Yesaya 19:11

19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; ¹ 

Pharaoh’s wise advisers give stupid advice.

How dare you say to Pharaoh,

“I am one of the sages,

one well-versed in the writings of the ancient kings?” ² 

Yesaya 30:6

30:6 This is a message ³  about the animals in the Negev:

Through a land of distress and danger,

inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, ⁴ 

by snakes and darting adders, ⁵ 

they transport ⁶  their wealth on the backs of donkeys,

their riches on the humps of camels,

to a nation that cannot help them. ⁷ 

[19:11]  ¹ tn Or “certainly the officials of Zoan are fools.” אַךְ (’akh) can carry the sense, “only, nothing but,” or “certainly, surely.”

[19:11]  ² tn Heb “A son of wise men am I, a son of ancient kings.” The term בֶּן (ben, “son of”) could refer to literal descent, but many understand the word, at least in the first line, in its idiomatic sense of “member [of a guild].” See HALOT 138 s.v. בֶּן and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:371. If this is the case, then one can take the word in a figurative sense in the second line as well, the “son of ancient kings” being one devoted to their memory as preserved in their literature.

[30:6]  ³ tn Traditionally, “burden” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “oracle.”

[30:6]  ⁴ tc Heb “[a land of] a lioness and a lion, from them.” Some emend מֵהֶם (mehem, “from them”) to מֵהֵם (mehem), an otherwise unattested Hiphil participle from הָמַם (hamam, “move noisily”). Perhaps it would be better to take the initial mem (מ) as enclitic and emend the form to הֹמֶה (homeh), a Qal active participle from הָמָה (hamah, “to make a noise”); cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:542, n. 9.

[30:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “flying fiery one.” See the note at 14:29.

[30:6]  ⁶ tn Or “carry” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:6]  ⁷ sn This verse describes messengers from Judah transporting wealth to Egypt in order to buy Pharaoh’s protection through a treaty.