Yesaya 10:32-34

10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,

they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain ¹  –

at the hill of Jerusalem.

10:33 Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,

is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ² 

The tallest trees ³  will be cut down,

the loftiest ones will be brought low.

10:34 The thickets of the forest will be chopped down with an ax,

and mighty Lebanon will fall. ⁴ 

Yesaya 14:24-27

14:24 ⁵ The Lord who commands armies makes this solemn vow:

“Be sure of this:

Just as I have intended, so it will be;

just as I have planned, it will happen.

14:25 I will break Assyria ⁶  in my land,

I will trample them ⁷  underfoot on my hills.

Their yoke will be removed from my people,

the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. ⁸ 

14:26 This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;

my hand is ready to strike all the nations.” ⁹ 

14:27 Indeed, ¹⁰  the Lord who commands armies has a plan,

and who can possibly frustrate it?

His hand is ready to strike,

and who can possibly stop it? ¹¹ 

Yesaya 17:14

17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror; ¹² 

by morning they vanish. ¹³ 

This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,

the destiny of those who try to loot us! ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 30:28-33

30:28 His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river ¹⁵ 

that reaches one’s neck.

He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; ¹⁶ 

he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction. ¹⁷ 

30:29 You will sing

as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival.

You will be happy like one who plays a flute

as he goes to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock who shelters Israel. ¹⁸ 

30:30 The Lord will give a mighty shout ¹⁹ 

and intervene in power, ²⁰ 

with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ²¹ 

with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

30:31 Indeed, the Lord’s shout will shatter Assyria; ²² 

he will beat them with a club.

30:32 Every blow from his punishing cudgel, ²³ 

with which the Lord will beat them, ²⁴ 

will be accompanied by music from the ²⁵  tambourine and harp,

and he will attack them with his weapons. ²⁶ 

30:33 For ²⁷  the burial place is already prepared; ²⁸ 

it has been made deep and wide for the king. ²⁹ 

The firewood is piled high on it. ³⁰ 

The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone,

will ignite it.

Yesaya 31:8

31:8 Assyria will fall by a sword, but not one human-made; ³¹ 

a sword not made by humankind will destroy them. ³² 

They will run away from this sword ³³ 

and their young men will be forced to do hard labor.

Yesaya 37:36

37:36 The Lord’s messenger ³⁴  went out and killed 185,000 troops ³⁵  in the Assyrian camp. When they ³⁶  got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses! ³⁷ 

[10:32]  ¹ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “a mountain of a house (בֵּית, bet), Zion,” but the marginal reading (Qere) correctly reads “the mountain of the daughter (בַּת, bat) of Zion.” On the phrase “Daughter Zion,” see the note on the same phrase in 1:8.

[10:33]  ² tc The Hebrew text reads “with terrifying power,” or “with a crash.” מַעֲרָצָה (ma’aratsah, “terrifying power” or “crash”) occurs only here. Several have suggested an emendation to מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad, “ax”) parallel to “ax” in v. 34; see HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:448.

[10:33]  sn As in vv. 12 (see the note there) and 18, the Assyrians are compared to a tree/forest in vv. 33-34.

[10:33]  ³ tn Heb “the exalted of the height.” This could refer to the highest branches (cf. TEV) or the tallest trees (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[10:34]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text has, “and Lebanon, by/as [?] a mighty one, will fall.” The translation above takes the preposition בְּ (bet) prefixed to “mighty one” as indicating identity, “Lebanon, as a mighty one, will fall.” In this case “mighty one” describes Lebanon. (In Ezek 17:23 and Zech 11:2 the adjective is used of Lebanon’s cedars.) Another option is to take the preposition as indicating agency and interpret “mighty one” as a divine title (see Isa 33:21). One could then translate, “and Lebanon will fall by [the agency of] the Mighty One.”

[14:24]  ⁵ sn Having announced the downfall of the Chaldean empire, the Lord appends to this prophecy a solemn reminder that the Assyrians, the major Mesopotamian power of Isaiah’s day, would be annihilated, foreshadowing what would subsequently happen to Babylon and the other hostile nations.

[14:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “to break Assyria.”

[14:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “him.” This is a collective singular referring to the nation, or a reference to the king of Assyria who by metonymy stands for the entire nation.

