Yesaya 1:6

1:6 From the soles of your feet to your head,

there is no spot that is unharmed. ¹ 

There are only bruises, cuts,

and open wounds.

They have not been cleansed ²  or bandaged,

nor have they been treated ³  with olive oil. ⁴ 

Yesaya 1:23

1:23 Your officials are rebels, ⁵ 

they associate with ⁶  thieves.

All of them love bribery,

and look for ⁷  payoffs. ⁸ 

They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ⁹ 

or defend the rights of the widow. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 1:31

1:31 The powerful will be like ¹¹  a thread of yarn,

their deeds like a spark;

both will burn together,

and no one will put out the fire.

Yesaya 3:7

3:7 At that time ¹²  the brother will shout, ¹³ 

‘I am no doctor, ¹⁴ 

I have no food or coat in my house;

don’t make me a leader of the people!’”

Yesaya 5:20

5:20 Those who call evil good and good evil are as good as dead, ¹⁵ 

who turn darkness into light and light into darkness,

who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 9:13

9:13 The people did not return to the one who struck them,

they did not seek reconciliation ¹⁷  with the Lord who commands armies.

Yesaya 10:2

10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,

and to deprive ¹⁸  the oppressed among my people of justice,

so they can steal what widows own,

and loot what belongs to orphans. ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 13:2

13:2 ²⁰ On a bare hill raise a signal flag,

shout to them,

wave your hand,

so they might enter the gates of the princes!

Yesaya 14:8

14:8 The evergreens also rejoice over your demise, ²¹ 

as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing, ²² 

‘Since you fell asleep, ²³ 

no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’ ²⁴ 

Yesaya 19:12

19:12 But where, oh where, are your wise men? ²⁵ 

Let them tell you, let them find out

what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.

Yesaya 19:25

19:25 The Lord who commands armies will pronounce a blessing over the earth, saying, ²⁶  “Blessed be my people, Egypt, and the work of my hands, Assyria, and my special possession, ²⁷  Israel!”

Yesaya 21:5

21:5 Arrange the table,

lay out ²⁸  the carpet,

eat and drink! ²⁹ 

Get up, you officers,

smear oil on the shields! ³⁰ 

Yesaya 24:15

24:15 So in the east ³¹  extol the Lord,

along the seacoasts extol ³²  the fame ³³  of the Lord God of Israel.

Yesaya 29:5

29:5 But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust,

the horde of tyrants ³⁴  like chaff that is blown away.

It will happen suddenly, in a flash.

Yesaya 29:22

29:22 So this is what the Lord, the one who delivered Abraham, says to the family of Jacob: ³⁵ 

“Jacob will no longer be ashamed;

their faces will no longer show their embarrassment. ³⁶ 

Yesaya 33:16

33:16 This is the person who will live in a secure place; ³⁷ 

he will find safety in the rocky, mountain strongholds; ³⁸ 

he will have food

and a constant supply of water.

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. ³⁹ 

Yesaya 36:10

36:10 Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’” ⁴⁰ 

Yesaya 41:14

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, ⁴¹ 

men of ⁴²  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ⁴³  the Holy One of Israel. ⁴⁴ 

Yesaya 46:9-10

46:9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! ⁴⁵ 

Truly I am God, I have no peer; ⁴⁶ 

I am God, and there is none like me,

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand ⁴⁷  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

Yesaya 49:13

49:13 Shout for joy, O sky! ⁴⁸ 

Rejoice, O earth!

Let the mountains give a joyful shout!

For the Lord consoles his people

and shows compassion to the ⁴⁹  oppressed.

Yesaya 60:5

60:5 Then you will look and smile, ⁵⁰ 

you will be excited and your heart will swell with pride. ⁵¹ 

For the riches of distant lands ⁵²  will belong to you

and the wealth of nations will come to you.

Yesaya 66:22

66:22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain.

[1:6]  ¹ tn Heb “there is not in it health”; NAB “there is no sound spot.”

[1:6]  ² tn Heb “pressed out.”

[1:6]  ³ tn Heb “softened” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “soothed.”

[1:6]  ⁴ sn This verse describes wounds like those one would receive in battle. These wounds are comprehensive and without remedy.

[1:23]  ⁵ tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”

[1:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”

[1:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”

[1:23]  ⁸ sn Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts (שַׁלְמוֹנִים, shalmonim; a hapax legomena here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness (שָׁלוֹם, shalom), they sought after payoffs (שַׁלְמוֹנִים).

