Yesaya 3:17

3:17 So ¹  the sovereign master ²  will afflict the foreheads of Zion’s women ³  with skin diseases, ⁴ 

the Lord will make the front of their heads bald.” ⁵ 

Yesaya 5:18

5:18 Those who pull evil along using cords of emptiness are as good as dead, ⁶ 

who pull sin as with cart ropes. ⁷ 

Yesaya 8:16

8:16 Tie up the scroll as legal evidence, ⁸ 

seal the official record of God’s instructions and give it to my followers. ⁹ 

Yesaya 8:20

8:20 Then you must recall the Lord’s instructions and the prophetic testimony of what would happen. ¹⁰  Certainly they say such things because their minds are spiritually darkened. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 9:14

9:14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,

both the shoots and stalk ¹²  in one day.

Yesaya 10:5

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ¹³ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 14:26

14:26 This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;

my hand is ready to strike all the nations.” ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 23:11

23:11 The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, ¹⁶ 

he shook kingdoms;

he ¹⁷  gave the order

to destroy Canaan’s fortresses. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 24:4

24:4 The earth ¹⁹  dries up ²⁰  and withers,

the world shrivels up and withers;

the prominent people of the earth ²¹  fade away.

Yesaya 26:16

26:16 O Lord, in distress they looked for you;

they uttered incantations because of your discipline. ²² 

Yesaya 29:2

29:2 I will threaten Ariel,

and she will mourn intensely

and become like an altar hearth ²³  before me.

Yesaya 30:9

30:9 For these are rebellious people –

they are lying children,

children unwilling to obey the Lord’s law. ²⁴ 

Yesaya 42:7

42:7 to open blind eyes, ²⁵ 

to release prisoners ²⁶  from dungeons,

those who live in darkness from prisons.

Yesaya 64:12

64:12 In light of all this, ²⁷  how can you still hold back, Lord?

How can you be silent and continue to humiliate us?

Yesaya 65:6

65:6 Look, I have decreed: ²⁸ 

I will not keep silent, but will pay them back;

I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, ²⁹ 

[3:17]  ¹ tn In the Hebrew text vv. 16-17 and one long sentence, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk…, the sovereign master will afflict….” In v. 17 the Lord refers to himself in the third person.

[3:17]  ² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[3:17]  ³ tn Heb “the daughters of Zion.”

[3:17]  ⁴ tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”

[3:17]  ⁵ tn The precise meaning of this line is unclear because of the presence of the rare word פֹּת (pot). Since the verb in the line means “lay bare, make naked,” some take פֹּת as a reference to the genitals (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV, CEV). (In 1 Kgs 7:50 a noun פֹּת appears, with the apparent meaning “socket.”) J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:139, n. 2), basing his argument on alleged Akkadian evidence and the parallelism of the verse, takes פֹּת as “forehead.”

[5:18]  ⁶ sn See the note at v. 8.

[5:18]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “Woe to those who pull evil with the ropes of emptiness, and, as [with] ropes of a cart, sin.” Though several textual details are unclear, the basic idea is apparent. The sinners are so attached to their sinful ways (compared here to a heavy load) that they strain to drag them along behind them. If שָׁוְא (shavÿ’, “emptiness”) is retained, it makes a further comment on their lifestyle, denouncing it as one that is devoid of what is right and destined to lead to nothing but destruction. Because “emptiness” does not form a very tight parallel with “cart” in the next line, some emend שָׁוְא to שֶׂה (she, “sheep”) and עֲגָלָה (’agalah, “cart”) to עֵגֶל (’egel, “calf”): “Those who pull evil along with a sheep halter are as good as dead who pull sin with a calf rope” (following the lead of the LXX and improving the internal parallelism of the verse). In this case, the verse pictures the sinners pulling sin along behind them as one pulls an animal with a halter. For a discussion of this view, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:163, n. 1. Nevertheless, this emendation is unnecessary. The above translation emphasizes the folly of the Israelites who hold on to their sin (and its punishment) even while they hope for divine intervention.

[8:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “tie up [the] testimony.” The “testimony” probably refers to the prophetic messages God has given him. When the prophecies are fulfilled, he will be able to produce this official, written record to confirm the authenticity of his ministry and to prove to the people that God is sovereign over events.

[8:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “seal [the] instruction among my followers.” The “instruction” probably refers to the prophet’s exhortations and warnings. When the people are judged for the sins, the prophet can produce these earlier messages and essentially say, “I told you so.” In this way he can authenticate his ministry and impress upon the people the reality of God’s authority over them.

[8:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to [the] instruction and to [the] testimony.” The words “then you must recall” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 19-20a are one long sentence, reading literally, “When they say to you…, to the instruction and to the testimony.” On the identity of the “instruction” and “testimony” see the notes at v. 16.

[8:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “If they do not speak according to this word, [it is] because it has no light of dawn.” The literal translation suggests that “this word” refers to the instruction/testimony. However, it is likely that אִם־לֹא (’im-lo’) is asseverative here, as in 5:9. In this case “this word” refers to the quotation recorded in v. 19. For a discussion of the problem see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 230, n. 9. The singular pronoun in the second half of the verse is collective, referring back to the nation (see v. 19b).

[9:14]  ¹² sn The metaphor in this line is that of a reed being cut down.

[10:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

[10:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”

[14:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and this is the hand that is outstretched over all the nations.”

[23:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his hand he stretched out over the sea.”

[23:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” For stylistic reasons the pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation here.

[23:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “concerning Canaan, to destroy her fortresses.” NIV, NLT translate “Canaan” as “Phoenicia” here.

[24:4]  ¹⁹ tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (erets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37;12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).

[24:4]  ²⁰ tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.

[24:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (mÿrom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (mÿrome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.

[26:16]  ²² tn The meaning of this verse is unclear. It appears to read literally, “O Lord, in distress they visit you, they pour out [?] an incantation, your discipline to them.” פָּקַד (paqad) may here carry the sense of “seek with interest” (cf. Ezek 23:21 and BDB 823 s.v.) or “seek in vain” (cf. Isa 34:16), but it is peculiar for the Lord to be the object of this verb. צָקוּן (tsaqun) may be a Qal perfect third plural form from צוּק (tsuq, “pour out, melt”), though the verb is not used of pouring out words in its two other occurrences. Because of the appearance of צַר (tsar, “distress”) in the preceding line, it is tempting to emend the form to a noun and derive it from צוּק (“be in distress”) The term לַחַשׁ (lakhash) elsewhere refers to an incantation (Isa 3:3; Jer 8:17; Eccl 10:11) or amulet (Isa 3:20). Perhaps here it refers to ritualistic prayers or to magical incantations used to ward off evil.

[29:2]  ²³ tn The term אֲרִיאֵל (’ari’el, “Ariel”) is the word translated “altar hearth” here. The point of the simile is not entirely clear. Perhaps the image likens Jerusalem’s coming crisis to a sacrificial fire.

[30:9]  ²⁴ tn Or perhaps, “instruction” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); NCV, TEV “teachings.”

[42:7]  ²⁵ sn This does not refer to literal physical healing of the blind. As the next two lines suggest, this refers metonymically to freeing captives from their dark prisons where their eyes have grown unaccustomed to light.

[42:7]  ²⁶ sn This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice.

[64:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “because of these”; KJV, ASV “for these things.”

[65:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Look, it is written before me.”

[65:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “I will pay back into their lap.”