Isaiah 8:18

8:18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ¹  are reminders and object lessons ²  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

Isaiah 13:20-21

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.

13:21 Wild animals will rest there,

the ruined ⁷  houses will be full of hyenas. ⁸ 

Ostriches will live there,

wild goats will skip among the ruins. ⁹ 

Isaiah 26:19

26:19 ¹⁰ Your dead will come back to life;

your corpses will rise up.

Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ¹¹ 

For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ¹² 

and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ¹³ 

Isaiah 34:11

34:11 Owls and wild animals ¹⁴  will live there, ¹⁵ 

all kinds of wild birds ¹⁶  will settle in it.

The Lord ¹⁷  will stretch out over her

the measuring line of ruin

and the plumb line ¹⁸  of destruction. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 34:17

34:17 He assigns them their allotment; ²⁰ 

he measures out their assigned place. ²¹ 

They will live there ²²  permanently;

they will settle in it through successive generations.

[8:18]  ¹ sn This refers to Shear-jashub (7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3).

[8:18]  ² tn Or “signs and portents” (NAB, NRSV). The names of all three individuals has symbolic value. Isaiah’s name (which meant “the Lord delivers”) was a reminder that the Lord was the nation’s only source of protection; Shear-jashub’s name was meant, at least originally, to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’s name was a guarantee that God would defeat Israel and Syria (see the note at 8:4). The word מוֹפֶת (mofet, “portent”) can often refer to some miraculous event, but in 20:3 it is used, along with its synonym אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) of Isaiah’s walking around half-naked as an object lesson of what would soon happen to the Egyptians.

[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.

[13:21]  ⁵ tn The word “ruined” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[13:21]  ⁶ tn The precise referent of this word in uncertain. See HALOT 29 s.v. *אֹחַ. Various English versions translate as “owls” (e.g., NAB, NASB), “wild dogs” (NCV); “jackals” (NIV); “howling creatures” (NRSV, NLT).

[13:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “will skip there.”

[26:19]  ⁷ sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.

[26:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[26:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “for the dew of lights [is] your dew.” The pronominal suffix on “dew” is masculine singular, like the suffixes on “your dead” and “your corpses” in the first half of the verse. The statement, then, is addressed to collective Israel, the speaker in verse 18. The plural form אוֹרֹת (’orot) is probably a plural of respect or magnitude, meaning “bright light” (i.e., morning’s light). Dew is a symbol of fertility and life. Here Israel’s “dew,” as it were, will soak the dust of the ground and cause the corpses of the dead to spring up to new life, like plants sprouting up from well-watered soil.

[26:19]  ¹⁰ sn It is not certain whether the resurrection envisioned here is intended to be literal or figurative. A comparison with 25:8 and Dan 12:2 suggests a literal interpretation, but Ezek 37:1-14 uses resurrection as a metaphor for deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation (see Isa 27:12-13).

[34:11]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).

[34:11]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.

[34:11]  ¹⁴ sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.

[34:17]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV); NCV “they will own that land forever.”