Yesaya 7:17

7:17 The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s family a time ¹  unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah – the king of Assyria!” ² 

Yesaya 10:3

10:3 What will you do on judgment day, ³ 

when destruction arrives from a distant place?

To whom will you run for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

Yesaya 19:11

19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; ⁴ 

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?” ⁵ 

Yesaya 24:2

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ⁶ 

the master as well as the servant, ⁷ 

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ⁸ 

the seller as well as the buyer, ⁹ 

the borrower as well as the lender, ¹⁰ 

the creditor as well as the debtor. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 26:21

26:21 For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ¹² 

to punish the sin of those who live on the earth.

The earth will display the blood shed on it;

it will no longer cover up its slain. ¹³ 

Yesaya 29:23

29:23 For when they see their children,

whom I will produce among them, ¹⁴ 

they will honor ¹⁵  my name.

They will honor the Holy One of Jacob; ¹⁶ 

they will respect ¹⁷  the God of Israel.

Yesaya 33:14

33:14 Sinners are afraid in Zion;

panic ¹⁸  grips the godless. ¹⁹ 

They say, ²⁰  ‘Who among us can coexist with destructive fire?

Who among us can coexist with unquenchable ²¹  fire?’

Yesaya 33:20

33:20 Look at Zion, the city where we hold religious festivals!

You ²²  will see Jerusalem, ²³ 

a peaceful settlement,

a tent that stays put; ²⁴ 

its stakes will never be pulled up;

none of its ropes will snap in two.

Yesaya 36:16

36:16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. ²⁵  Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

Yesaya 37:24

37:24 Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ²⁶ 

‘With my many chariots I climbed up

the high mountains,

the slopes of Lebanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best evergreens.

I invaded its most remote regions, ²⁷ 

its thickest woods.

Yesaya 37:38

37:38 One day, ²⁸  as he was worshiping ²⁹  in the temple of his god Nisroch, ³⁰  his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. ³¹  They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

Yesaya 45:20

45:20 Gather together and come!

Approach together, you refugees from the nations!

Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,

those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.

Yesaya 47:8

47:8 So now, listen to this,

O one who lives so lavishly, ³² 

who lives securely,

who says to herself, ³³ 

‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! ³⁴ 

I will never have to live as a widow;

I will never lose my children.’ ³⁵ 

Yesaya 47:13

47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice. ³⁶ 

Let them take their stand –

the ones who see omens in the sky,

who gaze at the stars,

who make monthly predictions –

let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! ³⁷ 

Yesaya 49:6

49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant ³⁸  of Israel? ³⁹ 

I will make you a light to the nations, ⁴⁰ 

so you can bring ⁴¹  my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

Yesaya 49:23

49:23 Kings will be your children’s ⁴²  guardians;

their princesses will nurse your children. ⁴³ 

With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you

and they will lick the dirt on ⁴⁴  your feet.

Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;

those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.

Yesaya 51:3

51:3 Certainly the Lord will console Zion;

he will console all her ruins.

He will make her wilderness like Eden,

her desert like the Garden of the Lord.

Happiness and joy will be restored to ⁴⁵  her,

thanksgiving and the sound of music.

Yesaya 54:1

Zion Will Be Secure

54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth!

Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor!

For the children of the desolate one are more numerous

than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

Yesaya 56:5

56:5 I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ⁴⁶ 

that will be better than sons and daughters.

I will set up a permanent monument ⁴⁷  for them that will remain.

Yesaya 56:7

56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;

I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me. ⁴⁸ 

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.” ⁴⁹ 

Yesaya 57:8

57:8 Behind the door and doorpost you put your symbols. ⁵⁰ 

Indeed, ⁵¹  you depart from me ⁵²  and go up

and invite them into bed with you. ⁵³ 

You purchase favors from them, ⁵⁴ 

you love their bed,

and gaze longingly ⁵⁵  on their genitals. ⁵⁶ 

Yesaya 58:9

58:9 Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond;

you will cry out, and he will reply, ‘Here I am.’

You must ⁵⁷  remove the burdensome yoke from among you

and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.

Yesaya 59:19

59:19 In the west, people respect ⁵⁸  the Lord’s reputation; ⁵⁹ 

in the east they recognize his splendor. ⁶⁰ 

For he comes like a rushing ⁶¹  stream

driven on by wind sent from the Lord. ⁶² 

Yesaya 62:4

62:4 You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,”

and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.”

Indeed, ⁶³  you will be called “My Delight is in Her,” ⁶⁴ 

and your land “Married.” ⁶⁵ 

For the Lord will take delight in you,

and your land will be married to him. ⁶⁶ 

Yesaya 63:7

A Prayer for Divine Intervention

63:7 I will tell of the faithful acts of the Lord,

of the Lord’s praiseworthy deeds.