[1:23]  ⁹ sn See the note at v. 17.

[1:23]  ¹⁰ sn The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.

[1:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will become” (so NASB, NIV).

[3:7]  ¹² tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[3:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “he will lift up [his voice].”

[3:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “wrapper [of wounds]”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “healer.”

[5:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who call.” See the note at v. 8.

[5:20]  ¹⁶ sn In this verse the prophet denounces the perversion of moral standards. Darkness and bitterness are metaphors for evil; light and sweetness symbolize uprightness.

[9:13]  ¹⁷ tn This verse describes the people’s response to the judgment described in vv. 11-12. The perfects are understood as indicating simple past.

[10:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “rob” (ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); KJV “take away the right from the poor.”

[10:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”

[10:2]  sn On the socio-economic background of vv. 1-2, see the note at 1:23.

[13:2]  ²⁰ sn The Lord is speaking here (see v. 3).

[14:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “concerning you.”

[14:8]  ²² tn The word “singing” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. Note that the personified trees speak in the second half of the verse.

[14:8]  ²³ tn Heb “lay down” (in death); cf. NAB “laid to rest.”

[14:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the [wood]cutter does not come up against us.”

[19:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Where are they? Where are your wise men?” The juxtaposition of the interrogative pronouns is emphatic. See HALOT 38 s.v. אֶי.

[19:25]  ²⁶ tn Heb “which the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will bless [it], saying.” The third masculine singular suffix on the form בֵּרֲכוֹ (berakho) should probably be emended to a third feminine singular suffix בֵּרֲכָהּ (berakhah), for its antecedent would appear to be the feminine noun אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) at the end of v. 24.

[19:25]  ²⁷ tn Or “my inheritance” (NAB, NASB, NIV).

[21:5]  ²⁸ tn The precise meaning of the verb in this line is debated. Some prefer to derive the form from the homonymic צָפֹה (tsafoh, “keep watch”) and translate “post a guard” (cf. KJV “watch in the watchtower”; ASV “set the watch”).

[21:5]  ²⁹ tn The verbal forms in the first three lines are infinitives absolute, which are functioning here as finite verbs. It is uncertain if the forms should have an imperatival or indicative/descriptive force here.

[21:5]  ³⁰ sn Smearing the shields with oil would make them more flexible and effective in battle. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:394.

[24:15]  ³¹ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “in the lights,” interpreted by some to mean “in the region of light,” referring to the east. Some scholars have suggested the emendation of בָּאֻרִים (ba’urim) to בְּאִיֵּי הַיָּם (bÿ’iyyey hayyam, “along the seacoasts”), a phrase that is repeated in the next line. In this case, the two lines form synonymous parallelism. If one retains the MT reading (as above), “in the east” and “along the seacoasts” depict the two ends of the earth to refer to all the earth (as a merism).

[24:15]  ³² tn The word “extol” is supplied in the translation; the verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[24:15]  ³³ tn Heb “name,” which here stands for God’s reputation achieved by his mighty deeds.

[29:5]  ³⁴ tn Or “violent men”; cf. NASB “the ruthless ones.”

[29:22]  ³⁵ tn Heb “So this is what the Lord says to the house of Jacob, the one who ransomed Abraham.” The relative pronoun must refer back to “the Lord,” not to the immediately preceding “Jacob.” It is uncertain to what event in Abraham’s experience this refers. Perhaps the name “Abraham” stands here by metonymy for his descendants through Jacob. If so, the Exodus is in view.

[29:22]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and his face will no longer be pale.”

[33:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “he [in the] exalted places will live.”

[33:16]  ³⁸ tn Heb “mountain strongholds, cliffs [will be] his elevated place.”

[34:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the world and its offspring”; NASB “the world and all that springs from it.”

[36:10]  ⁴⁰ sn In v. 10 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 7. He claims that Hezekiah has offended the Lord and that the Lord has commissioned Assyria as his instrument of discipline and judgment.

[41:14]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ⁴² tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”

[41:14]  ⁴³ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ⁴⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[46:9]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “remember the former things, from antiquity”; KJV, ASV “the former things of old.”

[46:9]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and there is no other” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[46:10]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”

[49:13]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “O heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[49:13]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “his” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[60:5]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “shine,” or “be radiant” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[60:5]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and it will tremble and be wide, your heart.”

[60:5]  ⁵² tn Heb “the wealth of the sea,” i.e., wealth that is transported from distant lands via the sea.