Discovery BoxIsaiah 5:25-30
Context5:25 So the Lord is furious 1 with his people;
he lifts 2 his hand and strikes them.
The mountains shake,
and corpses lie like manure 3 in the middle of the streets.
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 4
5:26 He lifts a signal flag for a distant nation, 5
he whistles for it to come from the far regions of the earth.
Look, they 6 come quickly and swiftly.
5:27 None tire or stumble,
they don’t stop to nap or sleep.
They don’t loosen their belts,
or unstrap their sandals to rest. 7
5:28 Their arrows are sharpened,
and all their bows are prepared. 8
The hooves of their horses are hard as flint, 9
and their chariot wheels are like a windstorm. 10
5:29 Their roar is like a lion’s;
they roar like young lions.
They growl and seize their prey;
they drag it away and no one can come to the rescue.
5:30 At that time 11 they will growl over their prey, 12
it will sound like sea waves crashing against rocks. 13
One will look out over the land and see the darkness of disaster,
clouds will turn the light into darkness. 14
Isaiah 10:5-6
Context10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 15
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 16
10:6 I sent him 17 against a godless 18 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 19
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 20 like dirt in the streets.
Isaiah 10:32
Context10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,
they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain 21 –
at the hill of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 17:14
Context17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror; 22
by morning they vanish. 23
This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,
the destiny of those who try to loot us! 24
Isaiah 24:1-12
Context24:1 Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth
and leave it in ruins;
he will mar its surface
and scatter its inhabitants.
24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, 25
the master as well as the servant, 26
the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, 27
the seller as well as the buyer, 28
the borrower as well as the lender, 29
the creditor as well as the debtor. 30
24:3 The earth will be completely devastated
and thoroughly ransacked.
For the Lord has decreed this judgment. 31
24:4 The earth 32 dries up 33 and withers,
the world shrivels up and withers;
the prominent people of the earth 34 fade away.
24:5 The earth is defiled by 35 its inhabitants, 36
for they have violated laws,
disregarded the regulation, 37
and broken the permanent treaty. 38
24:6 So a treaty curse 39 devours the earth;
its inhabitants pay for their guilt. 40
This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, 41
and are reduced to just a handful of people. 42
24:7 The new wine dries up,
the vines shrivel up,
all those who like to celebrate 43 groan.
24:8 The happy sound 44 of the tambourines stops,
the revelry of those who celebrate comes to a halt,
the happy sound of the harp ceases.
24:9 They no longer sing and drink wine; 45
the beer tastes bitter to those who drink it.
24:10 The ruined town 46 is shattered;
all of the houses are shut up tight. 47
24:11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine; 48
all joy turns to sorrow; 49
celebrations disappear from the earth. 50
24:12 The city is left in ruins; 51
the gate is reduced to rubble. 52
Isaiah 33:7-9
Context33:7 Look, ambassadors 53 cry out in the streets;
messengers sent to make peace 54 weep bitterly.
there are no travelers. 56
Treaties are broken, 57
witnesses are despised, 58
human life is treated with disrespect. 59
33:9 The land 60 dries up 61 and withers away;
the forest of Lebanon shrivels up 62 and decays.
Sharon 63 is like the desert; 64
Bashan and Carmel 65 are parched. 66
Isaiah 36:22
Context36:22 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief 67 and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.
Isaiah 37:3
Context37:3 “This is what Hezekiah says: 68 ‘This is a day of distress, insults, 69 and humiliation, 70 as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. 71
Jeremiah 32:28-32
Context32:28 Therefore I, the Lord, say: 72 ‘I will indeed hand 73 this city over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonian army. 74 They will capture it. 32:29 The Babylonian soldiers 75 that are attacking this city will break into it and set it on fire. They will burn it down along with the houses where people have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods on their rooftops. 76 32:30 This will happen because the people of Israel and Judah have repeatedly done what displeases me 77 from their earliest history until now 78 and because they 79 have repeatedly made me angry by the things they have done. 80 I, the Lord, affirm it! 81 32:31 This will happen because 82 the people of this city have aroused my anger and my wrath since the time they built it until now. 83 They have made me so angry that I am determined to remove 84 it from my sight. 32:32 I am determined to do so because the people of Israel and Judah have made me angry with all their wickedness – they, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, and especially the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem 85 have done this wickedness. 86
Jeremiah 39:4-5
Context39:4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape. They departed from the city during the night. They took a path through the king’s garden and passed out through the gate between the two walls. 87 Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. 88 39:5 But the Babylonian 89 army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho 90 and captured him. 91 They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah 92 in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there.
