Isaiah 6:11

6:11 I replied, “How long, sovereign master?” He said,

“Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated,

and houses are uninhabited,

and the land is ruined and devastated,

Isaiah 17:12-13

17:12 The many nations massing together are as good as dead, ¹ 

those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. ² 

The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, ³ 

those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. ⁴ 

17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ⁵ 

when he shouts at ⁶  them, they will flee to a distant land,

driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,

or like dead thistles ⁷  before a strong gale.

Isaiah 37:26

37:26 ⁸ Certainly you must have heard! ⁹ 

Long ago I worked it out,

in ancient times I planned ¹⁰  it,

and now I am bringing it to pass.

The plan is this:

Fortified cities will crash

into heaps of ruins. ¹¹ 

[17:12]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “like the loud noise of the seas, they make a loud noise.”

[17:12]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “like the uproar of mighty waters they are in an uproar.”

[17:13]  ¹ tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”

[17:13]  ² 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]  ³ tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”

[37:26]  ¹ tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.

[37:26]  ² tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.

[37:26]  ³ tn Heb “formed” (so KJV, ASV).

[37:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְהִי (tÿhi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.