Isaiah 5:1

A Love Song Gone Sour

5:1 I ¹  will sing to my love –

a song to my lover about his vineyard. ² 

My love had a vineyard

on a fertile hill. ³ 

Isaiah 5:9

5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: ⁴ 

“Many houses will certainly become desolate,

large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. ⁵ 

Isaiah 5:27

5:27 None tire or stumble,

they don’t stop to nap or sleep.

They don’t loosen their belts,

or unstrap their sandals to rest. ⁶ 

Isaiah 6:2

6:2 Seraphs ⁷  stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, ⁸  and they used the remaining two to fly.

Isaiah 9:19

9:19 Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, ⁹ 

and the people became fuel for the fire. ¹⁰ 

People had no compassion on one another. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 10:33

10:33 Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,

is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ¹² 

The tallest trees ¹³  will be cut down,

the loftiest ones will be brought low.

Isaiah 14:32

14:32 How will they respond to the messengers of this nation? ¹⁴ 

Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure;

the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.

Isaiah 29:5

29:5 But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust,

the horde of tyrants ¹⁵  like chaff that is blown away.

It will happen suddenly, in a flash.

Isaiah 36:9

36:9 Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 46:9

46:9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! ¹⁷ 

Truly I am God, I have no peer; ¹⁸ 

I am God, and there is none like me,

Isaiah 53:6

53:6 All of us had wandered off like sheep;

each of us had strayed off on his own path,

but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. ¹⁹ 

[5:1]  ¹ tn It is uncertain who is speaking here. Possibly the prophet, taking the role of best man, composes a love song for his friend on the occasion of his wedding. If so, יָדִיד (yadid) should be translated “my friend.” The present translation assumes that Israel is singing to the Lord. The word דוֹד (dod, “lover”) used in the second line is frequently used by the woman in the Song of Solomon to describe her lover.

[5:1]  ² sn Israel, viewing herself as the Lord’s lover, refers to herself as his vineyard. The metaphor has sexual connotations, for it pictures her capacity to satisfy his appetite and to produce children. See Song 8:12.

[5:1]  ³ tn Heb “on a horn, a son of oil.” Apparently קֶרֶן (qeren, “horn”) here refers to the horn-shaped peak of a hill (BDB 902 s.v.) or to a mountain spur, i.e., a ridge that extends laterally from a mountain (HALOT 1145 s.v. קֶרֶן; H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:180). The expression “son of oil” pictures this hill as one capable of producing olive trees. Isaiah’s choice of קֶרֶן, a rare word for hill, may have been driven by paronomastic concerns, i.e., because קֶרֶן sounds like כֶּרֶם (kerem, “vineyard”).

[5:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

[5:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”

[5:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the belt on his waist is not opened, and the thong of his sandals is not torn in two.”

[6:2]  ¹⁰ tn Hebrew שָׂרָף (saraf, “seraph”) literally means “burning one,” perhaps suggesting that these creatures had a fiery appearance (cf. TEV, CEV “flaming creatures”; NCV “heavenly creatures of fire”). Elsewhere in the OT the word “seraph” refers to poisonous snakes (Num 21:6; Deut 8:15; Isa 14:29; 30:6). Perhaps they were called “burning ones” because of their appearance or the effect of their venomous bites, which would cause a victim to burn up with fever. It is possible that the seraphs seen by Isaiah were at least partially serpentine in appearance. Though it might seem strange for a snake-like creature to have wings, two of the texts where “seraphs” are snakes describe them as “flying” (Isa 14:29; 30:6), perhaps referring to their darting movements. See the note at 14:29.

[6:2]  ¹¹ sn Some understand “feet” here as a euphemistic reference to the genitals.

[9:19]  ¹³ tn The precise meaning of the verb עְתַּם (’ÿtam), which occurs only here, is uncertain, though the context strongly suggests that it means “burn, scorch.”

[9:19]  ¹⁴ sn The uncontrollable fire of the people’s wickedness (v. 18) is intensified by the fire of the Lord’s judgment (v. 19). God allows (or causes) their wickedness to become self-destructive as civil strife and civil war break out in the land.

[9:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “men were not showing compassion to their brothers.” The idiom “men to their brothers” is idiomatic for reciprocity. The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav (ו) consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.

[10:33]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads “with terrifying power,” or “with a crash.” מַעֲרָצָה (ma’aratsah, “terrifying power” or “crash”) occurs only here. Several have suggested an emendation to מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad, “ax”) parallel to “ax” in v. 34; see HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:448.

[10:33]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the exalted of the height.” This could refer to the highest branches (cf. TEV) or the tallest trees (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[14:32]  ¹⁹ sn The question forces the Philistines to consider the dilemma they will face – surrender and oppression, or battle and death.

[29:5]  ²² tn Or “violent men”; cf. NASB “the ruthless ones.”

[36:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “How can you turn back the face of an official [from among] the least of my master’s servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?” In vv. 8-9 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 6. His reasoning seems to be as follows: “In your weakened condition you obviously need military strength. Agree to the king’s terms and I will personally give you more horses than you are capable of outfitting. If I, a mere minor official, am capable of giving you such military might, just think what power the king has. There is no way the Egyptians can match our strength. It makes much better sense to deal with us.”

[46:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “remember the former things, from antiquity”; KJV, ASV “the former things of old.”

[46:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and there is no other” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[53:6]  ³¹ tn Elsewhere the Hiphil of פָגַע (paga’) means “to intercede verbally” (Jer 15:11; 36:25) or “to intervene militarily” (Isa 59:16), but neither nuance fits here. Apparently here the Hiphil is the causative of the normal Qal meaning, “encounter, meet, touch.” The Qal sometimes refers to a hostile encounter or attack; when used in this way the object is normally introduced by the preposition -בְּ (bet, see Josh 2:16; Judg 8:21; 15:12, etc.). Here the causative Hiphil has a double object – the Lord makes “sin” attack “him” (note that the object attacked is introduced by the preposition -בְּ. In their sin the group was like sheep who had wandered from God’s path. They were vulnerable to attack; the guilt of their sin was ready to attack and destroy them. But then the servant stepped in and took the full force of the attack.