Isaiah 5:24-25

5:24 Therefore, as flaming fire ¹  devours straw,

and dry grass disintegrates in the flames,

so their root will rot,

and their flower will blow away like dust. ² 

For they have rejected the law of the Lord who commands armies,

they have spurned the commands ³  of the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

5:25 So the Lord is furious ⁵  with his people;

he lifts ⁶  his hand and strikes them.

The mountains shake,

and corpses lie like manure ⁷  in the middle of the streets.

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ⁸ 

Isaiah 10:14

10:14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,

as one gathers up abandoned eggs,

I gathered up the whole earth.

There was no wing flapping,

or open mouth chirping.” ⁹ 

Isaiah 27:13

27:13 At that time ¹⁰  a large ¹¹  trumpet will be blown, and the ones lost ¹²  in the land of Assyria will come, as well as the refugees in ¹³  the land of Egypt. They will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 28:15

28:15 For you say,

“We have made a treaty with death,

with Sheol ¹⁵  we have made an agreement. ¹⁶ 

When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ¹⁷ 

it will not reach us.

For we have made a lie our refuge,

we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 30:6

30:6 This is a message ¹⁹  about the animals in the Negev:

Through a land of distress and danger,

inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, ²⁰ 

by snakes and darting adders, ²¹ 

they transport ²²  their wealth on the backs of donkeys,

their riches on the humps of camels,

to a nation that cannot help them. ²³ 

Isaiah 40:26

40:26 Look up at the sky! ²⁴ 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ²⁵ 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ²⁶ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

Isaiah 41:2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? ²⁷ 

Who ²⁸  officially commissions him for service? ²⁹ 

He hands nations over to him, ³⁰ 

and enables him to subdue ³¹  kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow. ³² 

Isaiah 41:7

41:7 The craftsman encourages the metalsmith,

the one who wields the hammer encourages ³³  the one who pounds on the anvil.

He approves the quality of the welding, ³⁴ 

and nails it down so it won’t fall over.”

Isaiah 44:13

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ³⁵ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ³⁶ 

he scrapes ³⁷  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ³⁸ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ³⁹ 

Isaiah 44:15

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ⁴⁰ 

he takes some of it and warms himself.

Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.

Then he makes a god and worships it;

he makes an idol and bows down to it. ⁴¹ 

Isaiah 46:7

46:7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;

they put it in its place and it just stands there;

it does not ⁴²  move from its place.

Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;

it does not deliver him from his distress.

Isaiah 48:1

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ⁴³ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁴⁴ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁴⁵  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁴⁶ 

Isaiah 49:21

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ⁴⁷ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ⁴⁸ 

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

Isaiah 50:1

50:1 This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s divorce certificate

by which I divorced her?

Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? ⁴⁹ 

Look, you were sold because of your sins; ⁵⁰ 

because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother. ⁵¹ 

Isaiah 66:8

66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?

Who has ever seen this?

Can a country ⁵²  be brought forth in one day?

Can a nation be born in a single moment?

Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!

[5:24]  ¹ tn Heb “a tongue of fire” (so NASB), referring to a tongue-shaped flame.

[5:24]  ² sn They are compared to a flowering plant that withers quickly in a hot, arid climate.

[5:24]  ³ tn Heb “the word.”

[5:24]  ⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[5:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “the anger of the Lord rages.”

[5:25]  ⁶ tn Or “extends”; KJV, ASV “he hath stretched forth.”

[5:25]  ⁷ tn Or “garbage” (NCV, CEV, NLT); NAB, NASB, NIV “refuse.”

[5:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[10:14]  ⁹ sn The Assyrians’ conquests were relatively unopposed, like robbing a bird’s nest of its eggs when the mother bird is absent.

[27:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[27:13]  ¹⁴ tn Traditionally, “great” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT); CEV “loud.”

[27:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the ones perishing.”

[27:13]  ¹⁶ tn Or “the ones driven into.”

[27:13]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[28:15]  ¹⁷ sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.

[28:15]  ¹⁸ tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.

[28:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).

[28:15]  ²⁰ sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.

[30:6]  ²¹ tn Traditionally, “burden” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “oracle.”

[30:6]  ²² tc Heb “[a land of] a lioness and a lion, from them.” Some emend מֵהֶם (mehem, “from them”) to מֵהֵם (mehem), an otherwise unattested Hiphil participle from הָמַם (hamam, “move noisily”). Perhaps it would be better to take the initial mem (מ) as enclitic and emend the form to הֹמֶה (homeh), a Qal active participle from הָמָה (hamah, “to make a noise”); cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:542, n. 9.

[30:6]  ²³ tn Heb “flying fiery one.” See the note at 14:29.

[30:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “carry” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:6]  ²⁵ sn This verse describes messengers from Judah transporting wealth to Egypt in order to buy Pharaoh’s protection through a treaty.

[40:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ²⁶ tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[41:2]  ²⁹ sn The expression this one from the east refers to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, as later texts indicate (see 44:28-45:6; 46:11; 48:14-16).

[41:2]  ³⁰ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.

[41:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”

[41:2]  ³² tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”

[41:2]  ³³ tn The verb יַרְדְּ (yardÿ) is an otherwise unattested Hiphil form from רָדָה (radah, “rule”). But the Hiphil makes no sense with “kings” as object; one must understand an ellipsis and supply “him” (Cyrus) as the object. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has יוֹרִד (yorid), which appears to be a Hiphil form from יָרַד (yarad, “go down”). Others suggest reading יָרֹד (yarod), a Qal form from רָדַד (radad, “beat down”).

[41:2]  ³⁴ sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.

[41:7]  ³³ tn The verb “encourages” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[41:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “saying of the welding, ‘It is good.’”

[44:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ³⁸ tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”

[44:13]  ³⁹ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

[44:15]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ⁴² tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[46:7]  ⁴⁵ tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.

[48:1]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁵⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁵² tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[49:21]  ⁵³ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

[49:21]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”

[50:1]  ⁵⁷ sn The Lord challenges the exiles (Zion’s children) to bring incriminating evidence against him. The rhetorical questions imply that Israel accused the Lord of divorcing his wife (Zion) and selling his children (the Israelites) into slavery to pay off a debt.

[50:1]  ⁵⁸ sn The Lord admits that he did sell the Israelites, but it was because of their sins, not because of some debt he owed. If he had sold them to a creditor, they ought to be able to point him out, but the preceding rhetorical question implies they would not be able to do so.

[50:1]  ⁵⁹ sn The Lord admits he did divorce Zion, but that too was the result of the nation’s sins. The force of the earlier rhetorical question comes into clearer focus now. The question does not imply that a certificate does not exist and that no divorce occurred. Rather, the question asks for the certificate to be produced so the accuser can see the reason for the divorce in black and white. The Lord did not put Zion away arbitrarily.

[66:8]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).