[5:25] 1 tn Heb “the anger of the Lord rages.”
[5:25] 2 tn Or “extends”; KJV, ASV “he hath stretched forth.”
[5:25] 3 tn Or “garbage” (NCV, CEV, NLT); NAB, NASB, NIV “refuse.”
[5:25] 4 tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”
[5:26] 5 tc The Hebrew text has literally, “for nations from a distance.” The following verses use singular forms to describe this nation, so the final mem (ם) on לְגּוֹיִם (lÿgoyim) may be enclitic or dittographic. In the latter case one could read לְגוֹי מֵרָחוֹק (lÿgoy merakhoq, “for a nation from a distance”; see Deut 28:49; Joel 3:8). Another possibility is to emend the text from לַגּוֹיִם מֵרָחוֹק (laggoyim merakhoq) to לְגוֹי מִמֶּרְחָק (lÿgoy mimmerkhaq, “for a nation from a distant place”) a phrase which occurs in Jer 5:15. In this case an error of misdivision has occurred in MT, the mem of the prefixed preposition being accidentally taken as a plural ending on the preceding word.
[5:26] 6 tn Heb “he.” Singular forms are used throughout vv. 26-30 to describe this nation, but for stylistic reasons the translation uses the plural for these collective singulars.
[5:27] 7 tn Heb “and the belt on his waist is not opened, and the thong of his sandals is not torn in two.”
[5:28] 8 tn Heb “bent” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “are strung.”
[5:28] 9 tn Heb “regarded like flint.”
[5:28] 10 sn They are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way they kick up dust.
[5:30] 11 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
[5:30] 12 tn Heb “over it”; the referent (the prey) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:30] 13 tn Heb “like the growling of the sea.”
[5:30] 14 tn Heb “and one will gaze toward the land, and look, darkness of distress, and light will grow dark by its [the land’s?] clouds.”
[10:5] 15 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
[10:5] 16 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
[10:6] 17 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
[10:6] 18 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
[10:6] 19 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
[10:6] 20 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
[10:32] 21 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “a mountain of a house (בֵּית, bet), Zion,” but the marginal reading (Qere) correctly reads “the mountain of the daughter (בַּת, bat) of Zion.” On the phrase “Daughter Zion,” see the note on the same phrase in 1:8.
[17:14] 22 tn Heb “at the time of evening, look, sudden terror.”
[17:14] 23 tn Heb “before morning he is not.”
[17:14] 24 tn Heb “this is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who loot us.”
[24:2] 25 tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”
[24:2] 26 tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”
[24:2] 27 tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”
[24:2] 28 tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”
[24:2] 29 tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”
[24:2] 30 tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”
[24:3] 31 tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.”
[24:4] 32 tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (erets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37;12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).
[24:4] 33 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.
[24:4] 34 tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (mÿrom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (mÿrome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.
[24:5] 35 tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”
[24:5] 36 sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.
[24:5] 37 tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”
[24:5] 38 tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”
[24:6] 39 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] 40 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] 41 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 1QIsaa has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).
[24:6] 42 tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”
[24:7] 43 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “all the joyful in heart,” but the context specifies the context as parties and drinking bouts.
[24:8] 44 tn Heb “the joy” (again later in this verse).
[24:9] 45 tn Heb “with a song they do not drink wine.”
[24:10] 46 tn Heb “the city of chaos” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Isaiah uses the term תֹּהוּ (tohu) rather frequently of things (like idols) that are empty and worthless (see BDB 1062 s.v.), so the word might characterize the city as rebellious or morally worthless. However, in this context, which focuses on the effects of divine judgment, it probably refers to the ruined or worthless condition in which the city is left (note the use of the word in Isa 34:11). For a discussion of the identity of this city, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In the context of universal judgment depicted in Isa 24, this city represents all the nations and cities of the world which, like Babylon of old and the powers/cities mentioned in chapters 13-23, rebel against God’s authority. Behind the stereotypical language one can detect various specific manifestations of this symbolic and paradigmatic city, including Babylon, Moab, and Jerusalem, all of which are alluded or referred to in chapters 24-27.
