Yesaya 13:20

13:20 No one will live there again;

no one will ever reside there again. ¹ 

No bedouin ²  will camp ³  there,

no shepherds will rest their flocks ⁴  there.

Yesaya 18:4

18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:

“I will wait ⁵  and watch from my place,

like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, ⁶ 

like a cloud of mist ⁷  in the heat ⁸  of harvest.” ⁹ 

[13:20]  ¹ tn Heb “she will not be inhabited forever, and she will not be dwelt in to generation and generation (i.e., forever).” The Lord declares that Babylon, personified as a woman, will not be inhabited. In other words, her people will be destroyed and the Chaldean empire will come to a permanent end.

[13:20]  ² tn Or “Arab” (NAB, NASB, NIV); cf. CEV, NLT “nomads.”

[13:20]  ³ tn יַהֵל (yahel) is probably a corrupted form of יֶאֱהַל (ye’ehal). See GKC 186 §68.k.

[13:20]  ⁴ tn The words “their flocks” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Hebrew text does not supply the object here, but see Jer 33:12.

[18:4]  ⁵ tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”

[18:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.

[18:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”

[18:4]  ⁸ tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”

[18:4]  ⁹ sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.