Isaiah 7:2

7:2 It was reported to the family ¹  of David, “Syria has allied with ²  Ephraim.” They and their people were emotionally shaken, just as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. ³ 

Isaiah 17:13

17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ⁴ 

when he shouts at ⁵  them, they will flee to a distant land,

driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,

or like dead thistles ⁶  before a strong gale.

Isaiah 19:3

19:3 The Egyptians will panic, ⁷ 

and I will confuse their strategy. ⁸ 

They will seek guidance from the idols and from the spirits of the dead,

from the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, and from the magicians. ⁹ 

Isaiah 19:14

19:14 The Lord has made them undiscerning; ¹⁰ 

they lead Egypt astray in all she does,

so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 25:4

25:4 For you are a protector for the poor,

a protector for the needy in their distress,

a shelter from the rainstorm,

a shade from the heat.

Though the breath of tyrants ¹²  is like a winter rainstorm, ¹³ 

Isaiah 26:18

26:18 We were pregnant, we strained,

we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹⁴ 

We cannot produce deliverance on the earth;

people to populate the world are not born. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 29:10

29:10 For the Lord has poured out on you

a strong urge to sleep deeply. ¹⁶ 

He has shut your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

Isaiah 31:3

31:3 The Egyptians are mere humans, not God;

their horses are made of flesh, not spirit.

The Lord will strike with ¹⁷  his hand;

the one who helps will stumble

and the one being helped will fall.

Together they will perish. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 32:2

32:2 Each of them ¹⁹  will be like a shelter from the wind

and a refuge from a rainstorm;

like streams of water in a dry region

and like the shade of a large cliff in a parched land.

Isaiah 54:6

54:6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back

like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, ²⁰ 

like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

Isaiah 57:13

57:13 When you cry out for help, let your idols ²¹  help you!

The wind blows them all away, ²² 

a breeze carries them away. ²³ 

But the one who looks to me for help ²⁴  will inherit the land

and will have access to ²⁵  my holy mountain.”

Isaiah 57:16

57:16 For I will not be hostile ²⁶  forever

or perpetually angry,

for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, ²⁷ 

the life-giving breath I created.

Isaiah 59:19

59:19 In the west, people respect ²⁸  the Lord’s reputation; ²⁹ 

in the east they recognize his splendor. ³⁰ 

For he comes like a rushing ³¹  stream

driven on by wind sent from the Lord. ³² 

Isaiah 63:11

63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. ³³ 

Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,

along with the shepherd of ³⁴  his flock?

Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, ³⁵ 

Isaiah 63:14

63:14 Like an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, ³⁶ 

so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest.

In this way ³⁷  you guided your people,

gaining for yourself an honored reputation. ³⁸ 

[7:2]  ¹ tn Heb “house.” In this context the “house of David” includes King Ahaz, his family, and the royal court. See also Jer 21:12; Zech 12:7-8, 10, 12, for a similar use of the phrase.

[7:2]  ² tn Heb “rests upon.” Most understand the verb as נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”), but HALOT 685 s.v. II נחה proposes that this is a hapax legomenon which means “stand by.”

[7:2]  ³ tn Heb “and his heart shook and the heart of his people shook, like the shaking of the trees of the forest before the wind.” The singular pronoun “his” is collective, referring to the Davidic house/family. לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) here refers to the seat of the emotions.

[17:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”

[17:13]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”

[19:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the spirit of Egypt will be laid waste in its midst.”

[19:3]  ⁸ tn The verb בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”) is a homonym of the more common בָּלַע (bala’, “swallow”); see HALOT 135 s.v. I בלע.

[19:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “they will inquire of the idols and of the spirits of the dead and of the ritual pits and of the magicians.” Hebrew אוֹב (’ov, “ritual pit”) refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. See the note on “incantations” in 8:19.

[19:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord has mixed into her midst a spirit of blindness.”

[19:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like the going astray of a drunkard in his vomit.”

[25:4]  ¹³ tn Or perhaps, “the violent”; NIV, NRSV “the ruthless.”

