Yesaya 1:8

1:8 Daughter Zion ¹  is left isolated,

like a hut in a vineyard,

or a shelter in a cucumber field;

she is a besieged city. ² 

Yesaya 3:17

3:17 So ³  the sovereign master ⁴  will afflict the foreheads of Zion’s women ⁵  with skin diseases, ⁶ 

the Lord will make the front of their heads bald.” ⁷ 

Yesaya 7:13

7:13 So Isaiah replied, ⁸  “Pay attention, ⁹  family ¹⁰  of David. ¹¹  Do you consider it too insignificant to try the patience of men? Is that why you are also trying the patience of my God?

Yesaya 8:17

8:17 I will wait patiently for the Lord,

who has rejected the family of Jacob; ¹² 

I will wait for him.

Yesaya 10:32

10:32 This very day, standing in Nob,

they shake their fist at Daughter Zion’s mountain ¹³  –

at the hill of Jerusalem.

Yesaya 11:1

An Ideal King Establishes a Kingdom of Peace

11:1 A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s ¹⁴  root stock,

a bud will sprout ¹⁵  from his roots.

Yesaya 14:11

14:11 Your splendor ¹⁶  has been brought down to Sheol,

as well as the sound of your stringed instruments. ¹⁷ 

You lie on a bed of maggots,

with a blanket of worms over you. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 16:6

16:6 We have heard about Moab’s pride,

their great arrogance,

their boasting, pride, and excess. ¹⁹ 

But their boastful claims are empty! ²⁰ 

Yesaya 21:17

21:17 Just a handful of archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be left.” ²¹  Indeed, ²²  the Lord God of Israel has spoken.

Yesaya 22:3

22:3 ²³ All your leaders ran away together –

they fled to a distant place;

all your refugees ²⁴  were captured together –

they were captured without a single arrow being shot. ²⁵ 

Yesaya 22:24

22:24 His father’s family will gain increasing prominence because of him, ²⁶  including the offspring and the offshoots. ²⁷  All the small containers, including the bowls and all the jars will hang from this peg.’ ²⁸ 

Yesaya 28:11

28:11 For with mocking lips and a foreign tongue

he will speak to these people. ²⁹ 

Yesaya 31:6

31:6 You Israelites! Return to the one against whom you have so blatantly rebelled! ³⁰ 

Yesaya 32:11

32:11 Tremble, you complacent ones!

Shake with fear, you carefree ones!

Strip off your clothes and expose yourselves –

put sackcloth on your waist! ³¹ 

Yesaya 33:2

33:2 Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for you.

Give us strength each morning! ³² 

Deliver us when distress comes. ³³ 

Yesaya 33:10

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

“Now I will exalt myself;

now I will magnify myself. ³⁴ 

Yesaya 34:3

34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, ³⁵ 

their corpses will stink; ³⁶ 

the hills will soak up their blood. ³⁷ 

Yesaya 38:13

38:13 I cry out ³⁸  until morning;

like a lion he shatters all my bones;

you turn day into night and end my life. ³⁹ 

Yesaya 39:8

39:8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word which you have announced is appropriate.” ⁴⁰  Then he thought, ⁴¹  “For ⁴²  there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.”

Yesaya 43:8

The Lord Declares His Sovereignty

43:8 Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes,

those who are deaf, even though they have ears!

Yesaya 48:15

48:15 I, I have spoken –

yes, I have summoned him;

I lead him and he will succeed. ⁴³ 

[1:8]  ¹ tn Heb “daughter of Zion” (so KJV, NASB, NIV). The genitive is appositional, identifying precisely which daughter is in view. By picturing Zion as a daughter, the prophet emphasizes her helplessness and vulnerability before the enemy.

