Yesaya 26:1

Judah Will Celebrate

26:1 At that time ¹  this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city!

The Lord’s ²  deliverance, like walls and a rampart, makes it secure. ³ 

Yesaya 1:7

1:7 Your land is devastated,

your cities burned with fire.

Right before your eyes your crops

are being destroyed by foreign invaders. ⁴ 

They leave behind devastation and destruction. ⁵ 

[26:1]  ¹ tn Heb “In that day” (so KJV).

[26:1]  ² tn Heb “his”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:1]  ³ tn Heb “deliverance he makes walls and a rampart.”

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the mss or ancient versions. Such an emendation finds support from the following context (vv. 9-10) and usage of the preceding noun מַהְפֵּכָה (mahpekhah, “overthrow”). In its five other uses, this noun is associated with the destruction of Sodom. If one accepts the emendation, then one might translate, “the devastation resembles the destruction of Sodom.”