Isaiah 9:9-12

9:9 All the people were aware ¹  of it,

the people of Ephraim and those living in Samaria. ² 

Yet with pride and an arrogant attitude, they said, ³ 

9:10 “The bricks have fallen,

but we will rebuild with chiseled stone;

the sycamore fig trees have been cut down,

but we will replace them with cedars.” ⁴ 

9:11 Then the Lord provoked ⁵  their adversaries to attack them, ⁶ 

he stirred up ⁷  their enemies –

9:12 Syria from the east,

and the Philistines from the west,

they gobbled up Israelite territory. ⁸ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ⁹ 

Isaiah 27:1

27:1 At that time ¹⁰  the Lord will punish

with his destructive, ¹¹  great, and powerful sword

Leviathan the fast-moving ¹²  serpent,

Leviathan the squirming serpent;

he will kill the sea monster. ¹³ 

Ezekiel 30:10-11

30:10 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt,

by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar ¹⁴  of Babylon.

30:11 He and his people with him,

the most terrifying of the nations, ¹⁵ 

will be brought there to destroy the land.

They will draw their swords against Egypt,

and fill the land with corpses.

[9:9]  ¹ tn The translation assumes that vv. 9-10 describe the people’s response to a past judgment (v. 8). The perfect is understood as indicating simple past and the vav (ו) is taken as conjunctive. Another option is to take the vav on the perfect as consecutive and translate, “all the people will know.”

[9:9]  ² tn Heb “and the people, all of them, knew; Ephraim and the residents of Samaria.”

[9:9]  ³ tn Heb “with pride and arrogance of heart, saying.”

[9:10]  ⁴ sn Though judgment (see v. 8) had taken away the prosperity they did have (symbolized by the bricks and sycamore fig trees), they arrogantly expected the future to bring even greater prosperity (symbolized by the chiseled stone and cedars).

[9:11]  ⁵ tn The translation assumes that the prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive continues the narrative of past judgment.

[9:11]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “adversaries of Rezin against him [i.e., them].” The next verse describes how the Syrians (over whom Rezin ruled, see 7:1, 8) and the Philistines encroached on Israel’s territory. Since the Syrians and Israelites were allies by 735 b.c. (see 7:1), the hostilities described probably occurred earlier, while Israel was still pro-Assyrian. In this case one might understand the phrase צָרֵי רְצִין (tsare rÿtsin, “adversaries of Rezin”) as meaning “adversaries sent from Rezin.” However, another option, the one chosen in the translation above, is to emend the phrase to צָרָיו (tsarayv, “his [i.e., their] adversaries”). This creates tighter parallelism with the next line (note “his [i.e., their] enemies”). The phrase in the Hebrew text may be explained as virtually dittographic.

[9:11]  ⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite, used, as is often the case in poetry, without vav consecutive. Note that prefixed forms with vav consecutive both precede (וַיְשַׂגֵּב, vaysaggev, “and he provoked”) and follow in v. 12 (וַיֹּאכְלוּ, vayyo’khÿlu, “and they devoured”) this verb.

[9:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they devoured Israel with all the mouth”; NIV “with open mouth”; NLT “With bared fangs.”

[9:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.” One could translate in the past tense here (and in 9:17b and 21b), but the appearance of the refrain in 10:4b, where it follows a woe oracle prophesying a future judgment, suggests it is a dramatic portrait of the judge which did not change throughout this period of past judgment and will remain unchanged in the future. The English present tense is chosen to best reflect this dramatic mood. (See also 5:25b, where the refrain appears following a dramatic description of coming judgment.)

[27:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

[27:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hard, severe”; cf. NAB, NRSV “cruel”; KJV “sore”; NLT “terrible.”

[27:1]  ¹² tn Heb “fleeing” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Some translate “slippery” or “slithering.”

[27:1]  ¹³ tn The description of Leviathan should be compared with the following excerpts from Ugaritic mythological texts: (1) “Was not the dragon (Ugaritic tnn, cognate with Hebrew תַנִּין [tannin, translated “sea monster” here]) vanquished and captured? I did destroy the wriggling (Ugaritic ’qltn, cognate to Hebrew עֲקַלָּתוֹן [’aqallaton, translated “squirming” here]) serpent, the tyrant with seven heads (cf. Ps 74:14).” (See CTA 3 iii 38-39.) (2) “for all that you smote Leviathan the slippery (Ugaritic brh, cognate to Hebrew בָּרִחַ [bariakh, translated “fast-moving” here]) serpent, [and] made an end of the wriggling serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (See CTA 5 i 1-3.)

[30:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Nebuchadrezzar” is a variant and more correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian name Nabu-kudurri-usur has an “r” rather than an “n.”

[30:11]  ¹⁵ tn The Babylonians were known for their cruelty (2 Kgs 25:7).