Yesaya 7:8-9

7:8 For Syria’s leader is Damascus,

and the leader of Damascus is Rezin.

Within sixty-five years Ephraim will no longer exist as a nation. ¹ 

7:9 Ephraim’s leader is Samaria,

and Samaria’s leader is the son of Remaliah.

If your faith does not remain firm,

then you will not remain secure.” ² 

Yesaya 9:3

9:3 You ³  have enlarged the nation;

you give them great joy. ⁴ 

They rejoice in your presence

as harvesters rejoice;

as warriors celebrate ⁵  when they divide up the plunder.

Yesaya 13:13

13:13 So I will shake the heavens, ⁶ 

and the earth will shake loose from its foundation, ⁷ 

because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies,

in the day he vents his raging anger. ⁸ 

Yesaya 17:10

17:10 For you ignore ⁹  the God who rescues you;

you pay no attention to your strong protector. ¹⁰ 

So this is what happens:

You cultivate beautiful plants

and plant exotic vines. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 32:10

32:10 In a year’s time ¹² 

you carefree ones will shake with fear,

for the grape ¹³  harvest will fail,

and the fruit harvest will not arrive.

Yesaya 49:20

49:20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement

will say within your hearing,

‘This place is too cramped for us, ¹⁴ 

make room for us so we can live here.’ ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 56:8

56:8 The sovereign Lord says this,

the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:

“I will still gather them up.” ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 59:12

59:12 For you are aware of our many rebellious deeds, ¹⁷ 

and our sins testify against us;

indeed, we are aware of our rebellious deeds;

we know our sins all too well. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 60:22

60:22 The least of you will multiply into ¹⁹  a thousand;

the smallest of you will become a large nation.

When the right time comes, I the Lord will quickly do this!” ²⁰ 

Yesaya 61:11

61:11 For just as the ground produces its crops

and a garden yields its produce,

so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ²¹  to grow,

and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ²² 

[7:8]  ¹ tn Heb “Ephraim will be too shattered to be a nation”; NIV “to be a people.”

[7:8]  sn This statement is problematic for several reasons. It seems to intrude stylistically, interrupting the symmetry of the immediately preceding and following lines. Furthermore, such a long range prophecy lacks punch in the midst of the immediate crisis. After all, even if Israel were destroyed sometime within the next 65 years, a lot could still happen during that time, including the conquest of Judah and the demise of the Davidic family. Finally the significance of the time frame is uncertain. Israel became an Assyrian province within the next 15 years and ceased to exist as a nation. For these reasons many regard the statement as a later insertion, but why a later editor would include the reference to “65 years” remains a mystery. Some try to relate the prophecy to the events alluded to in Ezra 4:2, 10, which refers to how the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal settled foreigners in former Israelite territory, perhaps around 670 b.c. However, even if the statement is referring to these events, it lacks rhetorical punch in its immediate context and has the earmarks of a later commentary that has been merged with the text in the process of transmission.

[7:9]  ² tn Heb “if you do not believe, you will not endure.” The verb forms are second plural; the Lord here addresses the entire Davidic family and court. (Verse 4 was addressed to the king.) There is a wordplay in the Hebrew text, designed to draw attention to the alternatives set before the king (cf. 1:20). “Believe” (תַאֳמִינוּ, ta’aminu) is a Hiphil form of the verb אָמָן (’aman); “endure” (תֵאָמֵנוּ, te’amenu) is a Niphal form of this same verb.

[9:3]  ³ sn The Lord is addressed directly in vv. 3-4.

[9:3]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew consonantal text reads “You multiply the nation, you do not make great the joy.” The particle לֹא (lo’, “not”) is obviously incorrect; the marginal reading has לוֹ (lo, “to him”). In this case, one should translate, “You multiply the nation, you increase his (i.e., their) joy.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one emends הַגּוֹי לוֹ (hagoy lo, “the nation, to him”) to הַגִּילָה (haggilah, “the joy,” a noun attested in Isa 65:18), which corresponds to הַשִּׂמְחָה (hasimkhah, “the joy”) later in the verse (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:386). As attractive as this reading is, it has not textual evidence supporting it. The MT reading (accepting the marginal reading “to him” for the negative particle “not”) affirms that Yahweh caused the nation to grow in population and increased their joy.

[9:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “as they are happy.” The word “warriors” is supplied in the translation to clarify the word picture. This last simile comes close to reality, for vv. 4-5 indicate that the people have won a great military victory over their oppressors.

[13:13]  ⁶ tn Or “the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[13:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “from its place” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV).

[13:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and in the day of the raging of his anger.”

[17:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[17:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”

[17:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.

[32:10]  ¹² tn Heb “days upon a year.”

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

[49:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.

[49:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”

[56:8]  ¹⁶ tn The meaning of the statement is unclear. The text reads literally, “Still I will gather upon him to his gathered ones.” Perhaps the preposition -לְ (lamed) before “gathered ones” introduces the object of the verb, as in Jer 49:5. The third masculine singular suffix on both עָלָיו (’alayv) and נִקְבָּצָיו (niqbatsayv) probably refers to “Israel.” In this case one can translate literally, “Still I will gather to him his gathered ones.”

[59:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for many are our rebellious deeds before you.”

[59:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] our rebellious deeds (are) with us, and our sins, we know them.”

[60:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will become” (so NASB, NIV).

[60:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I, the Lord, in its time, I will quickly do it.”

[61:11]  ²¹ tn Or perhaps, “righteousness,” but the context seems to emphasize deliverance and restoration (see v. 10 and 62:1).

[61:11]  ²² tn Heb “and praise before all the nations.”