Isaiah 5:4

5:4 What more can I do for my vineyard

beyond what I have already done?

When I waited for it to produce edible grapes,

why did it produce sour ones instead?

Isaiah 19:12

19:12 But where, oh where, are your wise men? ¹ 

Let them tell you, let them find out

what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.

Isaiah 22:16

22:16 ‘What right do you have to be here? What relatives do you have buried here? ² 

Why ³  do you chisel out a tomb for yourself here?

He chisels out his burial site in an elevated place,

he carves out his tomb on a cliff.

Isaiah 39:4

39:4 Isaiah ⁴  asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.”

Isaiah 40:6

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ⁵  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ⁶  “All people are like grass, ⁷ 

and all their promises ⁸  are like the flowers in the field.

Isaiah 41:22

41:22 “Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!

Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, ⁹ 

so we may examine them ¹⁰  and see how they were fulfilled. ¹¹ 

Or decree for us some future events!

Isaiah 45:9

The Lord Gives a Warning

45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ¹² 

one who is like a mere ¹³  shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter, ¹⁴ 

“What in the world ¹⁵  are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!” ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 52:7

52:7 How delightful it is to see approaching over the mountains ¹⁷ 

the feet of a messenger who announces peace,

a messenger who brings good news, who announces deliverance,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” ¹⁸ 

[19:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Where are they? Where are your wise men?” The juxtaposition of the interrogative pronouns is emphatic. See HALOT 38 s.v. אֶי.

[22:16]  ¹ tn Heb “What to you here? And who to you here?” The point of the second question is not entirely clear. The interpretation reflected in the translation is based on the following context, which suggests that Shebna has no right to think of himself so highly and arrange such an extravagant burial place for himself.

[22:16]  ² tn Heb “that you chisel out.”

[39:4]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Isaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[40:6]  ¹ tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

[40:6]  ² tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

[40:6]  ³ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

[40:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.

[41:22]  ¹ tn Heb “As for the former things, tell us what they are!”

[41:22]  ² tn Heb “so we might set [them to] our heart.”

[41:22]  ³ tn Heb “and might know their outcome.”

[45:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”

[45:9]  ² tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[45:9]  ³ tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”

[45:9]  ⁴ tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.

[45:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “your work, there are no hands for it,” i.e., “your work looks like something made by a person who has no hands.”

[52:7]  ¹ tn Heb “How delightful on the mountains.”

[52:7]  ² tn Or “has become king.” When a new king was enthroned, his followers would give this shout. For other examples of this enthronement formula (Qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular מָלַךְ [malakh], followed by the name of the king), see 2 Sam 15:10; 1 Kgs 1:11, 13, 18; 2 Kgs 9:13. The Lord is an eternal king, but here he is pictured as a victorious warrior who establishes his rule from Zion.