Discovery BoxIsaiah 47:13-15
Context47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice. 1
Let them take their stand –
the ones who see omens in the sky,
who gaze at the stars,
who make monthly predictions –
let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! 2
47:14 Look, they are like straw,
which the fire burns up;
they cannot rescue themselves
from the heat 3 of the flames.
There are no coals to warm them,
no firelight to enjoy. 4
47:15 They will disappoint you, 5
those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth. 6
Each strays off in his own direction, 7
leaving no one to rescue you.”
[47:13] 1 tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”
[47:13] 2 tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months – from those things which are coming upon you.”
[47:14] 3 tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.
[47:14] 4 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “there is no coal [for?] their food, light to sit before it.” Some emend לַחְמָם (lakhmam, “their food”) to לְחֻמָּם (lÿkhummam, “to warm them”; see HALOT 328 s.v. חמם). This statement may allude to Isa 44:16, where idolaters are depicted warming themselves over a fire made from wood, part of which was used to form idols. The fire of divine judgment will be no such campfire; its flames will devour and destroy.
[47:15] 5 tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”
[47:15] 6 tn Heb “that for which you toiled, your traders from your youth.” The omen readers and star gazers are likened to merchants with whom Babylon has had an ongoing economic relationship.
