Yesaya 2:16

2:16 for all the large ships, ¹ 

for all the impressive ²  ships. ³ 

Yesaya 14:25

14:25 I will break Assyria ⁴  in my land,

I will trample them ⁵  underfoot on my hills.

Their yoke will be removed from my people,

the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. ⁶ 

Yesaya 24:12

24:12 The city is left in ruins; ⁷ 

the gate is reduced to rubble. ⁸ 

Yesaya 25:6

25:6 The Lord who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. ⁹ 

At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine –

tender meat and choicest wine. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 28:3

28:3 The splendid crown of Ephraim’s drunkards

will be trampled underfoot.

Yesaya 28:13

28:13 So the Lord’s word to them will sound like

meaningless gibberish,

senseless babbling,

a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹¹ 

As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk, ¹² 

and be injured, ensnared, and captured. ¹³ 

Yesaya 45:25

45:25 All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord

and will boast in him. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 46:7

46:7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;

they put it in its place and it just stands there;

it does not ¹⁵  move from its place.

Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;

it does not deliver him from his distress.

Yesaya 59:10

59:10 We grope along the wall like the blind,

we grope like those who cannot see; ¹⁶ 

we stumble at noontime as if it were evening.

Though others are strong, we are like dead men. ¹⁷ 

[2:16]  ¹ tn Heb “the ships of Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.

[2:16]  ² tn Heb “desirable”; NAB, NIV “stately”; NRSV “beautiful.”

[2:16]  ³ tn On the meaning of this word, which appears only here in the Hebrew Bible, see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 41-42.

[2:16]  sn The ships mentioned in this verse were the best of their class, and therefore an apt metaphor for the proud men being denounced in this speech.

[14:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “to break Assyria.”

[14:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “him.” This is a collective singular referring to the nation, or a reference to the king of Assyria who by metonymy stands for the entire nation.

[14:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “and his [i.e., Assyria’s] yoke will be removed from them [the people?], and his [Assyria’s] burden from his [the nation’s?] shoulder will be removed.” There are no antecedents in this oracle for the suffixes in the phrases “from them” and “from his shoulder.” Since the Lord’s land and hills are referred to in the preceding line and the statement seems to echo 10:27, it is likely that God’s people are the referents of the suffixes; the translation uses “my people” to indicate this.

[24:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “and there is left in the city desolation.”

[24:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and [into] rubble the gate is crushed.”

[25:6]  ⁹ sn That is, Mount Zion (see 24:23); cf. TEV; NLT “In Jerusalem.”

[25:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will make for all the nations on this mountain a banquet of meats, a banquet of wine dregs, meats filled with marrow, dregs that are filtered.”

[28:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord will be to them, ‘tsahv latsahv,’ etc.” See the note at v. 10. In this case the “Lord’s word” is not the foreigner’s strange sounding words (as in v. 10), but the Lord’s repeated appeals to them (like the one quoted in v. 12). As time goes on, the Lord’s appeals through the prophets will have no impact on the people; they will regard prophetic preaching as gibberish.

[28:13]  ¹² tn Heb “as a result they will go and stumble backward.” Perhaps an infant falling as it attempts to learn to walk is the background image here (cf. v. 9b). The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) could be taken as indicating purpose (“in order that”), rather than simple result. In this case the people’s insensitivity to the message is caused by the Lord as a means of expediting their downfall.

[28:13]  ¹³ sn When divine warnings and appeals become gibberish to the spiritually insensitive, they have no guidance and are doomed to destruction.

[45:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be vindicated and boast.”

[46:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.

[59:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like there are no eyes.”

[59:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb among the strong, like dead men.”