Yesaya 1:3

1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,

a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; ¹ 

but Israel does not recognize me, ² 

my people do not understand.”

Yesaya 17:10

17:10 For you ignore ³  the God who rescues you;

you pay no attention to your strong protector. ⁴ 

So this is what happens:

You cultivate beautiful plants

and plant exotic vines. ⁵ 

Yesaya 26:18

26:18 We were pregnant, we strained,

we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ⁶ 

We cannot produce deliverance on the earth;

people to populate the world are not born. ⁷ 

Yesaya 30:15

30:15 For this is what the master, the Lord, the Holy One of Israel says:

“If you repented and patiently waited for me, you would be delivered; ⁸ 

if you calmly trusted in me you would find strength, ⁹ 

but you are unwilling.

Yesaya 34:16

34:16 Carefully read the scroll of the Lord! ¹⁰ 

Not one of these creatures will be missing, ¹¹ 

none will lack a mate. ¹² 

For the Lord has issued the decree, ¹³ 

and his own spirit gathers them. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 40:20

40:20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; ¹⁵ 

he then seeks a skilled craftsman

to make ¹⁶  an idol that will not fall over.

Yesaya 40:28

40:28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is an eternal God,

the creator of the whole earth. ¹⁷ 

He does not get tired or weary;

there is no limit to his wisdom. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 40:31

40:31 But those who wait for the Lord’s help ¹⁹  find renewed strength;

they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, ²⁰ 

they run without growing weary,

they walk without getting tired.

Yesaya 42:25

42:25 So he poured out his fierce anger on them,

along with the devastation ²¹  of war.

Its flames encircled them, but they did not realize it; ²² 

it burned against them, but they did notice. ²³ 

Yesaya 43:2

43:2 When you pass through the waters, I am with you;

when you pass ²⁴  through the streams, they will not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;

the flames will not harm ²⁵  you.

Yesaya 49:10

49:10 They will not be hungry or thirsty;

the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them, ²⁶ 

for one who has compassion on them will guide them;

he will lead them to springs of water.

Yesaya 56:10

56:10 All their watchmen ²⁷  are blind,

they are unaware. ²⁸ 

All of them are like mute dogs,

unable to bark.

They pant, ²⁹  lie down,

and love to snooze.

Yesaya 59:15

59:15 Honesty has disappeared;

the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed.

The Lord watches and is displeased, ³⁰ 

for there is no justice.

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[1:3]  ² tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).

[17:10]  ³ tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[17:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”

[17:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.

[26:18]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[30:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “in returning and in quietness you will be delivered.” Many English versions render the last phrase “shall be saved” or something similar (e.g., NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[30:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “in quietness and in trust is your strength” (NASB and NRSV both similar).

[34:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Seek from upon the scroll of the Lord and read.”

[34:16]  sn It is uncertain what particular scroll is referred to here. Perhaps the phrase simply refers to this prophecy and is an admonition to pay close attention to the details of the message.

[34:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “one from these will not be missing.” הֵנָּה (hennah, “these”) is feminine plural in the Hebrew text. It may refer only to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or may include all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).

[34:16]  ¹² tn Heb “each its mate they will not lack.”

[34:16]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for a mouth, it has commanded.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and a few medieval mss have פִּיהוּ (pihu, “his mouth [has commanded]”), while a few other medieval mss read פִּי יְהוָה (pi yÿhvah, “the mouth of the Lord [has commanded]”).

[34:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and his spirit, he gathers them.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, referring to the birds mentioned in v. 15b or to all of the creatures listed in vv. 14b-15 (all of which are identified with feminine nouns).

[40:20]  ¹⁵ tn The first two words of the verse (הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה, hamsukan tÿrumah) are problematic. Some take מְסֻכָּן as an otherwise unattested Pual participle from סָכַן (sakhan, “be poor”) and translate “the one who is impoverished.” תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah, “contribution”) can then be taken as an adverbial accusative, “with respect to a contribution,” and the entire line translated, “the one who is too impoverished for such a contribution [i.e., the metal idol of v. 19?] selects wood that will not rot.” However, מְסֻכָּן is probably the name of a tree used in idol manufacturing (cognate with Akkadian musukkanu, cf. H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 133). מְסֻכָּן may be a scribal interpretive addition attempting to specify עֵץ (’ets) or עֵץ may be a scribal attempt to categorize מְסֻכָּן. How an idol constitutes a תְּרוּמָה (“contribution”) is not entirely clear.

[40:20]  ¹⁶ tn Or “set up” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NASB “to prepare.”

[40:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.

[40:28]  ¹⁸ sn Exiled Israel’s complaint (v. 27) implies that God might be limited in some way. Perhaps he, like so many of the pagan gods, has died. Or perhaps his jurisdiction is limited to Judah and does not include Babylon. Maybe he is unable to devise an adequate plan to rescue his people, or is unable to execute it. But v. 28 affirms that he is not limited temporally or spatially nor is his power and wisdom restricted in any way. He can and will deliver his people, if they respond in hopeful faith (v. 31a).

[40:31]  ¹⁹ tn The words “for the Lord’s help” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[40:31]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they rise up [on] wings like eagles” (TEV similar).

[42:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “strength” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “fury”; NASB “fierceness”; NIV “violence.”

[42:25]  ²² tn Heb “and it blazed against him all around, but he did not know.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb “blazed” is the divine חֵמָה (khemah, “anger”) mentioned in the previous line.

[42:25]  ²³ tn Heb “and it burned against him, but he did not set [it] upon [the] heart.”

[43:2]  ²⁴ tn The verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[43:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “burn” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV, NLT “consume”; NIV “set you ablaze.”

[49:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the heat and the sun will not strike them.” In Isa 35:7, its only other occurrence in the OT, שָׁרָב (sharav) stands parallel to “parched ground” and in contrast to “pool.” In later Hebrew and Aramaic it refers to “dry heat, heat of the sun” (Jastrow 1627 s.v.). Here it likely has this nuance and forms a hendiadys with “sun.”

[56:10]  ²⁷ sn The “watchmen” are probably spiritual leaders, most likely prophets and priests, responsible for giving the people moral direction.

[56:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “they do not know”; KJV “they are all ignorant”; NIV “they all lack knowledge.”

[56:10]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew text has הֹזִים (hozim), which appears to be derived from an otherwise unattested verbal root הָזָה (hazah). On the basis of alleged cognates, BDB 223 s.v. הָזָה offers the definition “dream, rave” while HALOT 243 s.v. הזה lists “pant.” In this case the dog metaphor of the preceding lines continues. The reference to dogs at the beginning of v. 11 favors the extension of the metaphor. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חזים (“seers”) here. In this case the “watchmen” are directly identified as prophets and depicted as lazy.

[59:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and it is displeasing in his eyes.”