Isaiah 5:10
Context5:10 Indeed, a large vineyard 1 will produce just a few gallons, 2
and enough seed to yield several bushels 3 will produce less than a bushel.” 4
Isaiah 41:25
Context41:25 I have stirred up one out of the north 5 and he advances,
one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. 6
He steps on 7 rulers as if they were clay,
like a potter treading the clay.
Isaiah 45:9
Context45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, 8
one who is like a mere 9 shard among the other shards on the ground!
The clay should not say to the potter, 10
“What in the world 11 are you doing?
Your work lacks skill!” 12


[5:10] 1 tn Heb “a ten-yoke vineyard.” The Hebrew term צֶמֶד (tsemed, “yoke”) is here a unit of square measure. Apparently a ten-yoke vineyard covered the same amount of land it would take ten teams of oxen to plow in a certain period of time. The exact size is unknown.
[5:10] 2 tn Heb “one bath.” A bath was a liquid measure. Estimates of its modern equivalent range from approximately six to twelve gallons.
[5:10] 3 tn Heb “a homer.” A homer was a dry measure, the exact size of which is debated. Cf. NCV “ten bushels”; CEV “five bushels.”
[5:10] 4 tn Heb “an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure; there were ten ephahs in a homer. So this verse envisions major crop failure, where only one-tenth of the anticipated harvest is realized.
[41:25] 5 sn That is, Cyrus the Persian. See the note at v. 2.
[41:25] 6 tn Heb “[one] from the rising of the sun [who] calls in my name.”
[41:25] 7 tn The Hebrew text has וְיָבֹא (vÿyavo’, “and he comes”), but this is likely a corruption of an original וַיָּבָס (vayyavas), from בּוּס (bus, “step on”).
[45:9] 9 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”
[45:9] 10 tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.
[45:9] 11 tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”
[45:9] 12 tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.
[45:9] 13 tn Heb “your work, there are no hands for it,” i.e., “your work looks like something made by a person who has no hands.”