Isaiah 5:14

5:14 So Death ¹  will open up its throat,

and open wide its mouth; ² 

Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it,

including those who revel and celebrate within her. ³ 

Isaiah 6:13

6:13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, ⁴  like one of the large sacred trees ⁵  or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. ⁶  That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.” ⁷ 

Isaiah 8:21

8:21 They will pass through the land ⁸  destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, ⁹  and they will curse their king and their God ¹⁰  as they look upward.

Isaiah 24:6

24:6 So a treaty curse ¹¹  devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt. ¹² 

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, ¹³ 

and are reduced to just a handful of people. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 30:32

30:32 Every blow from his punishing cudgel, ¹⁵ 

with which the Lord will beat them, ¹⁶ 

will be accompanied by music from the ¹⁷  tambourine and harp,

and he will attack them with his weapons. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 34:10-11

34:10 Night and day it will burn; ¹⁹ 

its smoke will ascend continually.

Generation after generation it will be a wasteland

and no one will ever pass through it again.

34:11 Owls and wild animals ²⁰  will live there, ²¹ 

all kinds of wild birds ²²  will settle in it.

The Lord ²³  will stretch out over her

the measuring line of ruin

and the plumb line ²⁴  of destruction. ²⁵ 

Isaiah 34:17

34:17 He assigns them their allotment; ²⁶ 

he measures out their assigned place. ²⁷ 

They will live there ²⁸  permanently;

they will settle in it through successive generations.

Isaiah 37:29

37:29 Because you rage against me

and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ²⁹ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ³⁰ 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back

the way you came.”

Isaiah 42:5

42:5 This is what the true God, ³¹  the Lord, says –

the one who created the sky and stretched it out,

the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, ³² 

the one who gives breath to the people on it,

and life to those who live on it: ³³ 

Isaiah 56:2

56:2 The people who do this will be blessed, ³⁴ 

the people who commit themselves to obedience, ³⁵ 

who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

who refrain from doing anything that is wrong. ³⁶ 

Isaiah 59:8

59:8 They are unfamiliar with peace;

their deeds are unjust. ³⁷ 

They use deceitful methods,

and whoever deals with them is unfamiliar with peace. ³⁸ 

Isaiah 66:10

66:10 Be happy for Jerusalem

and rejoice with her, all you who love her!

Share in her great joy,

all you who have mourned over her!

[5:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); the underworld, the land of the dead, according to the OT world view. Cf. NAB “the nether world”; TEV, CEV “the world of the dead”; NLT “the grave.”

[5:14]  ² tn Heb “so Sheol will make wide its throat, and open its mouth without limit.”

[5:14]  ³ tn Heb “and her splendor and her masses will go down, and her tumult and the one who exults in her.” The antecedent of the four feminine singular pronominal suffixes used in v. 14b is unclear. The likely referent is personified Zion/Jerusalem (see 3:25-26; 4:4-5).

[6:13]  ⁴ tn Or “be burned” (NRSV); NIV “laid waste.”

[6:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “like a massive tree or like a big tree” (perhaps, “like a terebinth or like an oak”).

[6:13]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has “which in the felling, a sacred pillar in them.” Some take מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) as “stump,” and translate, “which, when chopped down, have a stump remaining in them.” But elsewhere מַצֶּבֶת refers to a memorial pillar (2 Sam 18:18) and the word resembles מַצֶּבָה (matsevah, “sacred pillar”). בָּם (bam, “in them”) may be a corruption of בָּמָה (bamah, “high place”; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has במה). אֳשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) becomes a problem in this case, but one might emend the form to וּכְּאֲשֵׁרָה (ukÿ’asherah, “or like an Asherah pole”) and translate, “like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole.” Though the text is difficult, the references to sacred trees and a sacred pillar suggest that the destruction of a high place is in view, an apt metaphor for the judgment of idolatrous Judah.

