Discovery BoxIsaiah 5:1
Context5:1 I 1 will sing to my love –
a song to my lover about his vineyard. 2
My love had a vineyard
on a fertile hill. 3
Isaiah 12:1-6
Context12:1 At that time 4 you will say:
“I praise you, O Lord,
for even though you were angry with me,
your anger subsided, and you consoled me.
12:2 Look, God is my deliverer! 5
I will trust in him 6 and not fear.
For the Lord gives me strength and protects me; 7
he has become my deliverer.” 8
12:3 Joyfully you will draw water
from the springs of deliverance. 9
12:4 At that time 10 you will say:
“Praise the Lord!
Ask him for help! 11
Publicize his mighty acts among the nations!
Make it known that he is unique! 12
12:5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done magnificent things,
let this be known 13 throughout the earth!
12:6 Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion,
for the Holy One of Israel 14 acts mightily 15 among you!”
Isaiah 17:1-14
Context17:1 Here is a message about Damascus:
“Look, Damascus is no longer a city,
it is a heap of ruins!
17:2 The cities of Aroer are abandoned. 16
They will be used for herds,
which will lie down there in peace. 17
17:3 Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim,
and Damascus will lose its kingdom. 18
The survivors in Syria
will end up like the splendor of the Israelites,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
Jacob’s splendor will be greatly diminished, 20
and he will become skin and bones. 21
17:5 It will be as when one gathers the grain harvest,
and his hand gleans the ear of grain.
It will be like one gathering the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
17:6 There will be some left behind,
like when an olive tree is beaten –
two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
says the Lord God of Israel.
17:7 At that time 22 men will trust in their creator; 23
they will depend on 24 the Holy One of Israel. 25
17:8 They will no longer trust in 26 the altars their hands made,
or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made. 27
17:9 At that time 28 their fortified cities will be
like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, 29
which they abandoned because of the Israelites;
there will be desolation.
17:10 For you ignore 30 the God who rescues you;
you pay no attention to your strong protector. 31
So this is what happens:
You cultivate beautiful plants
and plant exotic vines. 32
17:11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; 33
the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.
Yet the harvest will disappear 34 in the day of disease
and incurable pain.
17:12 The many nations massing together are as good as dead, 35
those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. 36
The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, 37
those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. 38
17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, 39
when he shouts at 40 them, they will flee to a distant land,
driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,
or like dead thistles 41 before a strong gale.
17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror; 42
by morning they vanish. 43
This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,
the destiny of those who try to loot us! 44
Isaiah 1:4
Context1:4 45 The sinful nation is as good as dead, 46
the people weighed down by evil deeds.
They are offspring who do wrong,
children 47 who do wicked things.
They have abandoned the Lord,
and rejected the Holy One of Israel. 48
They are alienated from him. 49
[5:1] 1 tn It is uncertain who is speaking here. Possibly the prophet, taking the role of best man, composes a love song for his friend on the occasion of his wedding. If so, יָדִיד (yadid) should be translated “my friend.” The present translation assumes that Israel is singing to the Lord. The word דוֹד (dod, “lover”) used in the second line is frequently used by the woman in the Song of Solomon to describe her lover.
[5:1] 2 sn Israel, viewing herself as the Lord’s lover, refers to herself as his vineyard. The metaphor has sexual connotations, for it pictures her capacity to satisfy his appetite and to produce children. See Song 8:12.
[5:1] 3 tn Heb “on a horn, a son of oil.” Apparently קֶרֶן (qeren, “horn”) here refers to the horn-shaped peak of a hill (BDB 902 s.v.) or to a mountain spur, i.e., a ridge that extends laterally from a mountain (HALOT 1145 s.v. קֶרֶן; H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:180). The expression “son of oil” pictures this hill as one capable of producing olive trees. Isaiah’s choice of קֶרֶן, a rare word for hill, may have been driven by paronomastic concerns, i.e., because קֶרֶן sounds like כֶּרֶם (kerem, “vineyard”).
[12:1] 4 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
[12:2] 7 tn Or “salvation” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).
[12:2] 8 tn The words “in him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[12:2] 9 tc The Hebrew text has, “for my strength and protection [is] the Lord, the Lord (Heb “Yah, Yahweh).” The word יְהוָה (yehvah) is probably dittographic or explanatory here (note that the short form of the name [יָהּ, yah] precedes, and that the graphically similar וַיְהִי [vayÿhi] follows). Exod 15:2, the passage from which the words of v. 2b are taken, has only יָהּ. The word זִמְרָת (zimrat) is traditionally understood as meaning “song,” in which case one might translate, “for the Lord gives me strength and joy” (i.e., a reason to sing); note that in v. 5 the verb זָמַר (zamar, “sing”) appears. Many recent commentators, however, have argued that the noun is here instead a homonym, meaning “protection” or “strength.” See HALOT 274 s.v. III *זמר.
[12:2] 10 tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions, e.g., KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “my savior.”
[12:3] 10 tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions, e.g., KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); CEV “victory.”
[12:4] 13 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
[12:4] 14 tn Heb “call in his name,” i.e., “invoke his name.”
