Yesaya 5:28

5:28 Their arrows are sharpened,

and all their bows are prepared. ¹ 

The hooves of their horses are hard as flint, ² 

and their chariot wheels are like a windstorm. ³ 

Yesaya 9:19

9:19 Because of the anger of the Lord who commands armies, the land was scorched, ⁴ 

and the people became fuel for the fire. ⁵ 

People had no compassion on one another. ⁶ 

Yesaya 40:6

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ⁷  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ⁸  “All people are like grass, ⁹ 

and all their promises ¹⁰  are like the flowers in the field.

Yesaya 41:12

41:12 When you will look for your opponents, ¹¹  you will not find them;

your enemies ¹²  will be reduced to absolutely nothing.

Yesaya 66:15

66:15 For look, the Lord comes with fire,

his chariots come like a windstorm, ¹³ 

to reveal his raging anger,

his battle cry, and his flaming arrows. ¹⁴ 

[5:28]  ¹ tn Heb “bent” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “are strung.”

[5:28]  ² tn Heb “regarded like flint.”

[5:28]  ³ sn They are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way they kick up dust.

[9:19]  ⁴ tn The precise meaning of the verb עְתַּם (’ÿtam), which occurs only here, is uncertain, though the context strongly suggests that it means “burn, scorch.”

[9:19]  ⁵ sn The uncontrollable fire of the people’s wickedness (v. 18) is intensified by the fire of the Lord’s judgment (v. 19). God allows (or causes) their wickedness to become self-destructive as civil strife and civil war break out in the land.

[9:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “men were not showing compassion to their brothers.” The idiom “men to their brothers” is idiomatic for reciprocity. The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav (ו) consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.

[40:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

[40:6]  ⁸ tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

[40:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

[40:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.

[41:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the men of your struggle”; NASB “those who quarrel with you.”

[41:12]  ¹² tn Heb “the men of your battle”; NAB “who do battle with you.”

[66:15]  ¹³ sn Chariots are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way that they kick up dust.

[66:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to cause to return with the rage of his anger, and his battle cry [or “rebuke”] with flames of fire.”