Yesaya 8:14

8:14 He will become a sanctuary, ¹ 

but a stone that makes a person trip,

and a rock that makes one stumble –

to the two houses of Israel. ² 

He will become ³  a trap and a snare

to the residents of Jerusalem. ⁴ 

Yesaya 10:16

10:16 For this reason ⁵  the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. ⁶  His majestic glory will go up in smoke. ⁷ 

Yesaya 19:1

The Lord Will Judge Egypt

19:1 Here is a message about Egypt:

Look, the Lord rides on a swift-moving cloud

and approaches Egypt.

The idols of Egypt tremble before him;

the Egyptians lose their courage. ⁸ 

Yesaya 19:14

19:14 The Lord has made them undiscerning; ⁹ 

they lead Egypt astray in all she does,

so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 22:13

22:13 But look, there is outright celebration! ¹¹ 

You say, “Kill the ox and slaughter the sheep,

eat meat and drink wine.

Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” ¹² 

Yesaya 44:16

44:16 Half of it he burns in the fire –

over that half he cooks ¹³  meat;

he roasts a meal and fills himself.

Yes, he warms himself and says,

‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’

Yesaya 44:22

44:22 I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud,

the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud. ¹⁴ 

Come back to me, for I protect ¹⁵  you.”

Yesaya 51:10

51:10 Did you not dry up the sea,

the waters of the great deep?

Did you not make ¹⁶  a path through the depths of the sea,

so those delivered from bondage ¹⁷  could cross over?

Yesaya 53:9

53:9 They intended to bury him with criminals, ¹⁸ 

but he ended up in a rich man’s tomb, ¹⁹ 

because ²⁰  he had committed no violent deeds,

nor had he spoken deceitfully.

Yesaya 61:9

61:9 Their descendants will be known among the nations,

their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will recognize that

the Lord has blessed them.” ²¹ 

[8:14]  ¹ tn Because the metaphor of protection (“sanctuary”) does not fit the negative mood that follows in vv. 14b-15, some contend that מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash, “sanctuary”) is probably a corruption of an original מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh, “snare”), a word that appears in the next line (cf. NAB and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:355-56). If the MT reading is retained (as in the above translation), the fact that Yahweh is a sanctuary wraps up the point of v. 13 and stands in contrast to God’s treatment of those who rebel against him (the rest of v. 14).

[8:14]  ² sn The two “houses” of Israel (= the patriarch Jacob) are the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.

[8:14]  ³ tn These words are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. וְהָיָה (vÿhayah, “and he will be”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.

[8:14]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[10:16]  ⁵ sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.

[10:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”

[10:16]  ⁷ tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”

[19:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the heart of Egypt melts within it.”

[19:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord has mixed into her midst a spirit of blindness.”

[19:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like the going astray of a drunkard in his vomit.”

[22:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “happiness and joy.”

[22:13]  ¹² tn The prophet here quotes what the fatalistic people are saying. The introductory “you say” is supplied in the translation for clarification; the concluding verb “we die” makes it clear the people are speaking. The six verbs translated as imperatives are actually infinitives absolute, functioning here as finite verbs.

[44:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”

[44:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I blot out like a cloud your rebellious deeds, and like a cloud your sins.” “Rebellious deeds” and “sins” stand by metonymy for the guilt they produce. Both עָב (’av) and עָנָן (’anan) refer to the clouds in the sky. It is tempting for stylistic purposes to translate the second with “fog” or “mist” (cf. NAB, NRSV “cloud…mist”; NIV “cloud…morning mist”; NLT “morning mists…clouds”), but this distinction between the synonyms is unwarranted here. The point of the simile seems to be this: The Lord forgives their sins, causing them to vanish just as clouds disappear from the sky (see Job 7:9; 30:15).

[44:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “redeem.” See the note at 41:14.

[51:10]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made…?”

[51:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the redeemed” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV “the ransomed.”

[53:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “one assigned his grave with criminals.” The subject of the singular is impersonal; English typically uses “they” in such constructions.

[53:9]  ¹⁹ tn This line reads literally, “and with the rich in his death.” בְּמֹתָיו (bÿmotayv) combines a preposition, a plural form of the noun מוֹת (mot), and a third masculine singular suffix. The plural of the noun is problematic and the יו may be the result of virtual dittography. The form should probably be emended to בָּמָתוֹ (bamato, singular noun). The relationship between this line and the preceding one is uncertain. The parallelism appears to be synonymous (note “his grave” and “in his death”), but “criminals” and “the rich” hardly make a compatible pair in this context, for they would not be buried in the same kind of tomb. Some emend עָשִׁיר (’ashir, “rich”) to עָשֵׂי רָע (’ase ra’, “doers of evil”) but the absence of the ayin (ע) is not readily explained in this graphic environment. Others suggest an emendation to שְׂעִירִים (sÿ’irim, “he-goats, demons”), but the meaning in this case is not entirely transparent and the proposal assumes that the form suffered from both transposition and the inexplicable loss of a final mem. Still others relate עָשִׁיר (’ashir) to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “mob.” See HALOT 896 s.v. עָשִׁיר. Perhaps the parallelism is antithetical, rather than synonymous. In this case, the point is made that the servant’s burial in a rich man’s tomb, in contrast to a criminal’s burial, was appropriate, for he had done nothing wrong.

[53:9]  ²⁰ tn If the second line is antithetical, then עַל (’al) is probably causal here, explaining why the servant was buried in a rich man’s tomb, rather than that of criminal. If the first two lines are synonymous, then עַל is probably concessive: “even though….”

[61:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “all who see them will recognize them, that they [are] descendants [whom] the Lord has blessed.”