[6:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “a holy offspring [is] its sacred pillar.” If מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) is taken as “stump,” one can see in this statement a brief glimpse of hope. The tree (the nation) is chopped down, but the stump (a righteous remnant) remains from which God can restore the nation. However, if מַצֶּבֶת is taken as “sacred pillar” (מַצֶּבָה, matsevah; see the previous note), it is much more difficult to take the final statement in a positive sense. In this case “holy offspring” alludes to God’s ideal for his covenant people, the offspring of the patriarchs. Ironically that “holy” nation is more like a “sacred pillar” and it will be thrown down like a sacred pillar from a high place and its land destroyed like the sacred trees located at such shrines. Understood in this way, the ironic statement is entirely negative in tone, just like the rest of the preceding announcement of judgment. It also reminds the people of their failure; they did not oppose pagan religion, instead they embraced it. Now they will be destroyed in the same way they should have destroyed paganism.

[8:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “he will pass through it.” The subject of the collective singular verb is the nation. (See the preceding note.) The immediately preceding context supplies no antecedent for “it” (a third feminine singular suffix in the Hebrew text); the suffix may refer to the land, which would be a reasonable referent with a verb of motion. Note also that אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) does appear at the beginning of the next verse.

[8:21]  ⁸ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[8:21]  ⁹ tn Or “gods” (NAB, NRSV, CEV).

[24:6]  ¹⁰ sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.

[24:6]  ¹¹ tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).

[24:6]  ¹² tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).

[24:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”

[30:32]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text has “every blow from a founded [i.e., “appointed”?] cudgel.” The translation above, with support from a few medieval Hebrew mss, assumes an emendation of מוּסָדָה (musadah, “founded”) to מוּסָרֹה (musaroh, “his discipline”).

[30:32]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “which the Lord lays on him.”

[30:32]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will be with” (KJV similar).

[30:32]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and with battles of brandishing [weapons?] he will fight against him.” Some prefer to emend וּבְמִלְחֲמוֹת (uvÿmilkhamot, “and with battles of”) to וּבִמְחֹלוֹת (uvimkholot, “and with dancing”). Note the immediately preceding references to musical instruments.

[34:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”

[34:11]  ¹⁹ tn קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). קִפּוֹד (qippod) may also refer to a type of bird (NAB “hoot owl”; NIV “screech owl”; TEV “ravens”), but some have suggested a rodent may be in view (cf. NCV “small animals”; ASV “porcupine”; NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”).

[34:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).

[34:11]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof vÿ’orev). Both the יַנְשׁוֹף (“owl”; see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16) and עֹרֵב (“raven”; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14) were types of wild birds.

[34:11]  ²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:11]  ²³ tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.

[34:11]  ²⁴ sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.

[34:17]  ²² tn Heb “and he causes the lot to fall for them.” Once again the pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).

[34:17]  ²³ tn Heb “and his hand divides for them with a measuring line.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) now switches to masculine plural, referring to all the animals and birds mentioned in vv. 11-15, some of which were identified with masculine nouns. This signals closure for this portion of the speech, which began in v. 11. The following couplet (v. 17b) forms an inclusio with v. 11a through verbal repetition.

[34:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV); NCV “they will own that land forever.”

[37:29]  ²⁵ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (sha’anankha, “your complacency”) is emended to שְׁאוֹנְךָ (shÿ’onÿkha, “your uproar”). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38. However, the LXX seems to support the MT and Sennacherib’s cavalier dismissal of Yahweh depicts an arrogant complacency (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:658, n. 10).

[37:29]  ²⁶ sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

[42:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the God.” The definite article here indicates distinctiveness or uniqueness.

[42:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and its offspring” (so NASB); NIV “all that comes out of it.”

[42:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and spirit [i.e., “breath”] to the ones walking in it” (NAB, NASB, and NRSV all similar).

[56:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “blessed is the man who does this.”

[56:2]  ³² tn Heb “the son of mankind who takes hold of it.”

[56:2]  ³³ tn Heb and who keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

[59:8]  ³⁴ tn Heb “a way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their pathways.”

[59:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “their paths they make crooked, everyone who walks in it does not know peace.”