Yesaya 1:13

1:13 Do not bring any more meaningless ¹  offerings;

I consider your incense detestable! ² 

You observe new moon festivals, Sabbaths, and convocations,

but I cannot tolerate sin-stained celebrations! ³ 

Yesaya 5:8

Disaster is Coming

5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ⁴ 

those who also accumulate landed property ⁵ 

until there is no land left, ⁶ 

and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁷ 

Yesaya 8:19

Darkness Turns to Light as an Ideal King Arrives

8:19 ⁸ They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. ⁹  Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?” ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 10:4

10:4 You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners,

or to fall among those who have been killed. ¹¹ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹² 

Yesaya 19:11

19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; ¹³ 

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?” ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 28:19

28:19 Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you;

indeed, ¹⁵  every morning it will sweep by,

it will come through during the day and the night.” ¹⁶ 

When this announcement is understood,

it will cause nothing but terror.

Yesaya 28:22

28:22 So now, do not mock,

or your chains will become heavier!

For I have heard a message about decreed destruction,

from the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, against the entire land. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 29:16

29:16 Your thinking is perverse! ¹⁸ 

Should the potter be regarded as clay? ¹⁹ 

Should the thing made say ²⁰  about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?

Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Yesaya 36:12

36:12 But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. ²¹  His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!” ²² 

Yesaya 37:6

37:6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord says: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard – these insults the king of Assyria’s servants have hurled against me. ²³ 

Yesaya 43:14

The Lord Will Do Something New

43:14 This is what the Lord says,

your protector, ²⁴  the Holy One of Israel: ²⁵ 

“For your sake I send to Babylon

and make them all fugitives, ²⁶ 

turning the Babylonians’ joyful shouts into mourning songs. ²⁷ 

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 46:1

The Lord Carries His People

46:1 Bel ²⁸  kneels down,

Nebo ²⁹  bends low.

Their images weigh down animals and beasts. ³⁰ 

Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. ³¹ 

Yesaya 48:6

48:6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence! ³² 

Will you not admit that what I say is true? ³³ 

From this point on I am announcing to you new events

that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about. ³⁴ 

Yesaya 48:14

48:14 All of you, gather together and listen!

Who among them ³⁵  announced these things?

The Lord’s ally ³⁶  will carry out his desire against Babylon;

he will exert his power against the Babylonians. ³⁷ 

Yesaya 51:7

51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right,

you people who are aware of my law! ³⁸ 

Don’t be afraid of the insults of men;

don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!

Yesaya 51:23

51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ³⁹ 

who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’

You made your back like the ground,

and like the street for those who walked over you.”

Yesaya 58:3

58:3 They lament, ⁴⁰  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast?

Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ⁴¹ 

you oppress your workers. ⁴² 

Yesaya 65:11

65:11 But as for you who abandon the Lord

and forget about worshiping at ⁴³  my holy mountain,

who prepare a feast for the god called ‘Fortune,’ ⁴⁴ 

and fill up wine jugs for the god called ‘Destiny’ ⁴⁵  –

Yesaya 65:15

65:15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ⁴⁶ 

The sovereign Lord will kill you,

but he will give his servants another name.

Yesaya 66:1

66:1 This is what the Lord says:

“The heavens are my throne

and the earth is my footstool.

Where then is the house you will build for me?

Where is the place where I will rest?

[1:13]  ¹ tn Or “worthless” (NASB, NCV, CEV); KJV, ASV “vain.”

[1:13]  ² sn Notice some of the other practices that Yahweh regards as “detestable”: homosexuality (Lev 18:22-30; 20:13), idolatry (Deut 7:25; 13:15), human sacrifice (Deut 12:31), eating ritually unclean animals (Deut 14:3-8), sacrificing defective animals (Deut 17:1), engaging in occult activities (Deut 18:9-14), and practicing ritual prostitution (1 Kgs 14:23).

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “sin and assembly” (these two nouns probably represent a hendiadys). The point is that their attempts at worship are unacceptable to God because the people’s everyday actions in the socio-economic realm prove they have no genuine devotion to God (see vv. 16-17).

[5:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

[5:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

[5:8]  sn This verse does not condemn real estate endeavors per se, but refers to the way in which the rich bureaucrats of Judah accumulated property by exploiting the poor, in violation of the covenantal principle that the land belonged to God and that every family was to have its own portion of land. See the note at 1:23.

