Yesaya 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ¹  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ² 

For these people lack understanding, ³ 

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

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Yesaya 41:2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? ⁴ 

Who ⁵  officially commissions him for service? ⁶ 

He hands nations over to him, ⁷ 

and enables him to subdue ⁸  kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow. ⁹ 

Yesaya 44:13

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ¹⁰ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ¹¹ 

he scrapes ¹²  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ¹³ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ¹⁴ 

[27:11]  ¹ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[41:2]  ⁴ sn The expression this one from the east refers to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, as later texts indicate (see 44:28-45:6; 46:11; 48:14-16).

[41:2]  ⁵ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.

[41:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”

[41:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”

[41:2]  ⁸ tn The verb יַרְדְּ (yardÿ) is an otherwise unattested Hiphil form from רָדָה (radah, “rule”). But the Hiphil makes no sense with “kings” as object; one must understand an ellipsis and supply “him” (Cyrus) as the object. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has יוֹרִד (yorid), which appears to be a Hiphil form from יָרַד (yarad, “go down”). Others suggest reading יָרֹד (yarod), a Qal form from רָדַד (radad, “beat down”).

[41:2]  ⁹ sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.

[44:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”

[44:13]  ¹² tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”