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 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ⁷  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ⁸ 

For these people lack understanding, ⁹ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Isaiah 48:8

48:8 You did not hear,

you do not know,

you were not told beforehand. ¹⁰ 

For I know that you are very deceitful; ¹¹ 

you were labeled ¹²  a rebel from birth.

Isaiah 54:4

54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!

Don’t be intimidated, ¹³  for you will not be humiliated!

You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;

you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 57:11

57:11 Whom are you worried about?

Whom do you fear, that you would act so deceitfully

and not remember me

or think about me? ¹⁵ 

Because I have been silent for so long, ¹⁶ 

you are not afraid of me. ¹⁷ 

[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.”

[27:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[48:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “beforehand your ear did not open.”

[48:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “deceiving, you deceive.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[48:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or “called” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[54:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”

[54:4]  ²⁰ tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.

[57:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you do not place [it] on your heart.”

[57:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Is it not [because] I have been silent, and from long ago?”

[57:11]  ²⁷ sn God’s patience with sinful Israel has caused them to think that they can sin with impunity and suffer no consequences.