[24:10] 47 tn Heb “every house is closed up from entering.”
[24:11] 48 tn Heb “[there is] an outcry over the wine in the streets.”
[24:11] 49 tn Heb “all joy turns to evening,” the darkness of evening symbolizing distress and sorrow.
[24:11] 50 tn Heb “the joy of the earth disappears.”
[24:12] 51 tn Heb “and there is left in the city desolation.”
[24:12] 52 tn Heb “and [into] rubble the gate is crushed.”
[33:7] 53 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] 54 tn Heb “messengers of peace,” apparently those responsible for negotiating the agreements that have been broken (see v. 8).
[33:8] 55 tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”
[33:8] 56 tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”
[33:8] 57 tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”
[33:8] 58 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.
[33:8] 59 tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”
[33:9] 60 tn Or “earth” (KJV); NAB “the country.”
[33:9] 61 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. I אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism. See 24:4.
[33:9] 62 tn Heb “Lebanon is ashamed.” The Hiphil is exhibitive, expressing the idea, “exhibits shame.” In this context the statement alludes to the withering of vegetation.
[33:9] 63 sn Sharon was a fertile plain along the Mediterranean coast. See 35:2.
[33:9] 64 tn Or “the Arabah” (NIV). See 35:1.
[33:9] 65 sn Both of these areas were known for their trees and vegetation. See 2:13; 35:2.
[33:9] 66 tn Heb “shake off [their leaves]” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB “are stripped bare.”
[36:22] 67 tn Heb “with their clothes torn”; the words “in grief” have been supplied in the translation to indicate that this was done as a sign of grief and mourning.
[37:3] 68 tn In the Hebrew text this verse begins with “they said to him” (cf. NRSV).
[37:3] 69 tn Or “rebuke” (KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV), or “correction.”
[37:3] 70 tn Or “contempt”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “disgrace.”
[37:3] 71 tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”
[32:28] 72 tn Heb “Thus says the
[32:28] 73 tn Heb “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of…”
[32:28] 74 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.
[32:29] 75 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.
[32:29] 76 sn Compare Jer 19:13.
[32:30] 77 tn Heb “that which is evil in my eyes.” For this idiom see BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.c and compare usage in 18:10.
[32:30] 78 tn Heb “from their youth.”
[32:30] 79 tn Heb “the people of Israel.” However, since “people of Israel” has been used in the preceding line for the northern kingdom as opposed to the kingdom of Judah, it might lead to confusion to translate literally. Moreover, the pronoun “they” accomplishes the same purpose.
[32:30] 80 tn Heb “by the work of their hands.” See the translator’s note on 25:6 and the parallelism in 25:14 for this rendering rather than referring it to the making of idols as in 1:16; 10:3.
[32:30] 81 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[32:31] 82 tn The statements in vv. 28-29 regarding the certain destruction of the city are motivated by three parallel causal clauses in vv. 30a, b, 31, the last of which extends through subordinate and coordinate clauses until the end of v. 35. An attempt has been made to bring out this structure by repeating the idea “This/it will happen” in front of each of these causal clauses in the English translation.
[32:31] 83 tn Heb “from the day they built it until this day.”
[32:31] 84 tn Heb “For this city has been to me for a source of my anger and my wrath from the day they built it until this day so as remove it.” The preposition ְל (lamed) with the infinitive (Heb “so as to remove it”; לַהֲסִירָהּ, lahasirah) expresses degree (cf. R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 37, §199, and compare usage in 2 Sam 13:2).
[32:32] 85 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[32:32] 86 tn Heb “remove it from my sight 32:33 because of all the wickedness of the children of Israel and the children of Judah which they have done to make me angry, they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” The sentence has been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style and an attempt has been made to preserve the causal connections.
[39:4] 87 sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.
[39:4] 88 sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.
[39:5] 89 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
[39:5] 90 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[39:5] 91 sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.
[39:5] 92 sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.
