Yesaya 5:8

Disaster is Coming

5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ¹ 

those who also accumulate landed property ² 

until there is no land left, ³ 

and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁴ 

Yesaya 28:19

28:19 Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you;

indeed, ⁵  every morning it will sweep by,

it will come through during the day and the night.” ⁶ 

When this announcement is understood,

it will cause nothing but terror.

Yesaya 32:10

32:10 In a year’s time ⁷ 

you carefree ones will shake with fear,

for the grape ⁸  harvest will fail,

and the fruit harvest will not arrive.

Yesaya 41:23

41:23 Predict how future events will turn out, ⁹ 

so we might know you are gods.

Yes, do something good or bad,

so we might be frightened and in awe. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 55:3

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ¹¹ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ¹²  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ¹³ 

[5:8]  ¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

[5:8]  ² tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

[5:8]  sn This verse does not condemn real estate endeavors per se, but refers to the way in which the rich bureaucrats of Judah accumulated property by exploiting the poor, in violation of the covenantal principle that the land belonged to God and that every family was to have its own portion of land. See the note at 1:23.

[5:8]  ³ tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

[5:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”

[28:19]  ⁵ tn Or “for” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[28:19]  ⁶ tn The words “it will come through” are supplied in the translation. The verb “will sweep by” does double duty in the parallel structure.

[32:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “days upon a year.”

[32:10]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “olive.” See 24:13.

[41:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “Declare the coming things, with respect to the end.”

[41:23]  ¹⁰ tc The translation assumes the Qere (וְנִרְאֶה [vÿnir’eh], from יָרֵא [yare’], “be afraid”).

[41:23]  tn Heb “so we might be frightened and afraid together.” On the meaning of the verb שָׁתָע (shata’), see the note at v. 10.

[55:3]  ¹¹ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  sn To live here refers to covenantal blessing, primarily material prosperity and national security (see vv. 4-5, 13, and Deut 30:6, 15, 19-20).

[55:3]  ¹² tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”