I will tell about all ⁶⁷  the Lord did for us,

the many good things he did for the family of Israel, ⁶⁸ 

because of ⁶⁹  his compassion and great faithfulness.

Yesaya 64:5

64:5 You assist ⁷⁰  those who delight in doing what is right, ⁷¹ 

who observe your commandments. ⁷² 

Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.

How then can we be saved? ⁷³ 

Yesaya 65:20

65:20 Never again will one of her infants live just a few days ⁷⁴ 

or an old man die before his time. ⁷⁵ 

Indeed, no one will die before the age of a hundred, ⁷⁶ 

anyone who fails to reach ⁷⁷  the age of a hundred will be considered cursed.

[7:17]  ¹ tn Heb “days” (so KJV, NAB); NASB, NRSV “such days.”

[7:17]  ² sn Initially the prophecy appears to be a message of salvation. Immanuel seems to have a positive ring to it, sour milk and honey elsewhere symbolize prosperity and blessing (see Deut 32:13-14; Job 20:17), verse 16 announces the defeat of Judah’s enemies, and verse 17a could be taken as predicting a return to the glorious days of David and Solomon. However, the message turns sour in verses 17b-25. God will be with his people in judgment, as well as salvation. The curds and honey will be signs of deprivation, not prosperity, the relief announced in verse 16 will be short-lived, and the new era will be characterized by unprecedented humiliation, not a return to glory. Because of Ahaz’s refusal to trust the Lord, potential blessing would be transformed into a curse, just as Isaiah turns an apparent prophecy of salvation into a message of judgment. Because the words “the king of Assyria” are rather awkwardly tacked on to the end of the sentence, some regard them as a later addition. However, the very awkwardness facilitates the prophet’s rhetorical strategy here, as he suddenly turns what sounds like a positive message into a judgment speech. Actually, “the king of Assyria,” stands in apposition to the earlier object “days,” and specifies who the main character of these coming “days” will be.

[10:3]  ³ tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.

[19:11]  ⁴ tn Or “certainly the officials of Zoan are fools.” אַךְ (’akh) can carry the sense, “only, nothing but,” or “certainly, surely.”

[19:11]  ⁵ 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.

[24:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”

[24:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”

[24:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”

[24:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”

[24:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”

[24:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”

[26:21]  ¹² tn Heb “out of his place” (so KJV, ASV).

[26:21]  ¹³ sn This implies that rampant bloodshed is one of the reasons for divine judgment. See the note at 24:5.

[29:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for when he sees his children, the work of my hands in his midst.”

[29:23]  ¹⁵ tn Or “treat as holy” (also in the following line); NASB, NRSV “will sanctify.”

[29:23]  ¹⁶ sn Holy One of Jacob is similar to the phrase “Holy One of Israel” common throughout Isaiah; see the sn at Isa 1:4.

[29:23]  ¹⁷ tn Or “fear,” in the sense of “stand in awe of.”

[33:14]  ¹⁸ tn Or “trembling” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “shake with fear.”

[33:14]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the defiled”; TEV “The sinful people of Zion”; NLT “The sinners in Jerusalem.”

[33:14]  ²⁰ tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[33:14]  ²¹ tn Or “perpetual”; or “everlasting” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[33:20]  ²² tn Heb “your eyes” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[33:20]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[33:20]  ²⁴ tn Or “that does not travel”; NASB “which shall not be folded.”

[36:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”

[37:24]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[37:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the height of its extremity”; ASV “its farthest height.”

[37:38]  ²⁸ sn The assassination of King Sennacherib probably took place in 681 b.c.

[37:38]  ²⁹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[37:38]  ³⁰ sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name Nisroch is a corruption of Nusku.

[37:38]  ³¹ sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.

[47:8]  ³² tn Or perhaps, “voluptuous one” (NAB); NAB “you sensual one”; NLT “You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom.”

[47:8]  ³³ tn Heb “the one who says in her heart.”

[47:8]  ³⁴ tn Heb “I [am], and besides me there is no other.” See Zeph 2:15.

[47:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “I will not live [as] a widow, and I will not know loss of children.”

[47:13]  ³⁶ tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”

[47:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months – from those things which are coming upon you.”

[49:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”

[49:6]  ³⁹ sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.

[49:6]  ⁴⁰ tn See the note at 42:6.

[49:6]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”

[49:23]  ⁴² tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).

[49:23]  ⁴³ tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.

[49:23]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”

[51:3]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “found in” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[56:5]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “a hand and a name.” For other examples where יָד (yad) refers to a monument, see HALOT 388 s.v.

[56:5]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “name” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[56:7]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “in the house of my prayer.”

