Yesaya 28:15

28:15 For you say,

“We have made a treaty with death,

with Sheol ¹  we have made an agreement. ² 

When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ³ 

it will not reach us.

For we have made a lie our refuge,

we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ⁴ 

Yesaya 44:13

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements; ⁵ 

he marks out an outline of its form; ⁶ 

he scrapes ⁷  it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, ⁸ 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. ⁹ 

Yesaya 48:16

48:16 Approach me! Listen to this!

From the very first I have not spoken in secret;

when it happens, ¹⁰  I am there.”

So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit. ¹¹ 

[28:15]  ¹ sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.

[28:15]  ² tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.

[28:15]  ³ tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).

[28:15]  ⁴ sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.

[44:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

[44:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”

[44:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

[44:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

[44:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

[48:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the time of its occurring.”

[48:16]  ¹¹ sn The speaker here is not identified specifically, but he is probably Cyrus, the Lord’s “ally” mentioned in vv. 14-15.