Yesaya 3:15

3:15 Why do you crush my people

and grind the faces of the poor?” ¹ 

The sovereign Lord who commands armies ²  has spoken.

Yesaya 3:17

3:17 So ³  the sovereign master ⁴  will afflict the foreheads of Zion’s women ⁵  with skin diseases, ⁶ 

the Lord will make the front of their heads bald.” ⁷ 

Yesaya 21:16

21:16 For this is what the sovereign master ⁸  has told me: “Within exactly one year ⁹  all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end.

[3:15]  ¹ sn The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s outrage at what the leaders have done to the poor. He finds it almost unbelievable that they would have the audacity to treat his people in this manner.

[3:15]  ² tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at 1:9.

[3:15]  sn The use of this title, which also appears in v. 1, forms an inclusio around vv. 1-15. The speech begins and ends with a reference to “the master, the Lord who commands armies.”

[3:17]  ³ tn In the Hebrew text vv. 16-17 and one long sentence, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk…, the sovereign master will afflict….” In v. 17 the Lord refers to himself in the third person.

[3:17]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[3:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “the daughters of Zion.”

[3:17]  ⁶ tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”

[3:17]  ⁷ tn The precise meaning of this line is unclear because of the presence of the rare word פֹּת (pot). Since the verb in the line means “lay bare, make naked,” some take פֹּת as a reference to the genitals (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV, CEV). (In 1 Kgs 7:50 a noun פֹּת appears, with the apparent meaning “socket.”) J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:139, n. 2), basing his argument on alleged Akkadian evidence and the parallelism of the verse, takes פֹּת as “forehead.”

[21:16]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[21:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “in still a year, like the years of a hired worker.” See the note at 16:14.