Yesaya 37:30

37:30 ¹ “This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: ²  This year you will eat what grows wild, ³  and next year ⁴  what grows on its own. But the year after that ⁵  you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. ⁶ 

Yesaya 38:7-8

38:7 Isaiah replied, ⁷  “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said: 38:8 Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.” ⁸  And then the shadow went back ten steps. ⁹ 

Yesaya 55:13

55:13 Evergreens will grow in place of thorn bushes,

firs will grow in place of nettles;

they will be a monument to the Lord, ¹⁰ 

a permanent reminder that will remain. ¹¹ 

[37:30]  ¹ tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 22-29) ends and the Lord again addresses Hezekiah and the people directly (see v. 21).

[37:30]  ² tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) is a future reminder of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.

[37:30]  ³ sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.

[37:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “and in the second year” (so ASV).

[37:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the third year” (so KJV, NAB).

[37:30]  ⁶ tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 30b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity.

[38:7]  ⁷ tn The words “Isaiah replied” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the present form of the Hebrew text v. 7 is joined directly to v. 6, but vv. 21-22, if original to Isaiah 38, must be inserted here. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8.

[38:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “the shadow on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, with the sun, back ten steps.”

[38:8]  sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.

[38:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the sun returned ten steps on the steps which it had gone down.”

[55:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to the Lord for a name.” For שֵׁם (shem) used in the sense of “monument,” see also 56:5, where it stands parallel to יָד (yad).

[55:13]  ¹¹ tn Or, more literally, “a permanent sign that will not be cut off.”