Yesaya 47:10-15

47:10 You were complacent in your evil deeds; ¹ 

you thought, ²  ‘No one sees me.’

Your self-professed ³  wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,

when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’ ⁴ 

47:11 Disaster will overtake you;

you will not know how to charm it away. ⁵ 

Destruction will fall on you;

you will not be able to appease it.

Calamity will strike you suddenly,

before you recognize it. ⁶ 

47:12 Persist ⁷  in trusting ⁸  your amulets

and your many incantations,

which you have faithfully recited ⁹  since your youth!

Maybe you will be successful ¹⁰  –

maybe you will scare away disaster. ¹¹ 

47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice. ¹² 

Let them take their stand –

the ones who see omens in the sky,

who gaze at the stars,

who make monthly predictions –

let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! ¹³ 

47:14 Look, they are like straw,

which the fire burns up;

they cannot rescue themselves

from the heat ¹⁴  of the flames.

There are no coals to warm them,

no firelight to enjoy. ¹⁵ 

47:15 They will disappoint you, ¹⁶ 

those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth. ¹⁷ 

Each strays off in his own direction, ¹⁸ 

leaving no one to rescue you.”

[47:10]  ¹ tn Heb “you trusted in your evil”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “wickedness.”

[47:10]  ² tn Or “said”; NAB “said to yourself”’ NASB “said in your heart.”

[47:10]  ³ tn The words “self-professed” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[47:10]  ⁴ tn See the note at v. 8.

[47:11]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.

[47:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”

[47:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “stand” (so KJV, ASV); NASB, NRSV “Stand fast.”

[47:12]  ⁸ tn The word “trusting” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See v. 9.

[47:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “in that which you have toiled.”

[47:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “maybe you will be able to profit.”

[47:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “maybe you will cause to tremble.” The object “disaster” is supplied in the translation for clarification. See the note at v. 9.

[47:13]  ¹² tn Heb “you are tired because of the abundance of your advice.”

[47:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “let them stand and rescue you – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make known by months – from those things which are coming upon you.”

[47:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “hand,” here a metaphor for the strength or power of the flames.

[47:14]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “there is no coal [for?] their food, light to sit before it.” Some emend לַחְמָם (lakhmam, “their food”) to לְחֻמָּם (lÿkhummam, “to warm them”; see HALOT 328 s.v. חמם). This statement may allude to Isa 44:16, where idolaters are depicted warming themselves over a fire made from wood, part of which was used to form idols. The fire of divine judgment will be no such campfire; its flames will devour and destroy.

[47:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”

[47:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “that for which you toiled, your traders from your youth.” The omen readers and star gazers are likened to merchants with whom Babylon has had an ongoing economic relationship.

[47:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “each to his own side, they err.”