Isaiah 9:17

9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased ¹  with their young men,

he took no pity ²  on their orphans and widows;

for the whole nation was godless ³  and did wicked things, ⁴ 

every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. ⁵ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ⁶ 

Isaiah 13:18

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ⁷ 

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ⁸ 

they will not ⁹  look with pity on children.

Psalms 33:16

33:16 No king is delivered by his vast army;

a warrior is not saved by his great might.

Psalms 34:10

34:10 Even young lions sometimes lack food and are hungry,

but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Psalms 39:5

39:5 Look, you make my days short-lived, ¹⁰ 

and my life span is nothing from your perspective. ¹¹ 

Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor. ¹² 

Ecclesiastes 9:11

Wisdom Cannot Protect against Seemingly Chance Events

9:11 Again, ¹³  I observed this on the earth: ¹⁴ 

the race is not always ¹⁵  won by the swiftest,

the battle is not always won by the strongest;

prosperity ¹⁶  does not always belong to those who are the wisest,

wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning,

nor does success ¹⁷  always come to those with the most knowledge –

for time and chance may overcome ¹⁸  them all.

Amos 2:14

2:14 Fast runners will find no place to hide; ¹⁹ 

strong men will have no strength left; ²⁰ 

warriors will not be able to save their lives.

[9:17]  ¹ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”

[9:17]  ² tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)

[9:17]  ³ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”

[9:17]  ⁴ tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.

[9:17]  ⁵ tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.

[9:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[13:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.

[13:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”

[13:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.

[39:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look, handbreadths you make my days.” The “handbreadth” (equivalent to the width of four fingers) was one of the smallest measures used by ancient Israelites. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 309.

[39:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “is like nothing before you.”

[39:5]  ¹² tn Heb “surely, all vapor [is] all mankind, standing firm.” Another option is to translate, “Surely, all mankind, though seemingly secure, is nothing but a vapor.”

[9:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “I returned and.” In the Hebrew idiom, “to return and do” means “to do again.”

[9:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[9:11]  ¹⁵ tn The term “always” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation (five times in this verse) for clarity.

[9:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “bread.”

[9:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “favor.”

[9:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “happen to.”

[2:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and a place of refuge will perish from the swift.”

[2:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the strong will not increase his strength.”