Isaiah 60:15

60:15 You were once abandoned

and despised, with no one passing through,

but I will make you ¹  a permanent source of pride

and joy to coming generations.

Isaiah 61:4

61:4 They will rebuild the perpetual ruins

and restore the places that were desolate; ² 

they will reestablish the ruined cities,

the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

Isaiah 13:20

13:20 No one will live there again;

no one will ever reside there again. ³ 

No bedouin ⁴  will camp ⁵  there,

no shepherds will rest their flocks ⁶  there.

Isaiah 34:10

34:10 Night and day it will burn; ⁷ 

its smoke will ascend continually.

Generation after generation it will be a wasteland

and no one will ever pass through it again.

Isaiah 34:17

34:17 He assigns them their allotment; ⁸ 

he measures out their assigned place. ⁹ 

They will live there ¹⁰  permanently;

they will settle in it through successive generations.

Isaiah 51:8

51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;

a clothes moth will devour them like wool.

But the vindication I provide ¹¹  will be permanent;

the deliverance I give will last.”

Isaiah 58:12

58:12 Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; ¹² 

you will reestablish the ancient foundations.

You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls,

the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ ¹³ 

Isaiah 38:12

38:12 My dwelling place ¹⁴  is removed and taken away ¹⁵  from me

like a shepherd’s tent.

I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth; ¹⁶ 

from the loom he cuts me off. ¹⁷ 

You turn day into night and end my life. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 41:4

41:4 Who acts and carries out decrees? ¹⁹ 

Who ²⁰  summons the successive generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning,

and at the very end – I am the one. ²¹ 

Isaiah 51:9

51:9 Wake up! Wake up!

Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ²² 

Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity!

Did you not smash ²³  the Proud One? ²⁴ 

Did you not ²⁵  wound the sea monster? ²⁶ 

Isaiah 53:8

53:8 He was led away after an unjust trial ²⁷  –

but who even cared? ²⁸ 

Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; ²⁹ 

because of the rebellion of his own ³⁰  people he was wounded.

[60:15]  ¹ tn Heb “Instead of your being abandoned and despised, with no one passing through, I will make you.”

[61:4]  ² tn Heb “and the formerly desolate places they will raise up.”

[13:20]  ³ tn Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.

[13:20]  ⁴ tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”

[13:20]  ⁵ tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל (ye’ehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.

[13:20]  ⁶ tn The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12.

[34:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”

[34:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he causes the lot to fall for them.” Once again the pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).

[34:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “and his hand divides for them with a measuring line.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) now switches to masculine plural, referring to all the animals and birds mentioned in vv. 11-15, some of which were identified with masculine nouns. This signals closure for this portion of the speech, which began in v. 11. The following couplet (v. 17b) forms an inclusio with v. 11a through verbal repetition.

[34:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV); NCV “they will own that land forever.”

[51:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”

[58:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they will build from you ancient ruins.”

[58:12]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text has “the one who restores paths for dwelling.” The idea of “paths to dwell in” is not a common notion. Some have proposed emending נְתִיבוֹת (nÿtivot, “paths”) to נְתִיצוֹת (nÿtitsot, “ruins”), a passive participle from נָתַץ (natats, “tear down”; see HALOT 732 s.v. *נְתִיצָה), because tighter parallelism with the preceding line is achieved. However, none of the textual sources support this emendation. The line may mean that paths must be repaired in order to dwell in the land.

[38:12]  ⁸ tn According to HALOT 217 s.v. דּוֹר this noun is a hapax legomenon meaning “dwelling place,” derived from a verbal root meaning “live” (see Ps 84:10). For an interpretation that understands the form as the well-attested noun meaning “generation,” see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:679, n. 4.

[38:12]  ⁹ tn The verb form appears to be a Niphal from גָּלָה (galah), which normally means “uncovered, revealed” in the Niphal. Because of the following reference to a shepherd’s tent, some prefer to emend the form to וְנָגַל, a Niphal from גָלָל (galal, “roll”) and translate “is rolled [or “folded”] up.”

[38:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I rolled up, like a weaver, my life” (so ASV).

[38:12]  ¹¹ sn For a discussion of the imagery employed here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:684.

[38:12]  ¹² tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”

[41:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “Who acts and accomplishes?”; NASB “Who has performed and accomplished it.”

[41:4]  ¹⁰ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[41:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I, the Lord, [am with] the first, and with the last ones I [am] he.”

[51:9]  ¹⁰ tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.

[51:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Are you not the one who smashed?” The feminine singular forms agree grammatically with the feminine noun “arm.” The Hebrew text has ַהמַּחְצֶבֶת (hammakhtsevet), from the verbal root חָצַב (khatsav, “hew, chop”). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has, probably correctly, המחצת, from the verbal root מָחַץ (makhats, “smash”) which is used in Job 26:12 to describe God’s victory over “the Proud One.”

[51:9]  ¹² tn This title (רַהַב, rahav, “proud one”) is sometimes translated as a proper name: “Rahab” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). It is used here of a symbolic sea monster, known elsewhere in the Bible and in Ugaritic myth as Leviathan. This sea creature symbolizes the forces of chaos that seek to destroy the created order. In the Bible “the Proud One” opposes God’s creative work, but is defeated (see Job 26:12; Ps 89:10). Here the title refers to Pharaoh’s Egyptian army that opposed Israel at the Red Sea (see v. 10, and note also Isa 30:7 and Ps 87:4, where the title is used of Egypt).

[51:9]  ¹³ tn The words “did you not” are understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line). The rhetorical questions here and in v. 10 expect the answer, “Yes, you certainly did!”

[51:9]  ¹⁴ tn Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannin) is another name for the symbolic sea monster. See the note at 27:1. In this context the sea creature represents Egypt. See the note on the title “Proud One” earlier in this verse.

[53:8]  ¹¹ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The present translation assumes that מִן (min) here has an instrumental sense (“by, through”) and understands עֹצֶר וּמִמִּשְׁפָּט (’otser umimmishpat, “coercion and legal decision”) as a hendiadys meaning “coercive legal decision,” thus “an unjust trial.” Other interpretive options include: (1) “without [for this sense of מִן, see BDB 578 s.v. 1.b] hindrance and proper judicial process,” i.e., “unfairly and with no one to defend him,” (2) “from [in the sense of “after,” see BDB 581 s.v. 4.b] arrest and judgment.”

[53:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and his generation, who considers?” (NASB similar). Some understand “his generation” as a reference to descendants. In this case the question would suggest that he will have none. However, אֶת (’et) may be taken here as specifying a new subject (see BDB 85 s.v. I אֵת 3). If “his generation” refers to the servant’s contemporary generation, one may then translate, “As for his contemporary generation, who took note?” The point would be that few were concerned about the harsh treatment he received.

[53:8]  ¹³ sn The “land of the living” is an idiom for the sphere where people live, in contrast to the underworld realm of the dead. See, for example, Ezek 32:23-27.

[53:8]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text reads “my people,” a reading followed by most English versions, but this is problematic in a context where the first person plural predominates, and where God does not appear to speak again until v. 11b. Therefore, it is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a עמו (“his people”). In this case, the group speaking in these verses is identified as the servant’s people (compare פְּשָׁעֵנוּ [pÿsha’enu, “our rebellious deeds”] in v. 5 with פֶּשַׁע עַמִּי [pesha’ ’ammi, “the rebellion of his people”] in v. 8).