[1:8]  ² tn Heb “like a city besieged.” Unlike the preceding two comparisons, which are purely metaphorical, this third one identifies the reality of Israel’s condition. In this case the comparative preposition, as in v. 7b, has the force, “in every way like,” indicating that all the earmarks of a siege are visible because that is indeed what is taking place. The verb form in MT is Qal passive participle of נָצַר (natsar, “guard”), but since this verb is not often used of a siege (see BDB 666 s.v. I נָצַר), some prefer to repoint the form as a Niphal participle from II צוּר (tsur, “besiege”). However, the latter is not attested elsewhere in the Niphal (see BDB 848 s.v. II צוּר).

[3:17]  ³ tn In the Hebrew text vv. 16-17 and one long sentence, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk…, the sovereign master will afflict….” In v. 17 the Lord refers to himself in the third person.

[3:17]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 18 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[3:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “the daughters of Zion.”

[3:17]  ⁶ tn Or “a scab” (KJV, ASV); NIV, NCV, CEV “sores.”

[3:17]  ⁷ tn The precise meaning of this line is unclear because of the presence of the rare word פֹּת (pot). Since the verb in the line means “lay bare, make naked,” some take פֹּת as a reference to the genitals (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV, CEV). (In 1 Kgs 7:50 a noun פֹּת appears, with the apparent meaning “socket.”) J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:139, n. 2), basing his argument on alleged Akkadian evidence and the parallelism of the verse, takes פֹּת as “forehead.”

[7:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he said.” The subject is unexpressed, but the reference to “my God” at the end of the verse indicates the prophet is speaking.

[7:13]  ⁹ tn The verb is second plural in form, because the prophet addresses the whole family of David. He continues to use the plural in v. 14 (with one exception, see the notes on that verse), but then switches back to the second singular (addressing Ahaz specifically) in vv. 16-17.

[7:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “house.” See the note at v. 2.

[7:13]  ¹¹ sn The address to the “house of David” is designed to remind Ahaz and his royal court of the protection promised to them through the Davidic covenant. The king’s refusal to claim God’s promise magnifies his lack of faith.

[8:17]  ¹² tn Heb “who hides his face from the house of Jacob.”

[10:32]  ¹³ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “a mountain of a house (בֵּית, bet), Zion,” but the marginal reading (Qere) correctly reads “the mountain of the daughter (בַּת, bat) of Zion.” On the phrase “Daughter Zion,” see the note on the same phrase in 1:8.

[11:1]  ¹⁴ sn The text mentions David’s father Jesse, instead of the great king himself. Perhaps this is done for rhetorical reasons to suggest that a new David, not just another disappointing Davidic descendant, will arise. Other prophets call the coming ideal Davidic king “David” or picture him as the second coming of David, as it were. See Jer 30:9; Ezek 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Hos 3:5; and Mic 5:2 (as well as the note there).

[11:1]  ¹⁵ tc The Hebrew text has יִפְרֶה (yifreh, “will bear fruit,” from פָּרָה, parah), but the ancient versions, as well as the parallelism suggest that יִפְרַח (yifrakh, “will sprout”, from פָּרַח, parakh) is the better reading here. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:276, n. 2.

[14:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “pride” (NCV, CEV); KJV, NIV, NRSV “pomp.”

[14:11]  ¹⁷ tn Or “harps” (NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “under you maggots are spread out, and worms are your cover.”

[16:6]  ¹⁹ tn עֶבְרָה (’evrah) often means “anger, fury,” but here it appears to refer to boastful outbursts or excessive claims. See HALOT 782 s.v. עֶבְרָה.

[16:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “not so his boasting.”

[21:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the remnant of the number of the bow, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few.”

[21:17]  ²² tn Or “for” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[22:3]  ²³ tn Verse 3 reads literally, “All your leaders ran away, apart from a bow they were captured, all your found ones were captured together, to a distant place they fled.” J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:403, n. 3) suggests that the lines of the verse are arranged chiastically; lines 1 and 4 go together, while lines 2 and 3 are parallel. To translate the lines in the order they appear in the Hebrew text is misleading to the English reader, who is likely unfamiliar with, or at least insensitive to, chiastic parallelism. Consequently, the translation above arranges the lines as follows: line 1 (Hebrew) = line 1 (in translation); line 2 (Hebrew) = line 4 (in translation); line 3 (Hebrew) = line 3 (in translation); line 4 (Hebrew) = line 2 (in translation).

