Yesaya 1:18

1:18 ¹ Come, let’s consider your options,” ²  says the Lord.

“Though your sins have stained you like the color red,

you can become ³  white like snow;

though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet,

you can become ⁴  white like wool. ⁵ 

Yesaya 3:9

3:9 The look on their faces ⁶  testifies to their guilt; ⁷ 

like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. ⁸ 

Too bad for them! ⁹ 

For they bring disaster on themselves.

Yesaya 9:4

9:4 For their oppressive yoke

and the club that strikes their shoulders,

the cudgel the oppressor uses on them, ¹⁰ 

you have shattered, as in the day of Midian’s defeat. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 10:18

10:18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard

will be completely destroyed, ¹² 

as when a sick man’s life ebbs away. ¹³ 

Yesaya 27:4

27:4 I am not angry.

I wish I could confront some thorns and briers!

Then I would march against them ¹⁴  for battle;

I would set them ¹⁵  all on fire,

Yesaya 27:7

27:7 Has the Lord struck down Israel like he did their oppressors? ¹⁶ 

Has Israel been killed like their enemies? ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 43:17

43:17 the one who led chariots and horses to destruction, ¹⁸ 

together with a mighty army.

They fell down, ¹⁹  never to rise again;

they were extinguished, put out like a burning wick:

Yesaya 44:20

44:20 He feeds on ashes; ²⁰ 

his deceived mind misleads him.

He cannot rescue himself,

nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ ²¹ 

Yesaya 47:15

47:15 They will disappoint you, ²² 

those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth. ²³ 

Each strays off in his own direction, ²⁴ 

leaving no one to rescue you.”

Yesaya 66:22

66:22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain.

[1:18]  ¹ sn The Lord concludes his case against Israel by offering them the opportunity to be forgiven and by setting before them the alternatives of renewed blessing (as a reward for repentance) and final judgment (as punishment for persistence in sin).

[1:18]  ² tn Traditionally, “let us reason together,” but the context suggests a judicial nuance. The Lord is giving the nation its options for the future.

[1:18]  ³ tn The imperfects must be translated as modal (indicating capability or possibility) to bring out the conditional nature of the offer. This purification will only occur if the people repent and change their ways.

[1:18]  ⁴ tn The imperfects must be translated as modal (indicating capability or possibility) to bring out the conditional nature of the offer. This purification will only occur if the people repent and change their ways.

[1:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “though your sins are like red, they will become white like snow; though they are red like scarlet, they will be like wool.” The point is not that the sins will be covered up, though still retained. The metaphorical language must be allowed some flexibility and should not be pressed into a rigid literalistic mold. The people’s sins will be removed and replaced by ethical purity. The sins that are now as obvious as the color red will be washed away and the ones who are sinful will be transformed.

[3:9]  ⁶ sn This refers to their proud, arrogant demeanor.

[3:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “answers against them”; NRSV “bears witness against them.”

[3:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “their sin, like Sodom, they declare, they do not conceal [it].”

[3:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “woe to their soul.”

[9:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the scepter of the oppressor against him.” The singular pronouns are collective, referring to the people. The oppressed nation is compared to an ox weighed down by a heavy yoke and an animal that is prodded and beaten.

[9:4]  ¹¹ sn This alludes to Gideon’s victory over Midian (Judg 7-8), when the Lord delivered Israel from an oppressive foreign invader.

[10:18]  ¹² tn Heb “from breath to flesh it will destroy.” The expression “from breath to flesh” refers to the two basic components of a person, the immaterial (life’s breath) and the material (flesh). Here the phrase is used idiomatically to indicate totality.

[10:18]  ¹³ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See BDB 651 s.v. I נָסַס and HALOT 703 s.v. I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. NRSV “as when an invalid wastes away”).

[27:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it.” The feminine singular suffix apparently refers back to the expression “thorns and briers,” understood in a collective sense. For other examples of a cohortative expressing resolve after a hypothetical statement introduced by נָתַן with מִי (miwith natan), see Judg 9:29; Jer 9:1-2; Ps 55:6.

[27:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “it.” The feminine singular suffix apparently refers back to the expression “thorns and briers,” understood in a collective sense.

[27:7]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Like the striking down of the one striking him down does he strike him down?” The meaning of the text is unclear, but this may be a rhetorical question, suggesting that Israel has not experienced divine judgment to the same degree as her oppressors. In this case “the one striking down” refers to Israel’s oppressors, while the pronoun “him” refers to Israel. The subject of the final verb (“does he strike down”) would then be God, while the pronoun “him” would again refer to Israel.

[27:7]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Or like the killing of his killed ones is he killed?” If one accepts the interpretation of the parallel line outlined in the previous note, then this line too would contain a rhetorical question suggesting that Israel has not experienced destruction to the same degree as its enemies. In this case “his killed ones” refers to the one who struck Israel down, and Israel would be the subject of the final verb (“is he killed”).

[43:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “led out chariots and horses.” The words “to destruction” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The verse refers to the destruction of the Egyptians at the Red Sea.

[43:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “lay down”; NAB “lie prostrate together”; CEV “lie dead”; NRSV “they lie down.”

[44:20]  ²⁰ tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”

[44:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”

[47:15]  ²² tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”

[47:15]  ²³ tn Heb “that for which you toiled, your traders from your youth.” The omen readers and star gazers are likened to merchants with whom Babylon has had an ongoing economic relationship.

[47:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “each to his own side, they err.”