Isaiah 8:4

8:4 for before the child knows how to cry out, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria ¹  will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” ² 

Isaiah 9:3

9:3 You ³  have enlarged the nation;

you give them great joy. ⁴ 

They rejoice in your presence

as harvesters rejoice;

as warriors celebrate ⁵  when they divide up the plunder.

Isaiah 10:2

10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,

and to deprive ⁶  the oppressed among my people of justice,

so they can steal what widows own,

and loot what belongs to orphans. ⁷ 

Isaiah 10:6

10:6 I sent him ⁸  against a godless ⁹  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ¹⁰ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ¹¹  like dirt in the streets.

Isaiah 33:23

33:23 Though at this time your ropes are slack, ¹² 

the mast is not secured, ¹³ 

and the sail ¹⁴  is not unfurled,

at that time you will divide up a great quantity of loot; ¹⁵ 

even the lame will drag off plunder. ¹⁶ 

[8:4]  ¹ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[8:4]  ² sn The child’s name foreshadows what will happen to Judah’s enemies; when their defeat takes place, the child will be a reminder that God predicted the event and brought it to pass. As such the child will be a reminder of God’s protective presence with his people.

[9:3]  ³ sn The Lord is addressed directly in vv. 3-4.

[9:3]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew consonantal text reads “You multiply the nation, you do not make great the joy.” The particle לֹא (lo’, “not”) is obviously incorrect; the marginal reading has לוֹ (lo, “to him”). In this case, one should translate, “You multiply the nation, you increase his (i.e., their) joy.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one emends הַגּוֹי לוֹ (hagoy lo, “the nation, to him”) to הַגִּילָה (haggilah, “the joy,” a noun attested in Isa 65:18), which corresponds to הַשִּׂמְחָה (hasimkhah, “the joy”) later in the verse (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:386). As attractive as this reading is, it has not textual evidence supporting it. The MT reading (accepting the marginal reading “to him” for the negative particle “not”) affirms that Yahweh caused the nation to grow in population and increased their joy.

[9:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “as they are happy.” The word “warriors” is supplied in the translation to clarify the word picture. This last simile comes close to reality, for vv. 4-5 indicate that the people have won a great military victory over their oppressors.

[10:2]  ⁵ tn Or “rob” (ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); KJV “take away the right from the poor.”

[10:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”

[10:6]  ⁷ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

[10:6]  ⁸ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[33:23]  ⁹ tn The words “though at this time” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first half of the verse is addressed to Judah and contrasts the nation’s present weakness with its future prosperity. Judah is compared to a ship that is incapable of sailing.

[33:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they do not fasten the base of their mast.” On כֵּן (ken, “base”) see BDB 487 s.v. III כֵּן and HALOT 483 s.v. III כֵּן.

[33:23]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps, “flag.”

[33:23]  ¹² tn Heb “then there will be divided up loot of plunder [in] abundance.”

[33:23]  ¹³ sn Judah’s victory over its enemies will be so thorough there will be more than enough plunder for everyone, even slow-moving lame men who would normally get left out in the rush to gather the loot.