[14:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “and his [i.e., Assyria’s] yoke will be removed from them [the people?], and his [Assyria’s] burden from his [the nation’s?] shoulder will be removed.” There are no antecedents in this oracle for the suffixes in the phrases “from them” and “from his shoulder.” Since the Lord’s land and hills are referred to in the preceding line and the statement seems to echo 10:27, it is likely that God’s people are the referents of the suffixes; the translation uses “my people” to indicate this.

[14:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “and this is the hand that is outstretched over all the nations.”

[14:27]  ¹⁰ tn Or “For” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “His hand is outstretched and who will turn it back?”

[17:14]  ¹² tn Heb “at the time of evening, look, sudden terror.”

[17:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “before morning he is not.”

[17:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “this is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who loot us.”

[30:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his breath is like a flooding river.” This might picture the Lord breathing heavily as he runs down his enemy, but in light of the preceding verse, which mentions his lips and tongue, “breath” probably stands metonymically for the word or battle cry that he expels from his mouth as he shouts. In Isa 34:16 and Ps 33:6 the Lord’s “breath” is associated with his command.

[30:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “shaking nations in a sieve of worthlessness.” It is not certain exactly how שָׁוְא (shavÿ’, “emptiness, worthlessness”) modifies “sieve.” A sieve is used to separate grain from chaff and isolate what is worthless so that it might be discarded. Perhaps the nations are likened to such chaff; God’s judgment will sift them out for destruction.

[30:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and a bit that leads astray [is] in the jaws of the peoples.” Here the nations are likened to horse that can be controlled by a bit placed in its mouth. In this case the Lord uses his sovereign control over the “horse” to lead it to its demise.

[30:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[you will have] joy of heart, like the one going with a flute to enter the mountain of the Lord to the Rock of Israel.” The image here is not a foundational rock, but a rocky cliff where people could hide for protection (for example, the fortress of Masada).

[30:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard.”

[30:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and reveal the lowering of his arm.”

[30:30]  ²¹ tn Heb “and a flame of consuming fire.”

[30:31]  ²² tn Heb “Indeed by the voice of the Lord Assyria will be shattered.”

[30:32]  ²³ tc The Hebrew text has “every blow from a founded [i.e., “appointed”?] cudgel.” The translation above, with support from a few medieval Hebrew mss, assumes an emendation of מוּסָדָה (musadah, “founded”) to מוּסָרֹה (musaroh, “his discipline”).

[30:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “which the Lord lays on him.”

[30:32]  ²⁵ tn Heb “will be with” (KJV similar).

[30:32]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and with battles of brandishing [weapons?] he will fight against him.” Some prefer to emend וּבְמִלְחֲמוֹת (uvÿmilkhamot, “and with battles of”) to וּבִמְחֹלוֹת (uvimkholot, “and with dancing”). Note the immediately preceding references to musical instruments.

[30:33]  ²⁷ tn Or “indeed.”

[30:33]  ²⁸ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for arranged from before [or “yesterday”] is [?].” The meaning of תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh), which occurs only here, is unknown. The translation above (as with most English versions) assumes an emendation to תֹּפֶת (tofet, “Topheth”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) and places the final hey (ה) on the beginning of the next word as an interrogative particle. Topheth was a place near Jerusalem used as a burial ground (see Jer 7:32; 19:11).

[30:33]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Also it is made ready for the king, one makes it deep and wide.” If one takes the final hey (ה) on תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh) and prefixes it to גָּם (gam) as an interrogative particle (see the preceding note), one can translate, “Is it also made ready for the king?” In this case the question is rhetorical and expects an emphatic affirmative answer, “Of course it is!”

[30:33]  ³⁰ tn Heb “its pile of wood, fire and wood one makes abundant.”

[30:33]  sn Apparently this alludes to some type of funeral rite.

[31:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “Assyria will fall by a sword, not of a man.”

[31:8]  ³² tn Heb “and a sword not of humankind will devour him.”

[31:8]  ³³ tn Heb “he will flee for himself from before a sword.”

[37:36]  ³⁴ tn Traditionally, “the angel of the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[37:36]  ³⁵ tn The word “troops” is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[37:36]  ³⁶ tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.

[37:36]  ³⁷ tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies”; NLT “they found corpses everywhere.”