isaiah 41:15

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ⁹  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ¹⁰ 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ¹¹ 

[42:15]  ¹ tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”

[42:15]  ² tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).

[42:15]  ³ sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.

[40:12]  ⁴ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.

[40:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).

[40:12]  ⁶ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[40:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”

[40:12]  ⁸ sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is “no one but the Lord. The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.

[41:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ⁹ sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.