Yesaya 1:2

Obedience, not Sacrifice

1:2 Listen, O heavens,

pay attention, O earth! ¹ 

For the Lord speaks:

“I raised children, ²  I brought them up, ³ 

but ⁴  they have rebelled ⁵  against me!

Yesaya 4:2

The Branch of the Lord

4:2 At that time ⁶ 

the crops given by the Lord will bring admiration and honor; ⁷ 

the produce of the land will be a source of pride and delight

to those who remain in Israel. ⁸ 

Yesaya 5:14

5:14 So Death ⁹  will open up its throat,

and open wide its mouth; ¹⁰ 

Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it,

including those who revel and celebrate within her. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 7:11

7:11 “Ask for a confirming sign from the Lord your God. You can even ask for something miraculous.” ¹² 

Yesaya 8:1

A Sign-Child is Born

8:1 The Lord told me, “Take a large tablet ¹³  and inscribe these words ¹⁴  on it with an ordinary stylus: ¹⁵  ‘Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 8:9

8:9 You will be broken, ¹⁷  O nations;

you will be shattered! ¹⁸ 

Pay attention, all you distant lands of the earth!

Get ready for battle, and you will be shattered!

Get ready for battle, and you will be shattered! ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 9:3

9:3 You ²⁰  have enlarged the nation;

you give them great joy. ²¹ 

They rejoice in your presence

as harvesters rejoice;

as warriors celebrate ²²  when they divide up the plunder.

Yesaya 10:6

10:6 I sent him ²³  against a godless ²⁴  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ²⁵ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ²⁶  like dirt in the streets.

Yesaya 17:11

17:11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; ²⁷ 

the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.

Yet the harvest will disappear ²⁸  in the day of disease

and incurable pain.

Yesaya 19:14

19:14 The Lord has made them undiscerning; ²⁹ 

they lead Egypt astray in all she does,

so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. ³⁰ 

Yesaya 34:1

The Lord Will Judge Edom

34:1 Come near, you nations, and listen!

Pay attention, you people!

The earth and everything it contains must listen,

the world and everything that lives in it. ³¹ 

Yesaya 44:3

44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground ³² 

and cause streams to flow ³³  on the dry land.

I will pour my spirit on your offspring

and my blessing on your children.

Yesaya 44:9

44:9 All who form idols are nothing;

the things in which they delight are worthless.

Their witnesses cannot see;

they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.

Yesaya 45:12

45:12 I made the earth,

I created the people who live ³⁴  on it.

It was me – my hands ³⁵  stretched out the sky, ³⁶ 

I give orders to all the heavenly lights. ³⁷ 

Yesaya 48:17

48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, ³⁸  says,

the Holy One of Israel: ³⁹ 

“I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you how to succeed,

who leads you in the way you should go.

Yesaya 51:12

51:12 “I, I am the one who consoles you. ⁴⁰ 

Why are you afraid of mortal men,

of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? ⁴¹ 

Yesaya 54:4

54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!

Don’t be intimidated, ⁴²  for you will not be humiliated!

You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;

you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. ⁴³ 

Yesaya 57:10

57:10 Because of the long distance you must travel, you get tired, ⁴⁴ 

but you do not say, ‘I give up.’ ⁴⁵ 

You get renewed energy, ⁴⁶ 

so you don’t collapse. ⁴⁷ 

Yesaya 57:19

57:19 I am the one who gives them reason to celebrate. ⁴⁸ 

Complete prosperity ⁴⁹  is available both to those who are far away and those who are nearby,”

says the Lord, “and I will heal them.

Yesaya 61:11

61:11 For just as the ground produces its crops

and a garden yields its produce,

so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ⁵⁰  to grow,

and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ⁵¹ 

Yesaya 62:2

62:2 Nations will see your vindication,

and all kings your splendor.

You will be called by a new name

that the Lord himself will give you. ⁵² 

Yesaya 66:12

66:12 For this is what the Lord says:

“Look, I am ready to extend to her prosperity that will flow like a river,

the riches of nations will flow into her like a stream that floods its banks. ⁵³ 

You will nurse from her breast ⁵⁴  and be carried at her side;

you will play on her knees.

[1:2]  ¹ sn The personified heavens and earth are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people. Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).

[1:2]  ² tn Or “sons” (NAB, NASB).

[1:2]  sn “Father” and “son” occur as common terms in ancient Near Eastern treaties and covenants, delineating the suzerain and vassal as participants in the covenant relationship. The prophet uses these terms, the reference to heavens and earth as witnesses, and allusions to deuteronomic covenant curses (1:7-9, 19-20) to set his prophecy firmly against the backdrop of Israel’s covenantal relationship with Yahweh.

[1:2]  ³ sn The normal word pair for giving birth to and raising children is יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth to”) and גָּדַל (gadal, “to grow, raise”). The pair גָּדַל and רוּם (rum, “to raise up”) probably occur here to highlight the fact that Yahweh made something important of Israel (cf. R. Mosis, TDOT 2:403).

[1:2]  ⁴ sn Against the backdrop of Yahweh’s care for his chosen people, Israel’s rebellion represents abhorrent treachery. The conjunction prefixed to a nonverbal element highlights the sad contrast between Yahweh’s compassionate care for His people and Israel’s thankless rebellion.

