Isaiah 5:28

5:28 Their arrows are sharpened,

and all their bows are prepared. ¹ 

The hooves of their horses are hard as flint, ² 

and their chariot wheels are like a windstorm. ³ 

Isaiah 7:24

7:24 With bow and arrow ⁴  men will hunt ⁵  there, for the whole land will be covered ⁶  with thorns and briers.

Isaiah 13:18

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ⁷ 

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ⁸ 

they will not ⁹  look with pity on children.

Isaiah 21:17

21:17 Just a handful of archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be left.” ¹⁰  Indeed, ¹¹  the Lord God of Israel has spoken.

Isaiah 22:3

22:3 ¹² All your leaders ran away together –

they fled to a distant place;

all your refugees ¹³  were captured together –

they were captured without a single arrow being shot. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 21:15

21:15 For they flee from the swords –

from the drawn sword

and from the battle-ready bow

and from the severity of the battle.

Isaiah 41:2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? ¹⁵ 

Who ¹⁶  officially commissions him for service? ¹⁷ 

He hands nations over to him, ¹⁸ 

and enables him to subdue ¹⁹  kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 66:19

66:19 I will perform a mighty act among them ²¹  and then send some of those who remain to the nations – to Tarshish, Pul, ²²  Lud ²³  (known for its archers ²⁴ ), Tubal, Javan, ²⁵  and to the distant coastlands ²⁶  that have not heard about me or seen my splendor. They will tell the nations of my splendor.

[5:28]  ¹ tn Heb “bent” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “are strung.”

[5:28]  ² tn Heb “regarded like flint.”

[5:28]  ³ sn They are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way they kick up dust.

[7:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “with arrows and a bow.” The more common English idiom is “bow[s] and arrow[s].”

[7:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “go” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “go hunting.”

[7:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “will be” (so NASB, NRSV).

[13:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.

[13:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”

[13:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.

[21:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the remnant of the number of the bow, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few.”

[21:17]  ¹¹ tn Or “for” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[22:3]  ¹³ tn Verse 3 reads literally, “All your leaders ran away, apart from a bow they were captured, all your found ones were captured together, to a distant place they fled.” J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:403, n. 3) suggests that the lines of the verse are arranged chiastically; lines 1 and 4 go together, while lines 2 and 3 are parallel. To translate the lines in the order they appear in the Hebrew text is misleading to the English reader, who is likely unfamiliar with, or at least insensitive to, chiastic parallelism. Consequently, the translation above arranges the lines as follows: line 1 (Hebrew) = line 1 (in translation); line 2 (Hebrew) = line 4 (in translation); line 3 (Hebrew) = line 3 (in translation); line 4 (Hebrew) = line 2 (in translation).

[22:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all your found ones.” To achieve tighter parallelism (see “your leaders”) some prefer to emend the form to אַמִּיצַיִךְ (’ammitsayikh, “your strong ones”) or to נֶאֱמָצַיִךְ (ne’ematsayikh, “your strengthened ones”).

[22:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “apart from [i.e., without] a bow they were captured”; cf. NAB, NRSV “without the use of a bow.”

[41:2]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.

[41:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”

[41:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”

[41:2]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.

[66:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and I will set a sign among them.” The precise meaning of this statement is unclear. Elsewhere “to set a sign” means “perform a mighty act” (Ps 78:43; Jer 32:20), “make [someone] an object lesson” (Ezek 14:8), and “erect a [literal] standard” (Ps 74:4).

[66:19]  ²⁰ tn Some prefer to read “Put” (i.e., Libya).

[66:19]  ²¹ sn That is, Lydia (in Asia Minor).

[66:19]  ²² tn Heb “drawers of the bow” (KJV and ASV both similar).

[66:19]  ²³ sn Javan is generally identified today as Greece (so NIV, NCV, NLT).

[66:19]  ²⁴ tn Or “islands” (NIV).