Discovery BoxIsaiah 5:20
Context5:20 Those who call evil good and good evil are as good as dead, 1
who turn darkness into light and light into darkness,
who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter. 2
Isaiah 38:17
Context38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. 3
You delivered me 4 from the pit of oblivion. 5
For you removed all my sins from your sight. 6
Isaiah 33:7
Context33:7 Look, ambassadors 7 cry out in the streets;
messengers sent to make peace 8 weep bitterly.
Isaiah 38:15
Context38:15 What can I say?
He has decreed and acted. 9
I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. 10
[5:20] 1 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who call.” See the note at v. 8.
[5:20] 2 sn In this verse the prophet denounces the perversion of moral standards. Darkness and bitterness are metaphors for evil; light and sweetness symbolize uprightness.
[38:17] 3 tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”
[38:17] 4 tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).
[38:17] 5 tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”
[38:17] 6 tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”
[33:7] 5 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word is unknown. Proposals include “heroes” (cf. KJV, ASV “valiant ones”; NASB, NIV “brave men”); “priests,” “residents [of Jerusalem].” The present translation assumes that the term is synonymous with “messengers of peace,” with which it corresponds in the parallel structure of the verse.
[33:7] 6 tn Heb “messengers of peace,” apparently those responsible for negotiating the agreements that have been broken (see v. 8).
