Isaiah 9:3

9:3 You ¹  have enlarged the nation;

you give them great joy. ² 

They rejoice in your presence

as harvesters rejoice;

as warriors celebrate ³  when they divide up the plunder.

Isaiah 33:23

33:23 Though at this time your ropes are slack, ⁴ 

the mast is not secured, ⁵ 

and the sail ⁶  is not unfurled,

at that time you will divide up a great quantity of loot; ⁷ 

even the lame will drag off plunder. ⁸ 

Isaiah 34:17

34:17 He assigns them their allotment; ⁹ 

he measures out their assigned place. ¹⁰ 

They will live there ¹¹  permanently;

they will settle in it through successive generations.

Isaiah 41:7

41:7 The craftsman encourages the metalsmith,

the one who wields the hammer encourages ¹²  the one who pounds on the anvil.

He approves the quality of the welding, ¹³ 

and nails it down so it won’t fall over.”

[9:3]  ¹ sn The Lord is addressed directly in vv. 3-4.

[9:3]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[33:23]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps, “flag.”

[33:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “then there will be divided up loot of plunder [in] abundance.”

[33:23]  ⁸ 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.

[34:17]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV); NCV “they will own that land forever.”

[41:7]  ¹⁰ tn The verb “encourages” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[41:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “saying of the welding, ‘It is good.’”