Yesaya 4:1

4:1 Seven women will grab hold of

one man at that time. ¹ 

They will say, “We will provide ²  our own food,

we will provide ³  our own clothes;

but let us belong to you ⁴  –

take away our shame!” ⁵ 

Yesaya 11:15

11:15 The Lord will divide ⁶  the gulf ⁷  of the Egyptian Sea; ⁸ 

he will wave his hand over the Euphrates River ⁹  and send a strong wind, ¹⁰ 

he will turn it into seven dried-up streams, ¹¹ 

and enable them to walk across in their sandals.

Yesaya 25:8

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ¹² 

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ¹³ 

Yesaya 29:11

29:11 To you this entire prophetic revelation ¹⁴  is like words in a sealed scroll. When they hand it to one who can read ¹⁵  and say, “Read this,” he responds, “I can’t, because it is sealed.”

Yesaya 30:1

Egypt Will Prove Unreliable

30:1 “The rebellious ¹⁶  children are as good as dead,” ¹⁷  says the Lord,

“those who make plans without consulting me, ¹⁸ 

who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, ¹⁹ 

and thereby compound their sin. ²⁰ 

Yesaya 30:30

30:30 The Lord will give a mighty shout ²¹ 

and intervene in power, ²² 

with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ²³ 

with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

Yesaya 35:2

35:2 Let it richly bloom; ²⁴ 

let it rejoice and shout with delight! ²⁵ 

It is given the grandeur ²⁶  of Lebanon,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the grandeur of the Lord,

the splendor of our God.

Yesaya 36:12

36:12 But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. ²⁷  His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!” ²⁸ 

Yesaya 42:5

42:5 This is what the true God, ²⁹  the Lord, says –

the one who created the sky and stretched it out,

the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, ³⁰ 

the one who gives breath to the people on it,

and life to those who live on it: ³¹ 

Yesaya 44:15

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ³² 

he takes some of it and warms himself.

Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.

Then he makes a god and worships it;

he makes an idol and bows down to it. ³³ 

Yesaya 57:8

57:8 Behind the door and doorpost you put your symbols. ³⁴ 

Indeed, ³⁵  you depart from me ³⁶  and go up

and invite them into bed with you. ³⁷ 

You purchase favors from them, ³⁸ 

you love their bed,

and gaze longingly ³⁹  on their genitals. ⁴⁰ 

Yesaya 65:5

65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!

Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’

These people are like smoke in my nostrils,

like a fire that keeps burning all day long.

[4:1]  ¹ tn Or “in that day” (ASV).

[4:1]  sn The seven to one ratio emphasizes the great disparity that will exist in the population due to the death of so many men in battle.

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “eat” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “buy.”

[4:1]  ³ tn Heb “wear” (so NASB, NRSV); NCV “make.”

[4:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “only let your name be called over us.” The Hebrew idiom “call the name over” indicates ownership. See 2 Sam 12:28, and BDB 896 s.v. I ָקרָא Niph. 2.d.(4). The language reflects the cultural reality of ancient Israel, where women were legally the property of their husbands.

[4:1]  ⁵ sn This refers to the humiliation of being unmarried and childless. The women’s words reflect the cultural standards of ancient Israel, where a woman’s primary duties were to be a wife and mother.

[11:15]  ⁶ tn The verb is usually understood as “put under the ban, destroy,” or emended to חָרָב (kharav, “dry up”). However, HALOT 354 s.v. II חרם proposes a homonymic root meaning “divide.”

[11:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “tongue” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[11:15]  ⁸ sn That is, the Red Sea.

[11:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “the river”; capitalized in some English versions (e.g., ASV, NASB, NRSV) as a reference to the Euphrates River.

[11:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “with the [?] of his wind” [or “breath”]. The Hebrew term עַיָם (’ayam) occurs only here. Some attempt to relate the word to an Arabic root and translate, “scorching [or “hot”] wind.” This interpretation fits especially well if one reads “dry up” in the previous line. Others prefer to emend the form to עֹצֶם (’otsem, “strong”). See HALOT 817 s.v. עֲצַם.

