Yesaya 2:6

The Lord’s Day of Judgment

2:6 Indeed, O Lord, ¹  you have abandoned your people,

the descendants of Jacob.

For diviners from the east are everywhere; ² 

they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. ³ 

Plenty of foreigners are around. ⁴ 

Yesaya 5:7

5:7 Indeed ⁵  Israel ⁶  is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,

the people ⁷  of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.

He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! ⁸ 

He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! ⁹ 

Yesaya 7:17

7:17 The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s family a time ¹⁰  unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah – the king of Assyria!” ¹¹ 

Yesaya 10:20

10:20 At that time ¹²  those left in Israel, those who remain of the family ¹³  of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. ¹⁴  Instead they will truly ¹⁵  rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 14:1-2

14:1 The Lord will certainly have compassion on Jacob; ¹⁷  he will again choose Israel as his special people ¹⁸  and restore ¹⁹  them to their land. Resident foreigners will join them and unite with the family ²⁰  of Jacob. 14:2 Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the Lord’s land. ²¹  They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them.

Yesaya 26:21

26:21 For look, the Lord is coming out of the place where he lives, ²² 

to punish the sin of those who live on the earth.

The earth will display the blood shed on it;

it will no longer cover up its slain. ²³ 

Yesaya 36:7

36:7 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’

Yesaya 38:1

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. ²⁴  The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’”

Yesaya 51:22

51:22 This is what your sovereign master, ²⁵  the Lord your God, says:

“Look, I have removed from your hand

the cup of intoxicating wine, ²⁶ 

the goblet full of my anger. ²⁷ 

You will no longer have to drink it.

Yesaya 63:7

A Prayer for Divine Intervention

63:7 I will tell of the faithful acts of the Lord,

of the Lord’s praiseworthy deeds.

I will tell about all ²⁸  the Lord did for us,

the many good things he did for the family of Israel, ²⁹ 

because of ³⁰  his compassion and great faithfulness.

[2:6]  ¹ tn The words “O Lord” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Isaiah addresses the Lord in prayer.

[2:6]  ² tc Heb “they are full from the east.” Various scholars retain the BHS reading and suggest that the prophet makes a general statement concerning Israel’s reliance on foreign customs (J. Watts, Isaiah [WBC], 1:32; J. de Waard, Isaiah, 12-13). Nevertheless, it appears that a word is missing. Based on the parallelism (note “omen readers” in 5:6c), many suggest that קֹסְמִים (qosÿmim, “diviners”) or מִקְסָם (miqsam, “divination”) has been accidentally omitted. Homoioteleuton could account for the omission of an original קֹסְמִים (note how this word and the following מִקֶּדֶם [miqqedem, “from the east”] both end in mem); an original מִקְסָם could have fallen out by homoioarcton (note how this word and the following מִקֶּדֶם both begin with mem).

[2:6]  ³ tn Heb “and omen readers like the Philistines.” Through this line and the preceding, the prophet contends that Israel has heavily borrowed the pagan practices of the east and west (in violation of Lev 19:26; Deut 18:9-14).

[2:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “and with the children of foreigners they [?].” The precise meaning of the final word is uncertain. Some take this verb (I שָׂפַק, safaq) to mean “slap,” supply the object “hands,” and translate, “they slap [hands] with foreigners”; HALOT 1349 s.v. I שׂפק. This could be a reference to foreign alliances. This translation has two disadvantages: It requires the conjectural insertion of “hands” and the use of this verb with its object prefixed with a בְּ (bet) preposition with this meaning does not occur elsewhere. The other uses of this verb refer to clapping at someone, an indication of hostility. The translation above assumes the verb is derived from II שׂפק (“to suffice,” attested in the Qal in 1 Kgs 20:10; HALOT 1349 s.v. II שׂפק). In this case the point is that a sufficient number of foreigners (in this case, too many!) live in the land. The disadvantage of this option is that the preposition prefixed to “the children of foreigners” does not occur with this verb elsewhere. The chosen translation is preferred since it continues the idea of abundant foreign influence and does not require a conjectural insertion or emendation.

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[7:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “days” (so KJV, NAB); NASB, NRSV “such days.”

[7:17]  ¹¹ sn Initially the prophecy appears to be a message of salvation. Immanuel seems to have a positive ring to it, sour milk and honey elsewhere symbolize prosperity and blessing (see Deut 32:13-14; Job 20:17), verse 16 announces the defeat of Judah’s enemies, and verse 17a could be taken as predicting a return to the glorious days of David and Solomon. However, the message turns sour in verses 17b-25. God will be with his people in judgment, as well as salvation. The curds and honey will be signs of deprivation, not prosperity, the relief announced in verse 16 will be short-lived, and the new era will be characterized by unprecedented humiliation, not a return to glory. Because of Ahaz’s refusal to trust the Lord, potential blessing would be transformed into a curse, just as Isaiah turns an apparent prophecy of salvation into a message of judgment. Because the words “the king of Assyria” are rather awkwardly tacked on to the end of the sentence, some regard them as a later addition. However, the very awkwardness facilitates the prophet’s rhetorical strategy here, as he suddenly turns what sounds like a positive message into a judgment speech. Actually, “the king of Assyria,” stands in apposition to the earlier object “days,” and specifies who the main character of these coming “days” will be.

[10:20]  ¹² tn Or “in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “house” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[10:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “on one who strikes him down.” This individual is the king (“foreign leader”) of the oppressing nation (which NLT specifies as “the Assyrians”).

[10:20]  ¹⁵ tn Or “sincerely”; KJV, ASV, NAB, NRSV “in truth.”

[10:20]  ¹⁶ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[14:1]  ¹⁷ tn The sentence begins with כִּי (ki), which is understood as asseverative (“certainly”) in the translation. Another option is to translate, “For the Lord will have compassion.” In this case one of the reasons for Babylon’s coming demise (13:22b) is the Lord’s desire to restore his people.

[14:1]  ¹⁸ tn The words “as his special people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[14:1]  ¹⁹ tn Or “settle” (NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

[14:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “house.”

[14:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the house of Jacob will take possession of them [i.e., the nations], on the land of the Lord, as male servants and female servants.”

[26:21]  ²² tn Heb “out of his place” (so KJV, ASV).

[26:21]  ²³ sn This implies that rampant bloodshed is one of the reasons for divine judgment. See the note at 24:5.

[38:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying”; NRSV “became sick and was at the point of death.”

[51:22]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[51:22]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the cup of [= that causes] staggering” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV); NASB “the cup of reeling.”

[51:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the goblet of the cup of my anger.”

[63:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “according to all which.”

[63:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “greatness of goodness to the house of Israel which he did for them.”

[63:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “according to.”