[1:2]  ⁵ sn To rebel carries the idea of “covenant treachery.” Although an act of פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, “rebellion”) often signifies a breach of the law, the legal offense also represents a violation of an existing covenantal relationship (E. Carpenter and M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 3:707).

[4:2]  ⁶ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[4:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the vegetation of the Lord will become beauty and honor.” Many English versions understand the phrase צֶמַח יְהוָה (tsemakh yÿhvah) as a messianic reference and render it, “the Branch of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT, and others). Though צֶמַח (tsemakh) is used by later prophets of a royal descendant (Jer 23;5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12), those passages contain clear contextual indicators that a human ruler is in view and that the word is being used in a metaphorical way of offspring. However, in Isa 4:2 there are no such contextual indicators. To the contrary, in the parallel structure of the verse צֶמַח יְהוָה corresponds to “produce of the land,” a phrase that refers elsewhere exclusively to literal agricultural produce (see Num 13:20, 26; Deut 1:25). In the majority of its uses צֶמַח refers to literal crops or vegetation (in Ps 65:10 the Lord is the source of this vegetation). A reference to the Lord restoring crops would make excellent sense in Isa 4 and the prophets frequently included this theme in their visions of the future age (see Isa 30:23-24; 32:20; Jer 31:12; Ezek 34:26-29; and Amos 9:13-14).

[4:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the fruit of the land will become pride and beauty for the remnant of Israel.”

[5:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); the underworld, the land of the dead, according to the OT world view. Cf. NAB “the nether world”; TEV, CEV “the world of the dead”; NLT “the grave.”

[5:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so Sheol will make wide its throat, and open its mouth without limit.”

[5:14]  sn Death is portrayed in both the OT (Prov 1:12; Hab 2:5) and Canaanite myth as voraciously swallowing up its prey. In the myths Death is portrayed as having “a lip to the earth, a lip to the heavens … and a tongue to the stars.” (G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 69, text 5 ii 2-3.) Death describes his own appetite as follows: “But my appetite is the appetite of lions in the waste…If it is in very truth my desire to consume ‘clay’ [a reference to his human victims], then in truth by the handfuls I must eat it, whether my seven portions [indicating fullness and completeness] are already in the bowl or whether Nahar [the god of the river responsible for ferrying victims from the land of the living to the land of the dead] has to mix the cup.” (Driver, 68-69, text 5 i 14-22).

[5:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and her splendor and her masses will go down, and her tumult and the one who exults in her.” The antecedent of the four feminine singular pronominal suffixes used in v. 14b is unclear. The likely referent is personified Zion/Jerusalem (see 3:25-26; 4:4-5).

[7:11]  ¹² tn Heb “Make it as deep as Sheol or make it high upwards.” These words suggest that Ahaz can feel free to go beyond the bounds of ordinary human experience.

[8:1]  ¹³ sn Probably made of metal, wood, or leather. See HALOT 193 s.v. גִּלָּיוֹן.

[8:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “write” (so KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV).

[8:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “with the stylus of a man.” The significance of the qualifying genitive “a man” is uncertain. For various interpretations see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:219, n. 1.

[8:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “quickly, [the] plunder; it hurries, [the] loot.” The first word (מַהֵר, maher) is either a Piel imperative (“hurry [to]”) or infinitive (“hurrying,” or “quickly”). The third word (חָשׁ, khash) is either a third masculine singular perfect or a masculine singular participle, in either case from the root חוּשׁ (khush, “hurry”). Perhaps it is best to translate, “One hastens to the plunder, one hurries to the loot.” In this case מַהֵר is understood as an infinitive functioning as a verb, the subject of חוּשׁ is taken as indefinite, and the two nouns are understood as adverbial accusatives. As we discover in v. 3, this is the name of the son to be born to Isaiah through the prophetess.

[8:9]  ¹⁷ tn The verb רֹעוּ (ro’u) is a Qal imperative, masculine plural from רָעַע (ra’a’, “break”). Elsewhere both transitive (Job 34:24; Ps 2:9; Jer 15:12) and intransitive (Prov 25:19; Jer 11:16) senses are attested for the Qal of this verb. Because no object appears here, the form is likely intransitive: “be broken.” In this case the imperative is rhetorical (like “be shattered” later in the verse) and equivalent to a prediction, “you will be broken.” On the rhetorical use of the imperative in general, see IBHS 572 §34.4c; GKC 324 §110.c.

[8:9]  ¹⁸ tn The imperatival form (Heb “be shattered”) is rhetorical and expresses the speaker’s firm conviction of the outcome of the nations’ attack. See the note on “be broken.”

[8:9]  ¹⁹ tn The initial imperative (“get ready for battle”) acknowledges the reality of the nations’ hostility; the concluding imperative (Heb “be shattered”) is rhetorical and expresses the speakers’ firm conviction of the outcome of the nations’ attack. (See the note on “be broken.”) One could paraphrase, “Okay, go ahead and prepare for battle since that’s what you want to do, but your actions will backfire and you’ll be shattered.” This rhetorical use of the imperatives is comparable to saying to a child who is bent on climbing a high tree, “Okay, go ahead, climb the tree and break your arm!” What this really means is: “Okay, go ahead and climb the tree since that’s what you really want to do, but your actions will backfire and you’ll break your arm.” The repetition of the statement in the final two lines of the verse gives the challenge the flavor of a taunt (ancient Israelite “trash talking,” as it were).

