Yesaya 1:19

1:19 If you have a willing attitude and obey, ¹ 

then you will again eat the good crops of the land.

Yesaya 7:24

7:24 With bow and arrow ²  men will hunt ³  there, for the whole land will be covered ⁴  with thorns and briers.

Yesaya 16:1

16:1 Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, ⁵ 

from Sela in the desert ⁶ 

to the hill of Daughter Zion.

Yesaya 26:15

26:15 You have made the nation larger, ⁷  O Lord,

you have made the nation larger and revealed your splendor, ⁸ 

you have extended all the borders of the land.

Yesaya 29:17

Changes are Coming

29:17 In just a very short time ⁹ 

Lebanon will turn into an orchard,

and the orchard will be considered a forest. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 40:3

40:3 A voice cries out,

“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;

construct in the desert a road for our God.

Yesaya 42:15

42:15 I will make the trees on the mountains and hills wither up; ¹¹ 

I will dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn streams into islands, ¹² 

and dry up pools of water. ¹³ 

Yesaya 49:12

49:12 Look, they come from far away!

Look, some come from the north and west,

and others from the land of Sinim! ¹⁴ 

[1:19]  ¹ tn Heb “listen”; KJV “obedient”; NASB “If you consent and obey.”

[7:24]  ² tn Heb “with arrows and a bow.” The more common English idiom is “bow[s] and arrow[s].”

[7:24]  ³ tn Heb “go” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “go hunting.”

[7:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “will be” (so NASB, NRSV).

[16:1]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “Send [a plural imperatival form is used] a ram [to] the ruler of the land.” The term כַּר (kar, “ram”) should be emended to the plural כָּרִים (karim). The singular form in the text is probably the result of haplography; note that the next word begins with a mem (מ).

[16:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has “toward [across?] the desert.”

[26:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “you have added to the nation.” The last line of the verse suggests that geographical expansion is in view. “The nation” is Judah.

[26:15]  ⁸ tn Or “brought honor to yourself.”

[29:17]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text phrases this as a rhetorical question, “Is it not yet a little, a short [time]?”

[29:17]  ¹⁰ sn The meaning of this verse is debated, but it seems to depict a reversal in fortunes. The mighty forest of Lebanon (symbolic of the proud and powerful, see 2:13; 10:34) will be changed into a common orchard, while the common orchard (symbolic of the oppressed and lowly) will grow into a great forest. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:538.

[42:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will dry up the mountains and hills.” The “mountains and hills” stand by synecdoche for the trees that grow on them. Some prefer to derive the verb from a homonymic root and translate, “I will lay waste.”

[42:15]  ¹² tc The Hebrew text reads, “I will turn streams into coastlands [or “islands”].” Scholars who believe that this reading makes little sense have proposed an emendation of אִיִּים (’iyyim, “islands”) to צִיּוֹת (tsiyyot, “dry places”; cf. NCV, NLT, TEV). However, since all the versions support the MT reading, there is insufficient grounds for an emendation here. Although the imagery of changing rivers into islands is somewhat strange, J. N. Oswalt describes this imagery against the backdrop of rivers of the Near East. The receding of these rivers at times occasioned the appearance of previously submerged islands (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:126).

[42:15]  ¹³ sn The imagery of this verse, which depicts the Lord bringing a curse of infertility to the earth, metaphorically describes how the Lord will destroy his enemies.

[49:12]  ¹⁴ tc The MT reads “Sinim” here; the Dead Sea Scrolls read “Syene,” a location in Egypt associated with modern Aswan. A number of recent translations adopt this reading: “Syene” (NAB, NRSV); “Aswan” (NIV); “Egypt” (NLT).

[49:12]  sn The precise location of the land of Sinim is uncertain, but since the north and west are mentioned in the previous line, it was a probably located in the distant east or south.