Yesaya 5:14

5:14 So Death ¹  will open up its throat,

and open wide its mouth; ² 

Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it,

including those who revel and celebrate within her. ³ 

Yesaya 45:8

45:8 O sky, rain down from above!

Let the clouds send down showers ⁴  of deliverance!

Let the earth absorb it ⁵  so salvation may grow, ⁶ 

and deliverance may sprout up ⁷  along with it.

I, the Lord, create it. ⁸ 

Yesaya 62:6

62:6 I ⁹  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

they should keep praying all day and all night. ¹⁰ 

You who pray to ¹¹  the Lord, don’t be silent!

[5:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); the underworld, the land of the dead, according to the OT world view. Cf. NAB “the nether world”; TEV, CEV “the world of the dead”; NLT “the grave.”

[5:14]  ² tn Heb “so Sheol will make wide its throat, and open its mouth without limit.”

[5:14]  sn Death is portrayed in both the OT (Prov 1:12; Hab 2:5) and Canaanite myth as voraciously swallowing up its prey. In the myths Death is portrayed as having “a lip to the earth, a lip to the heavens … and a tongue to the stars.” (G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 69, text 5 ii 2-3.) Death describes his own appetite as follows: “But my appetite is the appetite of lions in the waste…If it is in very truth my desire to consume ‘clay’ [a reference to his human victims], then in truth by the handfuls I must eat it, whether my seven portions [indicating fullness and completeness] are already in the bowl or whether Nahar [the god of the river responsible for ferrying victims from the land of the living to the land of the dead] has to mix the cup.” (Driver, 68-69, text 5 i 14-22).

[5:14]  ³ tn Heb “and her splendor and her masses will go down, and her tumult and the one who exults in her.” The antecedent of the four feminine singular pronominal suffixes used in v. 14b is unclear. The likely referent is personified Zion/Jerusalem (see 3:25-26; 4:4-5).

[45:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “let the clouds drip with”; KJV “let the skies pour down.”

[45:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “open up” (so NASB); NIV, NLT “open wide.”

[45:8]  ⁶ tc The plural verb should be emended to a singular form. The vav (ו) ending is probably virtually dittographic (note the yod at the beginning of the following word).

[45:8]  ⁷ tc The Hiphil verb form (תַצְמִיחַ, tatsmiakh) should probably be emended to a Qal (תִצְמַח, titsmakh). The יח sequence at the end of the form is probably due to dittography (note the following יַחַד, yakhad).

[45:8]  ⁸ tn The masculine singular pronominal suffix probably refers back to יָשַׁע (yasha’, “salvation”).

[62:6]  ⁹ sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.

[62:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.

[62:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”