Isaiah 5:2

5:2 He built a hedge around it, ¹  removed its stones,

and planted a vine.

He built a tower in the middle of it,

and constructed a winepress.

He waited for it to produce edible grapes,

but it produced sour ones instead. ² 

Isaiah 10:15

10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,

or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? ³ 

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

Isaiah 51:1

There is Hope for the Future

51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, ⁴ 

who seek the Lord!

Look at the rock from which you were chiseled,

at the quarry ⁵  from which you were dug! ⁶ 

Isaiah 51:9

51:9 Wake up! Wake up!

Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ⁷ 

Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity!

Did you not smash ⁸  the Proud One? ⁹ 

Did you not ¹⁰  wound the sea monster? ¹¹ 

[5:2]  ¹ tn Or, “dug it up” (so NIV); KJV “fenced it.’ See HALOT 810 s.v. עזק.

[5:2]  ² tn Heb “wild grapes,” i.e., sour ones (also in v. 4).

[10:15]  ³ tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”

[51:1]  ⁵ tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “justice”; NLT “hope for deliverance.”

[51:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the excavation of the hole.”

[51:1]  ⁷ sn The “rock” and “quarry” refer here to Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the nation.

[51:9]  ⁷ tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.

[51:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “Are you not the one who smashed?” The feminine singular forms agree grammatically with the feminine noun “arm.” The Hebrew text has ַהמַּחְצֶבֶת (hammakhtsevet), from the verbal root חָצַב (khatsav, “hew, chop”). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has, probably correctly, המחצת, from the verbal root מָחַץ (makhats, “smash”) which is used in Job 26:12 to describe God’s victory over “the Proud One.”

[51:9]  ⁹ tn This title (רַהַב, rahav, “proud one”) is sometimes translated as a proper name: “Rahab” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). It is used here of a symbolic sea monster, known elsewhere in the Bible and in Ugaritic myth as Leviathan. This sea creature symbolizes the forces of chaos that seek to destroy the created order. In the Bible “the Proud One” opposes God’s creative work, but is defeated (see Job 26:12; Ps 89:10). Here the title refers to Pharaoh’s Egyptian army that opposed Israel at the Red Sea (see v. 10, and note also Isa 30:7 and Ps 87:4, where the title is used of Egypt).

[51:9]  ¹⁰ tn The words “did you not” are understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line). The rhetorical questions here and in v. 10 expect the answer, “Yes, you certainly did!”

[51:9]  ¹¹ tn Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannin) is another name for the symbolic sea monster. See the note at 27:1. In this context the sea creature represents Egypt. See the note on the title “Proud One” earlier in this verse.