Yesaya 1:19

1:19 If you have a willing attitude and obey, ¹ 

then you will again eat the good crops of the land.

Yesaya 9:14

9:14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,

both the shoots and stalk ²  in one day.

Yesaya 10:25

10:25 For very soon my fury ³  will subside, and my anger will be directed toward their destruction.”

Yesaya 11:3

11:3 He will take delight in obeying the Lord. ⁴ 

He will not judge by mere appearances, ⁵ 

or make decisions on the basis of hearsay. ⁶ 

Yesaya 13:12

13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,

and people more scarce ⁷  than gold from Ophir.

Yesaya 26:18

26:18 We were pregnant, we strained,

we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ⁸ 

We cannot produce deliverance on the earth;

people to populate the world are not born. ⁹ 

Yesaya 29:17

Changes are Coming

29:17 In just a very short time ¹⁰ 

Lebanon will turn into an orchard,

and the orchard will be considered a forest. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 30:7

30:7 Egypt is totally incapable of helping. ¹² 

For this reason I call her

‘Proud one ¹³  who is silenced.’” ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 34:3

34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, ¹⁵ 

their corpses will stink; ¹⁶ 

the hills will soak up their blood. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 36:20

36:20 Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’” ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 37:20

37:20 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 38:16

38:16 O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life;

may years of life be restored to me. ²⁰ 

Restore my health ²¹  and preserve my life.’

Yesaya 40:17

40:17 All the nations are insignificant before him;

they are regarded as absolutely nothing. ²² 

Yesaya 46:2

46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;

they are unable to rescue the images; ²³ 

they themselves ²⁴  head off into captivity. ²⁵ 

Yesaya 54:15

54:15 If anyone dares to ²⁶  challenge you, it will not be my doing!

Whoever tries to challenge you will be defeated. ²⁷ 

Yesaya 65:6

65:6 Look, I have decreed: ²⁸ 

I will not keep silent, but will pay them back;

I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, ²⁹ 

[1:19]  ¹ tn Heb “listen”; KJV “obedient”; NASB “If you consent and obey.”

[9:14]  ² sn The metaphor in this line is that of a reed being cut down.

[10:25]  ³ tc The Hebrew text has simply “fury,” but the pronominal element can be assumed on the basis of what immediately follows (see “my anger” in the clause). It is possible that the suffixed yod (י) has been accidentally dropped by virtual haplography. Note that a vav (ו) is prefixed to the form that immediately follows; yod and vav are very similar in later script phases.

[11:3]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and his smelling is in the fear of the Lord.” In Amos 5:21 the Hiphil of רוּחַ (ruakh, “smell”) carries the nuance of “smell with delight, get pleasure from.” There the Lord declares that he does not “smell with delight” (i.e., get pleasure from) Israel’s religious assemblies, which probably stand by metonymy for the incense offered during these festivals. In Isa 11:3 there is no sacrificial context to suggest such a use, but it is possible that “the fear of the Lord” is likened to incense. This coming king will get the same kind of delight from obeying (fearing) the Lord, as a deity does in the incense offered by worshipers. Some regard such an explanation as strained in this context, and prefer to omit this line from the text as a virtual dittograph of the preceding statement.

[11:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “by what appears to his eyes”; KJV “after the sight of his eyes”; NIV “by what he sees with his eyes.”

[11:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “by what is heard by his ears”; NRSV “by what his ears hear.”

[13:12]  ⁷ tn The verb is supplied in the translation from the first line. The verb in the first line (“I will make scarce”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.

[26:18]  ⁸ tn On the use of כְּמוֹ (kÿmo, “like, as”) here, see BDB 455 s.v. Israel’s distress and suffering, likened here to the pains of childbirth, seemed to be for no purpose. A woman in labor endures pain with the hope that a child will be born; in Israel’s case no such positive outcome was apparent. The nation was like a woman who strains to bring forth a child, but can’t push the baby through to daylight. All her effort produces nothing.

[26:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the world do not fall.” The term נָפַל (nafal) apparently means here, “be born,” though the Qal form of the verb is not used with this nuance anywhere else in the OT. (The Hiphil appears to be used in the sense of “give birth” in v. 19, however.) The implication of verse 18b seems to be that Israel hoped its suffering would somehow end in deliverance and an increase in population. The phrase “inhabitants of the world” seems to refer to the human race in general, but the next verse, which focuses on Israel’s dead, suggests the referent may be more limited.

[29:17]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text phrases this as a rhetorical question, “Is it not yet a little, a short [time]?”

[29:17]  ¹¹ sn The meaning of this verse is debated, but it seems to depict a reversal in fortunes. The mighty forest of Lebanon (symbolic of the proud and powerful, see 2:13; 10:34) will be changed into a common orchard, while the common orchard (symbolic of the oppressed and lowly) will grow into a great forest. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:538.

[30:7]  ¹² tn Heb “As for Egypt, with vanity and emptiness they help.”

[30:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “Rahab” (רַהַב, rahav), which also appears as a name for Egypt in Ps 87:4. The epithet is also used in the OT for a mythical sea monster symbolic of chaos. See the note at 51:9. A number of English versions use the name “Rahab” (e.g., ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) while others attempt some sort of translation (cf. CEV “a helpless monster”; TEV, NLT “the Harmless Dragon”).

[30:7]  ¹⁴ tn The MT reads “Rahab, they, sitting.” The translation above assumes an emendation of הֵם שָׁבֶת (hem shavet) to הַמָּשְׁבָּת (hammashbat), a Hophal participle with prefixed definite article, meaning “the one who is made to cease,” i.e., “destroyed,” or “silenced.” See HALOT 444-45 s.v. ישׁב.

[34:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”

[34:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”

[34:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”

[36:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “that the Lord might rescue Jerusalem from my hand?” The logic runs as follows: Since no god has ever been able to withstand the Assyrian onslaught, how can the people of Jerusalem possibly think the Lord will rescue them?

[37:20]  ¹⁹ tn The parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:19 reads, “that you, Lord, are the only God.”

[38:16]  ²⁰ tn The translation offered here is purely speculative. The text as it stands is meaningless and probably corrupt. It reads literally, “O lord, on account of them [the suffix is masculine plural], they live, and to all in them [the suffix is feminine plural], life of my spirit.”

[38:16]  ²¹ tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as indicative, “you restore my health,” but the following imperatival form suggests it be understood as an imperfect of request.

[40:17]  ²² tn Heb “[as derived] from nothing and unformed.”

[46:2]  ²³ tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.

[46:2]  ²⁴ tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).

[46:2]  ²⁵ sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.

[54:15]  ²⁶ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb here for emphasis.

[54:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “will fall over you.” The expression נָפַל עַל (nafal ’al) can mean “attack,” but here it means “fall over to,” i.e., “surrender to.”

[65:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Look, it is written before me.”

[65:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “I will pay back into their lap.”