Yesaya 5:8

Disaster is Coming

5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ¹ 

those who also accumulate landed property ² 

until there is no land left, ³ 

and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁴ 

Yesaya 14:9

14:9 Sheol ⁵  below is stirred up about you,

ready to meet you when you arrive.

It rouses ⁶  the spirits of the dead for you,

all the former leaders of the earth; ⁷ 

it makes all the former kings of the nations

rise from their thrones. ⁸ 

Yesaya 26:14

26:14 The dead do not come back to life,

the spirits of the dead do not rise. ⁹ 

That is because ¹⁰  you came in judgment ¹¹  and destroyed them,

you wiped out all memory of them.

Yesaya 33:19

33:19 You will no longer see a defiant ¹²  people

whose language you do not comprehend, ¹³ 

whose derisive speech you do not understand. ¹⁴ 

[5:8]  ¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

[5:8]  ² tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

[5:8]  sn This verse does not condemn real estate endeavors per se, but refers to the way in which the rich bureaucrats of Judah accumulated property by exploiting the poor, in violation of the covenantal principle that the land belonged to God and that every family was to have its own portion of land. See the note at 1:23.

[5:8]  ³ tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

[5:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”

[14:9]  ⁵ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead.

[14:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “arousing.” The form is probably a Polel infinitive absolute, rather than a third masculine singular perfect, for Sheol is grammatically feminine (note “stirred up”). See GKC 466 §145.t.

[14:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “all the rams of the earth.” The animal epithet is used metaphorically here for leaders. See HALOT 903 s.v. *עַתּוּד.

[14:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “lifting from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” הֵקִים (heqim, a Hiphil perfect third masculine singular) should be emended to an infinitive absolute (הָקֵים, haqem). See the note on “rouses” earlier in the verse.

[26:14]  ⁹ sn In light of what is said in verse 14b, the “dead” here may be the “masters” mentioned in verse 13.

[26:14]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen) normally indicates a cause-effect relationship between what precedes and follows and is translated, “therefore.” Here, however, it infers the cause from the effect and brings out what is implicit in the previous statement. See BDB 487 s.v.

[26:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “visited [for harm]” (cf. KJV, ASV); NAB, NRSV “you have punished.”

[33:19]  ¹² tn The Hebrew form נוֹעָז (no’az) is a Niphal participle derived from יָעַז (ya’az, an otherwise unattested verb) or from עָזָז (’azaz, “be strong,” unattested elsewhere in the Niphal). Some prefer to emend the form to לוֹעֵז (lo’ez) which occurs in Ps 114:1 with the meaning “speak a foreign language.” See HALOT 809 s.v. עזז, 533 s.v. לעז. In this case, one might translate “people who speak a foreign language.”

[33:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “a people too deep of lip to hear.” The phrase “deep of lip” must be an idiom meaning “lips that speak words that are unfathomable [i.e., incomprehensible].”

[33:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “derision of tongue there is no understanding.” The Niphal of לָעַג (la’ag) occurs only here. In the Qal and Hiphil the verb means “to deride, mock.” A related noun is used in 28:11.