Yesaya 7:8
Konteks7:8 For Syria’s leader is Damascus,
and the leader of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim will no longer exist as a nation. 1
Yesaya 8:4
Konteks8:4 for before the child knows how to cry out, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria 2 will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” 3
Yesaya 9:9-21
Konteks9:9 All the people were aware 4 of it,
the people of Ephraim and those living in Samaria. 5
Yet with pride and an arrogant attitude, they said, 6
9:10 “The bricks have fallen,
but we will rebuild with chiseled stone;
the sycamore fig trees have been cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.” 7
9:11 Then the Lord provoked 8 their adversaries to attack them, 9
he stirred up 10 their enemies –
9:12 Syria from the east,
and the Philistines from the west,
they gobbled up Israelite territory. 11
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 12
9:13 The people did not return to the one who struck them,
they did not seek reconciliation 13 with the Lord who commands armies.
9:14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,
both the shoots and stalk 14 in one day.
9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people 15 are the head,
the prophets who teach lies are the tail.
9:16 The leaders of this nation were misleading people,
and the people being led were destroyed. 16
9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased 17 with their young men,
he took no pity 18 on their orphans and widows;
for the whole nation was godless 19 and did wicked things, 20
every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. 21
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 22
9:18 For 23 evil burned like a fire, 24
it consumed thorns and briers;
it burned up the thickets of the forest,
and they went up in smoke. 25
9:19 Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, 26
and the people became fuel for the fire. 27
People had no compassion on one another. 28
9:20 They devoured 29 on the right, but were still hungry,
they ate on the left, but were not satisfied.
People even ate 30 the flesh of their own arm! 31
9:21 Manasseh fought against 32 Ephraim,
and Ephraim against Manasseh;
together they fought against Judah.
Despite all this, his anger does not subside,
and his hand is ready to strike again. 33
Yesaya 10:5
Konteks10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 34
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 35
Yesaya 10:11
Konteks10:11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols,
so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.” 36
Yesaya 37:12
Konteks37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors 37 destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? 38
[7:8] 1 tn Heb “Ephraim will be too shattered to be a nation”; NIV “to be a people.”
[7:8] sn This statement is problematic for several reasons. It seems to intrude stylistically, interrupting the symmetry of the immediately preceding and following lines. Furthermore, such a long range prophecy lacks punch in the midst of the immediate crisis. After all, even if Israel were destroyed sometime within the next 65 years, a lot could still happen during that time, including the conquest of Judah and the demise of the Davidic family. Finally the significance of the time frame is uncertain. Israel became an Assyrian province within the next 15 years and ceased to exist as a nation. For these reasons many regard the statement as a later insertion, but why a later editor would include the reference to “65 years” remains a mystery. Some try to relate the prophecy to the events alluded to in Ezra 4:2, 10, which refers to how the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal settled foreigners in former Israelite territory, perhaps around 670
[8:4] 2 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
[8:4] 3 sn The child’s name foreshadows what will happen to Judah’s enemies; when their defeat takes place, the child will be a reminder that God predicted the event and brought it to pass. As such the child will be a reminder of God’s protective presence with his people.
[9:9] 4 tn The translation assumes that vv. 9-10 describe the people’s response to a past judgment (v. 8). The perfect is understood as indicating simple past and the vav (ו) is taken as conjunctive. Another option is to take the vav on the perfect as consecutive and translate, “all the people will know.”
[9:9] 5 tn Heb “and the people, all of them, knew; Ephraim and the residents of Samaria.”
[9:9] 6 tn Heb “with pride and arrogance of heart, saying.”
[9:10] 7 sn Though judgment (see v. 8) had taken away the prosperity they did have (symbolized by the bricks and sycamore fig trees), they arrogantly expected the future to bring even greater prosperity (symbolized by the chiseled stone and cedars).
[9:11] 8 tn The translation assumes that the prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive continues the narrative of past judgment.
