Yesaya 10:5
Konteks10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 1
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 2
Yesaya 17:12
Konteks17:12 The many nations massing together are as good as dead, 3
those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. 4
The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, 5
those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. 6
Yesaya 28:11
Konteks28:11 For with mocking lips and a foreign tongue
he will speak to these people. 7
[10:5] 1 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
[10:5] 2 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
[17:12] 3 tn Heb “Woe [to] the massing of the many nations.” The word הוֹי (hoy) could be translated as a simple interjection here (“ah!”), but since the following verses announce the demise of these nations, it is preferable to take הוֹי as a funeral cry. See the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
[17:12] 4 tn Heb “like the loud noise of the seas, they make a loud noise.”
[17:12] 5 tn Heb “the uproar of the peoples.” The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse; the words “are as good as dead” are supplied in the translation to reflect this.
[17:12] 6 tn Heb “like the uproar of mighty waters they are in an uproar.”
[28:11] 7 sn This verse alludes to the coming Assyrian invasion, when the people will hear a foreign language that sounds like gibberish to them. The Lord is the subject of the verb “will speak,” as v. 12 makes clear. He once spoke in meaningful terms, but in the coming judgment he will speak to them, as it were, through the mouth of foreign oppressors. The apparent gibberish they hear will be an outward reminder that God has decreed their defeat.