[25:4]  ¹⁴ tc The Hebrew text has, “like a rainstorm of a wall,” which might be interpreted to mean, “like a rainstorm battering against a wall.” The translation assumes an emendation of קִיר (qir, “wall”) to קֹר (qor, “cold, winter”; cf. Gen 8:22). See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:457, n. 6, for discussion.

[26:18]  ¹⁶ tn On the use of כְּמוֹ (kÿmo, “like, as”) here, see BDB 455 s.v. Israel’s distress and suffering, likened here to the pains of childbirth, seemed to be for no purpose. A woman in labor endures pain with the hope that a child will be born; in Israel’s case no such positive outcome was apparent. The nation was like a woman who strains to bring forth a child, but can’t push the baby through to daylight. All her effort produces nothing.

[26:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the world do not fall.” The term נָפַל (nafal) apparently means here, “be born,” though the Qal form of the verb is not used with this nuance anywhere else in the OT. (The Hiphil appears to be used in the sense of “give birth” in v. 19, however.) The implication of verse 18b seems to be that Israel hoped its suffering would somehow end in deliverance and an increase in population. The phrase “inhabitants of the world” seems to refer to the human race in general, but the next verse, which focuses on Israel’s dead, suggests the referent may be more limited.

[29:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a disposition [or “spirit”] of deep sleep.” Through this mixed metaphor (sleep is likened to a liquid which one pours and in turn symbolizes spiritual dullness) the prophet emphasizes that God himself has given the people over to their spiritual insensitivity as a form of judgment.

[31:3]  ²² tn Heb “will extend”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV “stretch out.”

[31:3]  ²³ tn Heb “together all of them will come to an end.”

[32:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “a man,” but אִישׁ (’ish) probably refers here to “each” of the officials mentioned in the previous verse.

[54:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “like a woman abandoned and grieved in spirit.”

[57:13]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew text has קִבּוּצַיִךְ (qibbutsayikh, “your gatherings”), an otherwise unattested noun from the verbal root קָבַץ (qavats, “gather”). Perhaps this alludes to their religious assemblies and by metonymy to their rituals. Since idolatry is a prominent theme in the context, some understand this as a reference to a collection of idols. The second half of the verse also favors this view.

[57:13]  ³² tn Heb “all of them a wind lifts up.”

[57:13]  ³³ tn Heb “a breath takes [them] away.”

[57:13]  ³⁴ tn Or “seeks refuge in me.” “Seeking refuge” is a metonymy for “being loyal to.”

[57:13]  ³⁵ tn Heb “possess, own.” The point seems to be that he will have free access to God’s presence, as if God’s temple mount were his personal possession.

[57:16]  ³⁴ tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[57:16]  ³⁵ tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”

[59:19]  ³⁷ tc Heb “fear.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read “see.”

[59:19]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and they fear from the west the name of the Lord.”

[59:19]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and from the rising of the sun his splendor.”

[59:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “narrow”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “pent-up.”

[59:19]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the wind of the Lord drives it on.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh) could be translated “breath” here (see 30:28).

[63:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and he remembered the days of antiquity, Moses, his people.” The syntax of the statement is unclear. The translation assumes that “his people” is the subject of the verb “remembered.” If original, “Moses” is in apposition to “the days of antiquity,” more precisely identifying the time period referred to. However, the syntactical awkwardness suggests that “Moses” may have been an early marginal note (perhaps identifying “the shepherd of his flock” two lines later) that has worked its way into the text.

[63:11]  ⁴¹ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form, which if retained and taken as a numerical plural, would probably refer to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite tribal leaders at the time of the Exodus. Most prefer to emend the form to the singular (רָעָה, ra’ah) and understand this as a reference just to Moses.

[63:11]  ⁴² sn See the note at v. 10.

[63:14]  ⁴³ tn The words “to graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[63:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “so” (KJV, ASV), or “thus” (NAB, NRSV).

[63:14]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “making for yourself a majestic name.”