[12:4] 15 tn Heb “bring to remembrance that his name is exalted.” The Lord’s “name” stands here for his character and reputation.
[12:5] 16 tc The translation follows the marginal reading (Qere), which is a Hophal participle from יָדַע (yada’), understood here in a gerundive sense.
[12:6] 19 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
[12:6] 20 tn Or “is great” (TEV). However, the context emphasizes his mighty acts of deliverance (cf. NCV), not some general or vague character quality.
[17:2] 22 tn Three cities are known by this name in the OT: (1) an Aroer located near the Arnon, (2) an Aroer in Ammon, and (3) an Aroer of Judah. (See BDB 792-93 s.v. עֲרֹעֵר, and HALOT 883 s.v. II עֲרוֹעֵר.) There is no mention of an Aroer in Syrian territory. For this reason some want to emend the text here to עֲזֻבוֹת עָרַיהָ עֲדֵי עַד (’azuvot ’arayha ’adey ’ad, “her cities are permanently abandoned”). However, Aroer near the Arnon was taken by Israel and later conquered by the Syrians. (See Josh 12:2; 13:9, 16; Judg 11:26; 2 Kgs 10:33). This oracle pertains to Israel as well as Syria (note v. 3), so it is possible that this is a reference to Israelite and/or Syrian losses in Transjordan.
[17:2] 23 tn Heb “and they lie down and there is no one scaring [them].”
[17:3] 25 tn Heb “and kingship from Damascus”; cf. NASB “And sovereignty from Damascus.”
[17:4] 28 tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
[17:4] 29 tn Heb “will be tiny.”
[17:4] 30 tn Heb “and the fatness of his flesh will be made lean.”
[17:7] 31 tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB, NIV); KJV “At that day.”
[17:7] 32 tn Heb “man will gaze toward his maker.”
[17:7] 33 tn Heb “his eyes will look toward.”
[17:7] 34 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
[17:8] 34 tn Heb “he will not gaze toward.”
[17:8] 35 tn Heb “and that which his fingers made he will not see, the Asherah poles and the incense altars.”
[17:9] 37 tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).
[17:9] 38 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “like the abandonment of the wooded height and the top one.” The following relative clause appears to allude back to the Israelite conquest of the land, so it seems preferable to emend הַחֹרֶשׁ וְהָאָמִיר (hakhoresh vÿha’amir, “the wooded height and the top one”) to חֹרֵשֵׁי הָאֱמֹרִי (khoreshe ha’emori, “[like the abandonment] of the wooded heights of the Amorites”).
[17:10] 40 tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
[17:10] 41 tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”
[17:10] 42 tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.
[17:11] 43 tn Heb “in the day of your planting you [?].” The precise meaning of the verb תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי (tÿsagsegi) is unclear. It is sometimes derived from שׂוּג/סוּג (sug, “to fence in”; see BDB 691 s.v. II סוּג). In this case one could translate “you build a protective fence.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one derives the form from שָׂגָא/שָׂגָה (saga’/sagah, “to grow”); see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:351, n. 4. For this verb, see BDB 960 s.v. שָׂגָא.
[17:11] 44 tc The Hebrew text has, “a heap of harvest.” However, better sense is achieved if נֵד (ned, “heap”) is emended to a verb. Options include נַד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד [nadad, “flee, depart”]), נָדַד (Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד), נֹדֵד (noded, Qal active participle from נָדַד), and נָד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular, or participle masculine singular, from נוּד [nud, “wander, flutter”]). See BDB 626 s.v. נוּד and HALOT 672 s.v. I נדד. One could translate literally: “[the harvest] departs,” or “[the harvest] flies away.”
[17:12] 46 tn Heb “Woe [to] the massing of the many nations.” The word הוֹי (hoy) could be translated as a simple interjection here (“ah!”), but since the following verses announce the demise of these nations, it is preferable to take הוֹי as a funeral cry. See the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
[17:12] 47 tn Heb “like the loud noise of the seas, they make a loud noise.”
[17:12] 48 tn Heb “the uproar of the peoples.” The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse; the words “are as good as dead” are supplied in the translation to reflect this.
[17:12] 49 tn Heb “like the uproar of mighty waters they are in an uproar.”
[17:13] 49 tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”
[17:13] 50 tn Or “rebukes.” The verb and related noun are used in theophanies of God’s battle cry which terrifies his enemies. See, for example, Pss 18:15; 76:7; 106:9; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4, and A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.
[17:13] 51 tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”
[17:14] 52 tn Heb “at the time of evening, look, sudden terror.”
[17:14] 53 tn Heb “before morning he is not.”
[17:14] 54 tn Heb “this is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who loot us.”
[1:4] 55 sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.
[1:4] 56 tn Heb “Woe [to the] sinful nation.” The Hebrew term הוֹי, (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death. In highly dramatic fashion the prophet acts out Israel’s funeral in advance, emphasizing that their demise is inevitable if they do not repent soon.
[1:4] 57 tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege – nation, people, offspring, children – with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day – sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).
[1:4] 58 sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.
[1:4] 59 tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.
