Yesaya 10:12

10:12 But when ¹  the sovereign master ²  finishes judging ³  Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I ⁴  will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. ⁵ 

Yesaya 10:16-19

10:16 For this reason ⁶  the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. ⁷  His majestic glory will go up in smoke. ⁸ 

10:17 The light of Israel ⁹  will become a fire,

their Holy One ¹⁰  will become a flame;

it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s ¹¹  briers

and his thorns in one day.

10:18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard

will be completely destroyed, ¹² 

as when a sick man’s life ebbs away. ¹³ 

10:19 There will be so few trees left in his forest,

a child will be able to count them. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 10:33-34

10:33 Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies,

is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ¹⁵ 

The tallest trees ¹⁶  will be cut down,

the loftiest ones will be brought low.

10:34 The thickets of the forest will be chopped down with an ax,

and mighty Lebanon will fall. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 30:30-33

30:30 The Lord will give a mighty shout ¹⁸ 

and intervene in power, ¹⁹ 

with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ²⁰ 

with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

30:31 Indeed, the Lord’s shout will shatter Assyria; ²¹ 

he will beat them with a club.

30:32 Every blow from his punishing cudgel, ²² 

with which the Lord will beat them, ²³ 

will be accompanied by music from the ²⁴  tambourine and harp,

and he will attack them with his weapons. ²⁵ 

30:33 For ²⁶  the burial place is already prepared; ²⁷ 

it has been made deep and wide for the king. ²⁸ 

The firewood is piled high on it. ²⁹ 

The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone,

will ignite it.

Yesaya 31:8

31:8 Assyria will fall by a sword, but not one human-made; ³⁰ 

a sword not made by humankind will destroy them. ³¹ 

They will run away from this sword ³² 

and their young men will be forced to do hard labor.

Yesaya 33:10-12

33:10 “Now I will rise up,” says the Lord.

“Now I will exalt myself;

now I will magnify myself. ³³ 

33:11 You conceive straw, ³⁴ 

you give birth to chaff;

your breath is a fire that destroys you. ³⁵ 

33:12 The nations will be burned to ashes; ³⁶ 

like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.

[10:12]  ¹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:12]  ² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[10:12]  ³ tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”

[10:12]  ⁴ tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.

[10:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.

[10:16]  ⁶ sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.

[10:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”

[10:16]  ⁸ tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”

[10:17]  ⁹ tn In this context the “Light of Israel” is a divine title (note the parallel title “his holy one”). The title points to God’s royal splendor, which overshadows and, when transformed into fire, destroys the “majestic glory” of the king of Assyria (v. 16b).

[10:17]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[10:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his.” In vv. 17-19 the Assyrian king and his empire is compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).

[10:18]  ¹² tn Heb “from breath to flesh it will destroy.” The expression “from breath to flesh” refers to the two basic components of a person, the immaterial (life’s breath) and the material (flesh). Here the phrase is used idiomatically to indicate totality.

[10:18]  ¹³ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See BDB 651 s.v. I נָסַס and HALOT 703 s.v. I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. NRSV “as when an invalid wastes away”).

[10:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the rest of the trees of his forest will be counted, and a child will record them.”

[10:33]  ¹⁵ tc The Hebrew text reads “with terrifying power,” or “with a crash.” מַעֲרָצָה (ma’aratsah, “terrifying power” or “crash”) occurs only here. Several have suggested an emendation to מַעֲצָד (ma’atsad, “ax”) parallel to “ax” in v. 34; see HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:448.

[10:33]  sn As in vv. 12 (see the note there) and 18, the Assyrians are compared to a tree/forest in vv. 33-34.

[10:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the exalted of the height.” This could refer to the highest branches (cf. TEV) or the tallest trees (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[10:34]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text has, “and Lebanon, by/as [?] a mighty one, will fall.” The translation above takes the preposition בְּ (bet) prefixed to “mighty one” as indicating identity, “Lebanon, as a mighty one, will fall.” In this case “mighty one” describes Lebanon. (In Ezek 17:23 and Zech 11:2 the adjective is used of Lebanon’s cedars.) Another option is to take the preposition as indicating agency and interpret “mighty one” as a divine title (see Isa 33:21). One could then translate, “and Lebanon will fall by [the agency of] the Mighty One.”

[30:30]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the Lord will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard.”

[30:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and reveal the lowering of his arm.”

[30:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and a flame of consuming fire.”

[30:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “Indeed by the voice of the Lord Assyria will be shattered.”

[30:32]  ²² tc The Hebrew text has “every blow from a founded [i.e., “appointed”?] cudgel.” The translation above, with support from a few medieval Hebrew mss, assumes an emendation of מוּסָדָה (musadah, “founded”) to מוּסָרֹה (musaroh, “his discipline”).

[30:32]  ²³ tn Heb “which the Lord lays on him.”

[30:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “will be with” (KJV similar).

[30:32]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and with battles of brandishing [weapons?] he will fight against him.” Some prefer to emend וּבְמִלְחֲמוֹת (uvÿmilkhamot, “and with battles of”) to וּבִמְחֹלוֹת (uvimkholot, “and with dancing”). Note the immediately preceding references to musical instruments.

[30:33]  ²⁶ tn Or “indeed.”

[30:33]  ²⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for arranged from before [or “yesterday”] is [?].” The meaning of תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh), which occurs only here, is unknown. The translation above (as with most English versions) assumes an emendation to תֹּפֶת (tofet, “Topheth”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) and places the final hey (ה) on the beginning of the next word as an interrogative particle. Topheth was a place near Jerusalem used as a burial ground (see Jer 7:32; 19:11).

[30:33]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Also it is made ready for the king, one makes it deep and wide.” If one takes the final hey (ה) on תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh) and prefixes it to גָּם (gam) as an interrogative particle (see the preceding note), one can translate, “Is it also made ready for the king?” In this case the question is rhetorical and expects an emphatic affirmative answer, “Of course it is!”

[30:33]  ²⁹ tn Heb “its pile of wood, fire and wood one makes abundant.”

[30:33]  sn Apparently this alludes to some type of funeral rite.

[31:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Assyria will fall by a sword, not of a man.”

[31:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “and a sword not of humankind will devour him.”

[31:8]  ³² tn Heb “he will flee for himself from before a sword.”

[33:10]  ³³ tn Or “lift myself up” (KJV); NLT “show my power and might.”

[33:11]  ³⁴ tn The second person verb and pronominal forms in this verse are plural. The hostile nations are the addressed, as the next verse makes clear.

[33:11]  ³⁵ sn The hostile nations’ plans to destroy God’s people will come to nothing; their hostility will end up being self-destructive.

[33:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “will be a burning to lime.” See Amos 2:1.