Yesaya 10:33-34

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

is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ¹ 

The tallest trees ²  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. ³ 

Yesaya 27:10-11

27:10 For the fortified city ⁴  is left alone;

it is a deserted settlement

and abandoned like the desert.

Calves ⁵  graze there;

they lie down there

and eat its branches bare. ⁶ 

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ⁷  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ⁸ 

For these people lack understanding, ⁹ 

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

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Yesaya 37:24

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ¹⁰ 

‘With my many chariots I climbed up

the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ¹¹ 

its thickest woods.

[10:33]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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.”

[27:10]  ⁴ sn The identity of this city is uncertain. The context suggests that an Israelite city, perhaps Samaria or Jerusalem, is in view. For discussions of interpretive options see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:496-97, and Paul L. Redditt, “Once Again, the City in Isaiah 24-27,” HAR 10 (1986), 332.

[27:10]  ⁵ tn The singular form in the text is probably collective.

[27:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and destroy her branches.” The city is the antecedent of the third feminine singular pronominal suffix. Apparently the city is here compared to a tree. See also v. 11.

[27:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[37:24]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”