Isaiah 6:5

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ²  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ³  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ⁴ 

Isaiah 10:3

10:3 What will you do on judgment day, ⁵ 

when destruction arrives from a distant place?

To whom will you run for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

Isaiah 28:1-2

The Lord Will Judge Samaria

28:1 The splendid crown of Ephraim’s drunkards is doomed, ⁶ 

the withering flower, its beautiful splendor, ⁷ 

situated ⁸  at the head of a rich valley,

the crown of those overcome with wine. ⁹ 

28:2 Look, the sovereign master ¹⁰  sends a strong, powerful one. ¹¹ 

With the force of a hailstorm or a destructive windstorm, ¹² 

with the might of a driving, torrential rainstorm, ¹³ 

he will knock that crown ¹⁴  to the ground with his hand. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 34:11

34:11 Owls and wild animals ¹⁶  will live there, ¹⁷ 

all kinds of wild birds ¹⁸  will settle in it.

The Lord ¹⁹  will stretch out over her

the measuring line of ruin

and the plumb line ²⁰  of destruction. ²¹ 

[6:5]  ¹ tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”

[6:5]  ² tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.

[6:5]  ³ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[10:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.

[28:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Woe [to] the crown [or “wreath”] of the splendor [or “pride”] of the drunkards of Ephraim.” The “crown” is Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom (Ephraim). Priests and prophets are included among these drunkards in v. 7.

[28:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the beauty of his splendor.” In the translation the masculine pronoun (“his”) has been replaced by “its” because the referent (the “crown”) is the city of Samaria.

[28:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “which [is].”

[28:1]  ¹² tn Heb “ones overcome with wine.” The words “the crown of” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The syntactical relationship of the final phrase to what precedes is uncertain. הֲלוּמֵי יָיִן (halume yayin, “ones overcome with wine”) seems to correspond to שִׁכֹּרֵי אֶפְרַיִם (shikkore ’efrayim, “drunkards of Ephraim”) in line 1. The translation assumes that the phrase “the splendid crown” is to be understood in the final line as well.

[28:2]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 22 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[28:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Look, a strong and powerful [one] belongs to the Lord.”

[28:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “like a rainstorm of hail, a wind of destruction.”

[28:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like a rainstorm of mighty, overflowing waters.”

[28:2]  ¹⁷ tn The words “that crown” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The object of the verb is unexpressed in the Hebrew text.

[28:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “by [his] power.”

[34:11]  ¹⁷ tn קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). קִפּוֹד (qippod) may also refer to a type of bird (NAB “hoot owl”; NIV “screech owl”; TEV “ravens”), but some have suggested a rodent may be in view (cf. NCV “small animals”; ASV “porcupine”; NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”).

[34:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).

[34:11]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof vÿ’orev). Both the יַנְשׁוֹף (“owl”; see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16) and עֹרֵב (“raven”; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14) were types of wild birds.

[34:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.

[34:11]  ²² sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.