Yesaya 22:2

22:2 The noisy city is full of raucous sounds;

the town is filled with revelry. ¹ 

Your slain were not cut down by the sword;

they did not die in battle. ² 

Yesaya 25:5

25:5 like heat ³  in a dry land,

you humble the boasting foreigners. ⁴ 

Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, ⁵ 

so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. ⁶ 

Yesaya 37:22

37:22 this is what the Lord says about him: ⁷ 

“The virgin daughter Zion ⁸ 

despises you – she makes fun of you;

daughter Jerusalem

shakes her head after you. ⁹ 

Yesaya 39:7

39:7 ‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father ¹⁰  will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

Yesaya 43:24

43:24 You did not buy me aromatic reeds; ¹¹ 

you did not present to me ¹²  the fat of your sacrifices.

Yet you burdened me with your sins;

you made me weary with your evil deeds. ¹³ 

Yesaya 57:5

57:5 you who practice ritual sex ¹⁴  under the oaks and every green tree,

who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 59:3

59:3 For your hands are stained with blood

and your fingers with sin;

your lips speak lies,

your tongue utters malicious words.

[22:2]  ¹ tn Heb “the boisterous town.” The phrase is parallel to “the noisy city” in the preceding line.

[22:2]  ² sn Apparently they died from starvation during the siege that preceded the final conquest of the city. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:409.

[25:5]  ³ tn Or “drought” (TEV).

[25:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “the tumult of foreigners.”

[25:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “[like] heat in the shadow of a cloud.”

[25:5]  ⁶ tn The translation assumes that the verb יַעֲנֶה (ya’aneh) is a Hiphil imperfect from עָנָה (’anah, “be afflicted, humiliated”). In this context with “song” as object it means to “quiet” (see HALOT 853-54 s.v. II ענה). Some prefer to emend the form to the second person singular, so that it will agree with the second person verb earlier in the verse. BDB 776 s.v. III עָנָה Qal.1 understands the form as Qal, with “song” as subject, in which case one might translate “the song of tyrants will be silent.” An emendation of the form to a Niphal (יֵעָנֶה, ye’aneh) would yield the same translation.

[37:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”

[37:22]  ⁸ sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.

[37:22]  ⁹ sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.

[39:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Some of your sons, who go out from you, whom you father.”

[43:24]  ¹¹ tn That is, “calamus” (so NIV); NCV, TEV, NLT “incense”; CEV “spices.”

[43:24]  ¹² tn Heb “you did not saturate me”; NASB “Neither have you filled Me.”

[43:24]  ¹³ sn In vv. 22-24 the Lord appears to be condemning his people for failure to bring the proper sacrifices. However, this is problematic. If this refers to the nation’s behavior while in exile, such cultic service was impossible and could hardly be expected by the Lord. If this refers to the nation’s conduct before the exile, it contradicts other passages that depict Israel as bringing excessive sacrifices (see, e.g., Isa 1:11-14; Jer 6:20; Amos 4:4-5, 5:21-23). Rather than being a condemnation of Israel’s failure to bring sacrifices, these verses are better taken as a highly rhetorical comment on the worthlessness of Israel’s religious ritual. They may have brought sacrifices, but not to the Lord, for he did not accept them or even want them. See C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 127, and R. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 (NCBC), 91.

[57:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “inflame yourselves”; NRSV “burn with lust.” This verse alludes to the practice of ritual sex that accompanied pagan fertility rites.

[57:5]  ¹⁵ sn This apparently alludes to the practice of child sacrifice (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).