Yesaya 17:10

17:10 For you ignore ¹  the God who rescues you;

you pay no attention to your strong protector. ² 

So this is what happens:

You cultivate beautiful plants

and plant exotic vines. ³ 

Yesaya 22:23

22:23 I will fasten him like a peg into a solid place; ⁴  he will bring honor and respect to his father’s family. ⁵ 

Yesaya 44:12

44:12 A blacksmith works with his tool ⁶ 

and forges metal over the coals.

He forms it ⁷  with hammers;

he makes it with his strong arm.

He gets hungry and loses his energy; ⁸ 

he drinks no water and gets tired.

[17:10]  ¹ tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[17:10]  ² tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”

[17:10]  ³ 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.

[22:23]  ⁴ sn The metaphor depicts how secure his position will be.

[22:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he will become a glorious throne for the house of his father.”

[44:12]  ⁶ tn The noun מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad), which refers to some type of tool used for cutting, occurs only here and in Jer 10:3. See HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד.

[44:12]  ⁷ tn Some English versions take the pronoun “it” to refer to an idol being fashioned by the blacksmith (cf. NIV, NCV, CEV). NLT understands the referent to be “a sharp tool,” which is then used by the carpenter in the following verse to carve an idol from wood.

[44:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”