[9:3]  ²⁰ sn The Lord is addressed directly in vv. 3-4.

[9:3]  ²¹ tc The Hebrew consonantal text reads “You multiply the nation, you do not make great the joy.” The particle לֹא (lo’, “not”) is obviously incorrect; the marginal reading has לוֹ (lo, “to him”). In this case, one should translate, “You multiply the nation, you increase his (i.e., their) joy.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one emends הַגּוֹי לוֹ (hagoy lo, “the nation, to him”) to הַגִּילָה (haggilah, “the joy,” a noun attested in Isa 65:18), which corresponds to הַשִּׂמְחָה (hasimkhah, “the joy”) later in the verse (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:386). As attractive as this reading is, it has not textual evidence supporting it. The MT reading (accepting the marginal reading “to him” for the negative particle “not”) affirms that Yahweh caused the nation to grow in population and increased their joy.

[9:3]  ²² tn Heb “as they are happy.” The word “warriors” is supplied in the translation to clarify the word picture. This last simile comes close to reality, for vv. 4-5 indicate that the people have won a great military victory over their oppressors.

[10:6]  ²³ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

[10:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[17:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in the day of your planting you [?].” The precise meaning of the verb תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי (tÿsagsegi) is unclear. It is sometimes derived from שׂוּג/סוּג (sug, “to fence in”; see BDB 691 s.v. II סוּג). In this case one could translate “you build a protective fence.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one derives the form from שָׂגָא/שָׂגָה (saga’/sagah, “to grow”); see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:351, n. 4. For this verb, see BDB 960 s.v. שָׂגָא.

[17:11]  ²⁸ tc The Hebrew text has, “a heap of harvest.” However, better sense is achieved if נֵד (ned, “heap”) is emended to a verb. Options include נַד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד [nadad, “flee, depart”]), נָדַד (Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד), נֹדֵד (noded, Qal active participle from נָדַד), and נָד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular, or participle masculine singular, from נוּד [nud, “wander, flutter”]). See BDB 626 s.v. נוּד and HALOT 672 s.v. I נדד. One could translate literally: “[the harvest] departs,” or “[the harvest] flies away.”

[19:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the Lord has mixed into her midst a spirit of blindness.”

[19:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “like the going astray of a drunkard in his vomit.”

[34:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “the world and its offspring”; NASB “the world and all that springs from it.”

[44:3]  ³² tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)

[44:3]  ³³ tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[45:12]  ³⁴ tn The words “who live” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[45:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “I, even my hands”; NASB “I stretched out…with My hands”; NRSV “it was my hands that stretched out.” The same construction occurs at the beginning of v. 13.

[45:12]  ³⁶ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[45:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and to all their host I commanded.” See the notes at 40:26.

[48:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[48:17]  ³⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[51:12]  ⁴⁰ tc The plural suffix should probably be emended to the second masculine singular (which is used in v. 13). The final mem (ם) is probably dittographic; note the mem at the beginning of the next word.

[51:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the son of man who [as] grass is given up?” The feminine singular forms should probably be emended to the masculine singular (see v. 13). They have probably been influenced by the construction אַתְּ־הִיא (’at-hi’) in vv. 9-10.

[54:4]  ⁴² tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”

[54:4]  ⁴³ tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.

[57:10]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “by the greatness [i.e., “length,” see BDB 914 s.v. רֹב 2] of your way you get tired.”

[57:10]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “it is hopeless” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NRSV “It is useless.”

[57:10]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the life of your hand you find.” The term חַיָּה (khayyah, “life”) is here used in the sense of “renewal” (see BDB 312 s.v.) while יָד (yad) is used of “strength.”

[57:10]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “you do not grow weak.”

[57:19]  ⁴⁸ tc The Hebrew text has literally, “one who creates fruit of lips.” Perhaps the pronoun אֲנִי (’ani) should be inserted after the participle; it may have been accidentally omitted by haplography: נוּב שְׂפָתָיִם[אֲנִי] בּוֹרֵא (bore’ [’ani] nuv sÿfatayim). “Fruit of the lips” is often understood as a metonymy for praise; perhaps it refers more generally to joyful shouts (see v. 18).

[57:19]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “Peace, peace.” The repetition of the noun emphasizes degree.

[61:11]  ⁵⁰ tn Or perhaps, “righteousness,” but the context seems to emphasize deliverance and restoration (see v. 10 and 62:1).

[61:11]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and praise before all the nations.”

[62:2]  ⁵² tn Heb “which the mouth of the Lord will designate.”

[66:12]  ⁵³ tn Heb “Look, I am ready to extend to her like a river prosperity [or “peace”], and like an overflowing stream, the riches of nations.”

[66:12]  ⁵⁴ tn The words “from her breast” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 11).