[22:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “all your found ones.” To achieve tighter parallelism (see “your leaders”) some prefer to emend the form to אַמִּיצַיִךְ (’ammitsayikh, “your strong ones”) or to נֶאֱמָצַיִךְ (ne’ematsayikh, “your strengthened ones”).

[22:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “apart from [i.e., without] a bow they were captured”; cf. NAB, NRSV “without the use of a bow.”

[22:24]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and all the glory of the house of his father they will hang on him.” The Lord returns to the peg metaphor of v. 23a. Eliakim’s secure position of honor will bring benefits and jobs to many others in the family.

[22:24]  ²⁷ tn The precise meaning and derivation of this word are uncertain. Cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “the issue”; CEV “relatives.”

[22:24]  ²⁸ tn Heb “all the small vessels, from the vessels that are bowls to all the vessels that are jars.” The picture is that of a single peg holding the weight of all kinds of containers hung from it.

[28:11]  ²⁹ sn This verse alludes to the coming Assyrian invasion, when the people will hear a foreign language that sounds like gibberish to them. The Lord is the subject of the verb “will speak,” as v. 12 makes clear. He once spoke in meaningful terms, but in the coming judgment he will speak to them, as it were, through the mouth of foreign oppressors. The apparent gibberish they hear will be an outward reminder that God has decreed their defeat.

[31:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Return to the one [against] whom the sons of Israel made deep rebellion.” The syntax is awkward here. A preposition is omitted by ellipsis after the verb (see GKC 446 §138.f, n. 2), and there is a shift from direct address (note the second plural imperative “return”) to the third person (note “they made deep”). For other examples of abrupt shifts in person in poetic style, see GKC 462 §144.p.

[32:11]  ³¹ tn The imperatival forms in v. 11 are problematic. The first (חִרְדוּ, khirdu, “tremble”) is masculine plural in form, though spoken to a feminine plural addressee (שַׁאֲנַנּוֹת, sha’anannot, “complacent ones”). The four imperatival forms that follow (רְגָזָה, rÿgazah, “shake with fear”; פְּשֹׁטָה, pÿshotah, “strip off your clothes”; עֹרָה, ’orah, “expose yourselves”; and חֲגוֹרָה, khagorah, “put on”) all appear to be lengthened (so-called “emphatic”) masculine singular forms, even though they too appear to be spoken to a feminine plural addressee. GKC 131-32 §48.i suggests emending חִרְדוּ (khirdu) to חֲרָדָה (kharadah) and understanding all five imperatives as feminine plural “aramaized” forms.

[33:2]  ³² tn Heb “Be their arm each morning.” “Arm” is a symbol for strength. The mem suffixed to the noun has been traditionally understood as a third person suffix, but this is contrary to the context, where the people speak of themselves in the first person. The mem (מ) is probably enclitic with ellipsis of the pronoun, which can be supplied from the context. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:589, n. 1.

[33:2]  ³³ tn Heb “[Be] also our deliverance in the time of distress.”

[33:10]  ³⁴ tn Or “lift myself up” (KJV); NLT “show my power and might.”

[34:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”

[34:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”

[34:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”

[38:13]  ³⁸ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Piel from שָׁוַה (shavah). There are two homonyms שָׁוַה, one meaning in the Piel “level, smooth out,” the other “set, place.” Neither fits in v. 13. It is likely that the original reading was שִׁוַּעְתִּי (shivva’ti, “I cry out”) from the verbal root שָׁוַע (shava’), which occurs exclusively in the Piel.

[38:13]  ³⁹ tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”

[39:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “good” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “favorable.”

[39:8]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The verb אָמַר (’amar, “say”) is sometimes used of what one thinks (that is, says to oneself).

[39:8]  ⁴² tn Or “surely”; cf. CEV “At least.”

[48:15]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and his way will be prosperous.”