Isaiah 64:1

64:1 (63:19b) ¹  If only you would tear apart the sky ²  and come down!

The mountains would tremble ³  before you!

Isaiah 48:18

48:18 If only you had obeyed my ⁴  commandments,

prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, ⁵ 

deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea. ⁶ 

Isaiah 16:14

16:14 Now the Lord makes this announcement: “Within exactly three years ⁷  Moab’s splendor will disappear, along with all her many people; there will be just a few, insignificant survivors left.” ⁸ 

[64:1]  ¹ sn In BHS the chapter division occurs in a different place from the English Bible: 64:1 ET (63:19b HT) and 64:2-12 (64:1-11 HT). Beginning with 65:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.

[64:1]  ² tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[64:1]  ³ tn Or “quake.” נָזֹלּוּ (nazollu) is from the verbal root זָלַל (zalal, “quake”; see HALOT 272 s.v. II זלל). Perhaps there is a verbal allusion to Judg 5:5, the only other passage where this verb occurs. In that passage the poet tells how the Lord’s appearance to do battle caused the mountains to shake.

[48:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “paid attention to” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “had listened to.”

[48:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “like a river your peace would have been.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom) probably refers here to the peace and prosperity which God promised in return for obedience to the covenant.

[48:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) probably refers here to divine deliverance from enemies. See v. 19.

[16:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “in three years, like the years of a hired worker.” The three years must be reckoned exactly, just as a hired worker would carefully keep track of the time he had agreed to work for an employer in exchange for a predetermined wage.

[16:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the splendor of Moab will be disgraced with all the great multitude, and a small little remnant will not be strong.”