[5:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

[5:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”

[8:19]  ⁸ tn It is uncertain if the prophet or the Lord is speaking in vv. 19-22. If the latter, then vv. 19-22 resume the speech recorded in vv. 12-15, after the prophet’s response in vv. 16-18.

[8:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “inquire of the ritual pits and of the magicians who chirp and mutter.” The Hebrew word אוֹב (’ov, “ritual pit”) refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a אוֹב-בַּעֲלַת (ba’alat-’ov, “owner of a ritual pit”). See H. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967): 385-401.

[8:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Should a nation not inquire of its gods on behalf of the living, (by inquiring) of the dead?” These words appear to be a continuation of the quotation begun in the first part of the verse. אֱלֹהָיו (’elohayv) may be translated “its gods” or “its God.” Some take the second half of the verse as the prophet’s (or the Lord’s) rebuke of the people who advise seeking oracles at the ritual pits, but in this case the words “the dead on behalf of the living” are difficult to explain.

[10:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “except one kneels in the place of the prisoner, and in the place of the slain [who] fall.” On the force of בִּלְתִּי (bilti, “except”) and its logical connection to what precedes, see BDB 116 s.v. בֵלֶת. On the force of תַּחַת (takhat, “in the place of”) here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:258, n. 6.

[10:4]  ¹² tn Heb “in all this his anger was not turned, and still his hand was outstretched”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “his had is stretched out still.”

[10:4]  sn See the note at 9:12.

[19:11]  ¹³ tn Or “certainly the officials of Zoan are fools.” אַךְ (’akh) can carry the sense, “only, nothing but,” or “certainly, surely.”

[19:11]  ¹⁴ 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.

[28:19]  ¹⁵ tn Or “for” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[28:19]  ¹⁶ tn The words “it will come through” are supplied in the translation. The verb “will sweep by” does double duty in the parallel structure.

[28:22]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the whole earth” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NCV).

[29:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your overturning.” The predicate is suppressed in this exclamation. The idea is, “O your perversity! How great it is!” See GKC 470 §147.c. The people “overturn” all logic by thinking their authority supersedes God’s.

[29:16]  ¹⁹ tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (’im), see BDB 50 s.v.

[29:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”

[36:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

[36:12]  ²² tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”

[36:12]  sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.

[37:6]  ²³ tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”

[43:14]  ²⁴ tn Or “kinsman redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[43:14]  ²⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[43:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and I bring down [as] fugitives all of them.”

[43:14]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “as for the Babylonians, in ships their joyful shout.” This might be paraphrased, “even the Babylonians in the ships [over which] they joyfully shouted.” The point would be that the Lord caused the Babylonians to flee for safety in the ships in which they took such great pride. A slight change in vocalization yields the reading “into mourning songs,” which provides a good contrast with “joyful shout.” The prefixed bet (בְּ) would indicate identity.

[46:1]  ²⁸ sn Bel was the name of a Babylonian god. The name was originally associated with Enlil, but later was applied to Marduk. See HALOT 132 s.v. בֵּל.

[46:1]  ²⁹ sn Nebo is a variation of the name of the Babylonian god Nabu.

[46:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “their images belong to animals and beasts”; NIV “their idols are borne by beasts of burden”; NLT “are being hauled away.”

[46:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “your loads are carried [as] a burden by a weary [animal].”

[48:6]  ³² tn Heb “gaze [at] all of it”; KJV “see all this.”

[48:6]  ³³ tn Heb “[as for] you, will you not declare?”

[48:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and hidden things, and you do not know them.”

[48:14]  ³⁵ sn This probably refers to the idol gods (see v. 5).

[48:14]  ³⁶ tn Or “friend,” or “covenant partner.”

[48:14]  sn The Lord’s ally is a reference to Cyrus.

[48:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and his arm [against] the Babylonians.”

[51:7]  ³⁸ tn Heb “people (who have) my law in their heart.”

[51:23]  ³⁹ tn That is, to make them drink it.

[58:3]  ⁴⁰ tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:3]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

[58:3]  ⁴² tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

[65:11]  ⁴³ tn The Hebrew text has simply, “forget.” The words “about worshiping at” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[65:11]  ⁴⁴ tn The Hebrew has לַגַּד (laggad, “for Gad”), the name of a pagan deity. See HALOT 176 s.v. II גַּד 2.

[65:11]  ⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew has לַמְנִי (lamni, “for Meni”), the name of a pagan deity. See HALOT 602 s.v. מְגִי.

[65:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “you will leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones.”

[65:15]  sn For an example of such a curse formula see Jer 29:22.