[9:11] 9 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “adversaries of Rezin against him [i.e., them].” The next verse describes how the Syrians (over whom Rezin ruled, see 7:1, 8) and the Philistines encroached on Israel’s territory. Since the Syrians and Israelites were allies by 735
[9:11] 10 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite, used, as is often the case in poetry, without vav consecutive. Note that prefixed forms with vav consecutive both precede (וַיְשַׂגֵּב, vaysaggev, “and he provoked”) and follow in v. 12 (וַיֹּאכְלוּ, vayyo’khÿlu, “and they devoured”) this verb.
[9:12] 11 tn Heb “and they devoured Israel with all the mouth”; NIV “with open mouth”; NLT “With bared fangs.”
[9:12] 12 tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.” One could translate in the past tense here (and in 9:17b and 21b), but the appearance of the refrain in 10:4b, where it follows a woe oracle prophesying a future judgment, suggests it is a dramatic portrait of the judge which did not change throughout this period of past judgment and will remain unchanged in the future. The English present tense is chosen to best reflect this dramatic mood. (See also 5:25b, where the refrain appears following a dramatic description of coming judgment.)
[9:13] 13 tn This verse describes the people’s response to the judgment described in vv. 11-12. The perfects are understood as indicating simple past.
[9:14] 14 sn The metaphor in this line is that of a reed being cut down.
[9:15] 15 tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.
[9:16] 16 tn Heb “and the ones being led were swallowed up.” Instead of taking מְבֻלָּעִים (mÿbulla’im) from בָּלַע (bala’, “to swallow”), HALOT 134 s.v. בלע proposes a rare homonymic root בלע (“confuse”) here.
[9:17] 17 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”
[9:17] 18 tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)
[9:17] 19 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”
[9:17] 20 tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.
[9:17] 21 tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.
[9:17] 22 tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”
[9:17] sn See the note at 9:12.
[9:18] 23 tn Or “Indeed” (cf. NIV “Surely”). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
[9:18] 24 sn Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.
[9:18] 25 tn Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. NRSV).
[9:19] 26 tn The precise meaning of the verb עְתַּם (’ÿtam), which occurs only here, is uncertain, though the context strongly suggests that it means “burn, scorch.”
[9:19] 27 sn The uncontrollable fire of the people’s wickedness (v. 18) is intensified by the fire of the Lord’s judgment (v. 19). God allows (or causes) their wickedness to become self-destructive as civil strife and civil war break out in the land.
[9:19] 28 tn Heb “men were not showing compassion to their brothers.” The idiom “men to their brothers” is idiomatic for reciprocity. The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav (ו) consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.
[9:20] 29 tn Or “cut.” The verb גָּזַר (gazar) means “to cut.” If it is understood here, then one might paraphrase, “They slice off meat on the right.” However, HALOT 187 s.v. I גזר, proposes here a rare homonym meaning “to devour.”
[9:20] 30 tn The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.
[9:20] 31 tn Some suggest that זְרֹעוֹ (zÿro’o, “his arm”) be repointed זַרְעוֹ (zar’o, “his offspring”). In either case, the metaphor is that of a desperately hungry man who resorts to an almost unthinkable act to satisfy his appetite. He eats everything he can find to his right, but still being unsatisfied, then turns to his left and eats everything he can find there. Still being desperate for food, he then resorts to eating his own flesh (or offspring, as this phrase is metaphorically understood by some English versions, e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT). The reality behind the metaphor is the political turmoil of the period, as the next verse explains. There was civil strife within the northern kingdom; even the descendants of Joseph were at each other’s throats. Then the northern kingdom turned on their southern brother, Judah.
[9:21] 32 tn The words “fought against” are supplied in the translation both here and later in this verse for stylistic reasons.
[9:21] 33 tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched” (KJV and ASV both similar); NIV “his hand is still upraised.”
[9:21] sn See the note at 9:12.
[10:5] 34 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
[10:5] 35 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
[10:11] 36 tn The statement is constructed as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text: “Is it not [true that] just as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols?”
[10:11] sn This statement indicates that the prophecy dates sometime between 722-701
[37:12] 37 tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”
[37:12] 38 tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”
