who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers ¹  and humiliates ²  the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men ³  and makes their advice ⁴  seem foolish,

biblegateway Isa 44:25

Causing the omens of boasters to fail, Making fools out of diviners, Causing wise men to draw back And turning their knowledge into foolishness,

who destroys the omens of the false prophets and makes fools of diviners; who confounds the wise and makes their knowledge foolishness;

I cause the signs of false prophets to fail and make fools of fortunetellers. I make wise men retreat and turn their knowledge into foolishness.

biblegateway Isa 44:25

who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense,

who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish,

bibleoremus Isa 44:25

who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge foolish;

I frustrate false prophets and their omens, and make fools of diviners; I reverse what wise men say and make nonsense of their wisdom.

biblegateway Isa 44:25

Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness;

That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise [men] backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;

biblegateway Isa 44:25

who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers ¹  and humiliates ²  the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men ³  and makes their advice ⁴  seem foolish,

¹ tc The Hebrew text has בַּדִּים (baddim), perhaps meaning “empty talkers” (BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד). In the four other occurrences of this word (Job 11:3; Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30; 50:36) the context does not make the meaning of the term very clear. Its primary point appears to be that the words spoken are meaningless or false. In light of its parallelism with “omen readers,” some have proposed an emendation to בָּרִים (barim, “seers”). The Mesopotamian baru-priests were divination specialists who played an important role in court life. See R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 93-98. Rather than supporting an emendation, J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:189, n. 79) suggests that Isaiah used בַּדִּים purposively as a derisive wordplay on the Akkadian word baru (in light of the close similarity of the d and r consonants).

² tn Or “makes fools of” (NIV, NRSV); NAB and NASB both similar.

³ tn Heb “who turns back the wise” (so NRSV); NIV “overthrows the learning of the wise”; TEV “The words of the wise I refute.”

⁴ tn Heb “their knowledge” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).