[11:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “seven streams.” The Hebrew term נַחַל (nakhal, “stream”) refers to a wadi, or seasonal stream, which runs during the rainy season, but is otherwise dry. The context (see v. 15b) here favors the translation, “dried up streams.” The number seven suggests totality and completeness. Here it indicates that God’s provision for escape will be thorough and more than capable of accommodating the returning exiles.

[25:8]  ¹² sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

[25:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[29:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “vision” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[29:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “one who knows a/the scroll.”

[30:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “stubborn” (NCV); cf. NIV “obstinate.”

[30:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] rebellious children.”

[30:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “making a plan, but not from me.”

[30:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and pouring out a libation, but not [from] my spirit.” This translation assumes that the verb נָסַךְ (nasakh) means “pour out,” and that the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה (massekhah) means “libation.” In this case “pouring out a libation” alludes to a ceremony that formally ratifies an alliance. Another option is to understand the verb נָסַךְ as a homonym meaning “weave,” and the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה as a homonym meaning “covering.” In this case forming an alliance is likened to weaving a garment.

[30:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “consequently adding sin to sin.”

[30:30]  ²¹ tn Heb “the Lord will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard.”

[30:30]  ²² tn Heb “and reveal the lowering of his arm.”

[30:30]  ²³ tn Heb “and a flame of consuming fire.”

[35:2]  ²⁴ tn The ambiguous verb form תִּפְרַח (tifrakh) is translated as a jussive because it is parallel to the jussive form תָגֵל (tagel).

[35:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and let it rejoice, yes [with] rejoicing and shouting.” גִּילַת (gilat) may be an archaic feminine nominal form (see GKC 421 §130.b).

[35:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “glory” (KJV, NIV, NRSV); also a second time later in this verse.

[36:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “To your master and to you did my master send me to speak these words?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

[36:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “[Is it] not [also] to the men…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Yes, it is.”

[36:12]  sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.

[42:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the God.” The definite article here indicates distinctiveness or uniqueness.

[42:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and its offspring” (so NASB); NIV “all that comes out of it.”

[42:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “and spirit [i.e., “breath”] to the ones walking in it” (NAB, NASB, and NRSV all similar).

[44:15]  ³² tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ³³ tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[57:8]  ³⁴ tn The precise referent of זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron) in this context is uncertain. Elsewhere the word refers to a memorial or commemorative sign. Here it likely refers to some type of idolatrous symbol.

[57:8]  ³⁵ tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).

[57:8]  ³⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “from me you uncover.” The translation assumes an emendation of the Piel form גִּלִּית (gillit, “you uncover”), which has no object expressed here, to the Qal גָּלִית (galit, “you depart”).

[57:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “you make wide your bed” (NASB similar).

[57:8]  ³⁸ tc Heb “and you [second masculine singular, unless the form be taken as third feminine singular] cut for yourself [feminine singular] from them.” Most English translations retain the MT reading in spite of at least three problems. This section makes significant use of feminine verbs and noun suffixes because of the sexual imagery. The verb in question is likely a 2nd person masculine singular verb. Nevertheless, this kind of fluctuation in gender appears elsewhere (GKC 127-28 §47.k and 462 §144.p; cf. Jer 3:5; Ezek 22:4; 23:32; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:473, n. 13). Secondly, when this verbal root signifies establishing a covenant, it is normally accompanied by the noun for “covenant” (בְּרִית, bÿrit). Finally, this juxtaposition of the verb “to cut” and “covenant” normally is followed by the preposition “with,” while here it is “from.” The translation above assumes an emendation of וַתִּכְרָת (vatikhrah, “and you cut”) to וְכָרִית (vÿkharit, “and you purchase”) from the root כָּרָה (kharah); see HALOT 497 s.v. II כרה.

[57:8]  ³⁹ tn The Hebrew text has simply חָזָה (khazah, “gaze”). The adverb “longingly” is interpretive (see the context, where sexual lust is depicted).

[57:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “[at] a hand you gaze.” The term יָד (yad, “hand”) probably has the sense of “power, manhood” here, where it is used, as in Ugaritic, as a euphemism for the genitals. See HALOT 387 s.v. I יָד.