[56:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

[57:8]  ⁵⁰ tn The precise referent of זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron) in this context is uncertain. Elsewhere the word refers to a memorial or commemorative sign. Here it likely refers to some type of idolatrous symbol.

[57:8]  ⁵¹ tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).

[57:8]  ⁵² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “from me you uncover.” The translation assumes an emendation of the Piel form גִּלִּית (gillit, “you uncover”), which has no object expressed here, to the Qal גָּלִית (galit, “you depart”).

[57:8]  ⁵³ tn Heb “you make wide your bed” (NASB similar).

[57:8]  ⁵⁴ tc Heb “and you [second masculine singular, unless the form be taken as third feminine singular] cut for yourself [feminine singular] from them.” Most English translations retain the MT reading in spite of at least three problems. This section makes significant use of feminine verbs and noun suffixes because of the sexual imagery. The verb in question is likely a 2nd person masculine singular verb. Nevertheless, this kind of fluctuation in gender appears elsewhere (GKC 127-28 §47.k and 462 §144.p; cf. Jer 3:5; Ezek 22:4; 23:32; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:473, n. 13). Secondly, when this verbal root signifies establishing a covenant, it is normally accompanied by the noun for “covenant” (בְּרִית, bÿrit). Finally, this juxtaposition of the verb “to cut” and “covenant” normally is followed by the preposition “with,” while here it is “from.” The translation above assumes an emendation of וַתִּכְרָת (vatikhrah, “and you cut”) to וְכָרִית (vÿkharit, “and you purchase”) from the root כָּרָה (kharah); see HALOT 497 s.v. II כרה.

[57:8]  ⁵⁵ tn The Hebrew text has simply חָזָה (khazah, “gaze”). The adverb “longingly” is interpretive (see the context, where sexual lust is depicted).

[57:8]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “[at] a hand you gaze.” The term יָד (yad, “hand”) probably has the sense of “power, manhood” here, where it is used, as in Ugaritic, as a euphemism for the genitals. See HALOT 387 s.v. I יָד.

[58:9]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 9b-10 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in vv. 9b-10a), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 10b.

[59:19]  ⁵⁸ tc Heb “fear.” A few medieval Hebrew mss read “see.”

[59:19]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “and they fear from the west the name of the Lord.”

[59:19]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “and from the rising of the sun his splendor.”

[59:19]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “narrow”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “pent-up.”

[59:19]  ⁶² tn Heb “the wind of the Lord drives it on.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh) could be translated “breath” here (see 30:28).

[62:4]  ⁶³ tn Or “for”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “but.”

[62:4]  ⁶⁴ tn Hebrew חֶפְצִי־בָהּ (kheftsi-vah), traditionally transliterated “Hephzibah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).

[62:4]  ⁶⁵ tn Hebrew בְּעוּלָה (bÿ’ulah), traditionally transliterated “Beulah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).

[62:4]  ⁶⁶ tn That is, the land will be restored to the Lord’s favor and once again enjoy his blessing and protection. To indicate the land’s relationship to the Lord, the words “to him” have been supplied at the end of the clause.

[63:7]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “according to all which.”

[63:7]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “greatness of goodness to the house of Israel which he did for them.”

[63:7]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “according to.”

[64:5]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “meet [with kindness].”

[64:5]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “the one who rejoices and does righteousness.”

[64:5]  ⁷² tn Heb “in your ways they remember you.”

[64:5]  ⁷³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “look, you were angry and we sinned against them continually [or perhaps, “in ancient times”] and we were delivered.” The statement makes little sense as it stands. The first vav [ו] consecutive (“and we sinned”) must introduce an explanatory clause here (see Num 1:48 and Isa 39:1 for other examples of this relatively rare use of the vav [ו] consecutive). The final verb (if rendered positively) makes no sense in this context – God’s anger at their sin resulted in judgment, not deliverance. One of the alternatives involves an emendation to וַנִּרְשָׁע (vannirsha’, “and we were evil”; LXX, NRSV, TEV). The Vulgate and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a support the MT reading. One can either accept an emendation or cast the statement as a question (as above).

[65:20]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “and there will not be from there again a nursing infant of days,” i.e., one that lives just a few days.

[65:20]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “or an old [man] who does not fill out his days.”

[65:20]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “for the child as a son of one hundred years will die.” The point seems to be that those who die at the age of a hundred will be considered children, for the average life span will be much longer than that. The category “child” will be redefined in light of the expanded life spans that will characterize this new era.

[65:20]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “the one who misses.” חָטָא (khata’) is used here in its basic sense of “miss the mark.” See HALOT 305 s.v. חטא. Another option is to translate, “and the sinner who reaches the age of a hundred will be cursed.”