Isaiah 5:17

5:17 Lambs ¹  will graze as if in their pastures,

amid the ruins the rich sojourners will graze. ² 

Isaiah 14:24-27

14:24 ³ The Lord who commands armies makes this solemn vow:

“Be sure of this:

Just as I have intended, so it will be;

just as I have planned, it will happen.

14:25 I will break Assyria ⁴  in my land,

I will trample them ⁵  underfoot on my hills.

Their yoke will be removed from my people,

the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. ⁶ 

14:26 This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;

my hand is ready to strike all the nations.” ⁷ 

14:27 Indeed, ⁸  the Lord who commands armies has a plan,

and who can possibly frustrate it?

His hand is ready to strike,

and who can possibly stop it? ⁹ 

Isaiah 29:5-8

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

the horde of tyrants ¹⁰  like chaff that is blown away.

It will happen suddenly, in a flash.

29:6 Judgment will come from the Lord who commands armies, ¹¹ 

accompanied by thunder, earthquake, and a loud noise,

by a strong gale, a windstorm, and a consuming flame of fire.

29:7 It will be like a dream, a night vision.

There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,

those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.

29:8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming that he is eating,

only to awaken and find that his stomach is empty. ¹² 

It will be like a thirsty man dreaming that he is drinking,

only to awaken and find that he is still weak and his thirst unquenched. ¹³ 

So it will be for the horde from all the nations

that fight against Mount Zion.

Isaiah 37:6-7

37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard – these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me. ¹⁴  37:7 Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹⁵  he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ¹⁶  with a sword in his own land.”’”

Isaiah 37:29

37:29 Because you rage against me

and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ¹⁷ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ¹⁸ 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back

the way you came.”

Isaiah 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ¹⁹  went out and killed 185,000 troops ²⁰  in the Assyrian camp. When they ²¹  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ²² 

Isaiah 37:2

37:2 Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, ²³  clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:

Isaiah 32:1

Justice and Wisdom Will Prevail

32:1 Look, a king will promote fairness; ²⁴ 

officials will promote justice. ²⁵ 

Psalms 106:15

106:15 He granted their request,

then struck them with a disease. ²⁶ 

Acts 12:23

12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ²⁷  struck ²⁸  Herod ²⁹  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ³⁰ 

[5:17]  ¹ tn Or “young rams”; NIV, NCV “sheep”; NLT “flocks.”

[5:17]  ² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and ruins, fatlings, resident aliens, will eat.” This part of the verse has occasioned various suggestions of emendation. The parallelism is tighter if the second line refers to animals grazing. The translation, “amid the ruins the fatlings and young sheep graze,” assumes an emendation of “resident aliens” (גָּרִים, garim) to “young goats/sheep” (גְּדַיִם, gÿdayim) – confusion of dalet and resh is quite common – and understands “fatlings” and “young sheep” taken as a compound subject or as in apposition as the subject of the verb. However, no emendations are necessary if the above translation is correct. The meaning of מֵחִים (mekhim) has a significant impact on one’s textual decision and translation. The noun can refer to a sacrificial (“fat”) animal as it does in its only other occurrence (Ps 66:15). However, it could signify the rich of the earth (“the fat ones of the earth”; Ps 22:29 [MT 30]) using a different word for “fatness” (דָּשֶׁן, dashen). If so, it serves a figurative reference to the rich. Consequently, the above translation coheres with the first half of the verse. Just as the sheep are out of place grazing in these places (“as in their pasture”), the sojourners would not have expected to have the chance to eat in these locations. Both animals and itinerant foreigners would eat in places not normal for them.

[14:24]  ³ sn Having announced the downfall of the Chaldean empire, the Lord appends to this prophecy a solemn reminder that the Assyrians, the major Mesopotamian power of Isaiah’s day, would be annihilated, foreshadowing what would subsequently happen to Babylon and the other hostile nations.

[14:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “to break Assyria.”

[14:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “him.” This is a collective singular referring to the nation, or a reference to the king of Assyria who by metonymy stands for the entire nation.

[14:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “and his [i.e., Assyria’s] yoke will be removed from them [the people?], and his [Assyria’s] burden from his [the nation’s?] shoulder will be removed.” There are no antecedents in this oracle for the suffixes in the phrases “from them” and “from his shoulder.” Since the Lord’s land and hills are referred to in the preceding line and the statement seems to echo 10:27, it is likely that God’s people are the referents of the suffixes; the translation uses “my people” to indicate this.

[14:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “and this is the hand that is outstretched over all the nations.”

[14:27]  ⁸ tn Or “For” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “His hand is outstretched and who will turn it back?”

[29:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “violent men”; cf. NASB “the ruthless ones.”

[29:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] there will be visitation.” The third feminine singular passive verb form תִּפָּקֵד (tippaqed, “she/it will be visited”) is used here in an impersonal sense. See GKC 459 §144.b.

[29:8]  ¹² tn Or “that he [or “his appetite”] is unsatisfied.”

[29:8]  ¹³ tn Or “that he is faint and that he [or “his appetite”] longs [for water].”

[37:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”

[37:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.

[37:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “cause him to fall” (so KJV, ASV, NAB), that is, “kill him.”

[37:29]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

[37:36]  ¹⁹ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ²⁰ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ²¹ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ²² tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”

[37:2]  ²³ tn Heb “elders of the priests” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NCV “the older priests”; NRSV, TEV, CEV “the senior priests.”

[32:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “will reign according to fairness.”

[32:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “will rule according to justice.”

[106:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and he sent leanness into their being.”

[12:23]  ²⁷ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ²⁸ sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

[12:23]  ²⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ³⁰ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).