Yesaya 1:12

1:12 When you enter my presence,

do you actually think I want this –

animals trampling on my courtyards? ¹ 

Yesaya 2:2

2:2 In the future ² 

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure ³ 

as the most important of mountains,

and will be the most prominent of hills. ⁴ 

All the nations will stream to it,

Yesaya 5:14

5:14 So Death ⁵  will open up its throat,

and open wide its mouth; ⁶ 

Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it,

including those who revel and celebrate within her. ⁷ 

Yesaya 6:8

6:8 I heard the voice of the sovereign master say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” ⁸  I answered, “Here I am, send me!”

Yesaya 7:21

7:21 At that time ⁹  a man will keep alive a young cow from the herd and a couple of goats.

Yesaya 8:14

8:14 He will become a sanctuary, ¹⁰ 

but a stone that makes a person trip,

and a rock that makes one stumble –

to the two houses of Israel. ¹¹ 

He will become ¹²  a trap and a snare

to the residents of Jerusalem. ¹³ 

Yesaya 10:4

10:4 You will have no place to go, except to kneel with the prisoners,

or to fall among those who have been killed. ¹⁴ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 14:8

14:8 The evergreens also rejoice over your demise, ¹⁶ 

as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing, ¹⁷ 

‘Since you fell asleep, ¹⁸ 

no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’ ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 14:30

14:30 The poor will graze in my pastures; ²⁰ 

the needy will rest securely.

But I will kill your root by famine;

it will put to death all your survivors. ²¹ 

Yesaya 16:7

16:7 So Moab wails over its demise ²²  –

they all wail!

Completely devastated, they moan

about what has happened to the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. ²³ 

Yesaya 18:6

18:6 They will all be left ²⁴  for the birds of the hills

and the wild animals; ²⁵ 

the birds will eat them during the summer,

and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.

Yesaya 25:2

25:2 Indeed, ²⁶  you have made the city ²⁷  into a heap of rubble,

the fortified town into a heap of ruins;

the fortress of foreigners ²⁸  is no longer a city,

it will never be rebuilt.

Yesaya 25:5

25:5 like heat ²⁹  in a dry land,

you humble the boasting foreigners. ³⁰ 

Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, ³¹ 

so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. ³² 

Yesaya 27:3

27:3 I, the Lord, protect it; ³³ 

I water it regularly. ³⁴ 

I guard it night and day,

so no one can harm it. ³⁵ 

Yesaya 32:15

32:15 This desolation will continue until new life is poured out on us from heaven. ³⁶ 

Then the desert will become an orchard

and the orchard will be considered a forest. ³⁷ 

Yesaya 40:12

The Lord is Incomparable

40:12 Who has measured out the waters ³⁸  in the hollow of his hand,

or carefully ³⁹  measured the sky, ⁴⁰ 

or carefully weighed ⁴¹  the soil of the earth,

or weighed the mountains in a balance,

or the hills on scales? ⁴² 

Yesaya 43:14

The Lord Will Do Something New

43:14 This is what the Lord says,

your protector, ⁴³  the Holy One of Israel: ⁴⁴ 

“For your sake I send to Babylon

and make them all fugitives, ⁴⁵ 

turning the Babylonians’ joyful shouts into mourning songs. ⁴⁶ 

Yesaya 46:6

46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse

and weigh out silver on the scale ⁴⁷ 

hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.

They then bow down and worship it.

Yesaya 47:1

Babylon Will Fall

47:1 “Fall down! Sit in the dirt,

O virgin ⁴⁸  daughter Babylon!

Sit on the ground, not on a throne,

O daughter of the Babylonians!

Indeed, ⁴⁹  you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.

Yesaya 51:8

51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;

a clothes moth will devour them like wool.

But the vindication I provide ⁵⁰  will be permanent;

the deliverance I give will last.”

Yesaya 53:11

53:11 Having suffered, he will reflect on his work,

he will be satisfied when he understands what he has done. ⁵¹ 

“My servant ⁵²  will acquit many, ⁵³ 

for he carried their sins. ⁵⁴ 

Yesaya 55:10

55:10 ⁵⁵ The rain and snow fall from the sky

and do not return,

but instead water the earth

and make it produce and yield crops,

and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

Yesaya 56:1

The Lord Invites Outsiders to Enter

56:1 This is what the Lord says,

“Promote ⁵⁶  justice! Do what is right!

For I am ready to deliver you;

I am ready to vindicate you openly. ⁵⁷ 

Yesaya 61:11

61:11 For just as the ground produces its crops

and a garden yields its produce,

so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ⁵⁸  to grow,

and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ⁵⁹ 

[1:12]  ¹ tn Heb “When you come to appear before me, who requires this from your hand, trampling of my courtyards?” The rhetorical question sarcastically makes the point that God does not require this parade of livestock. The verb “trample” probably refers to the eager worshipers and their sacrificial animals walking around in the temple area.

[2:2]  ² tn Heb “in the end of the days.” This phrase may refer generally to the future, or more technically to the final period of history. See BDB 31 s.v. ַאחֲרִית. The verse begins with a verb that functions as a “discourse particle” and is not translated. In numerous places throughout the OT, the “to be” verb with a prefixed conjunction (וְהָיָה [vÿhayah] and וַיְהִי [vayÿhi]) occurs in this fashion to introduce a circumstantial clause and does not require translation.

[2:2]  ³ tn Or “be established” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “as the chief of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills.” The image of Mount Zion being elevated above other mountains and hills pictures the prominence it will attain in the future.

[5:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); the underworld, the land of the dead, according to the OT world view. Cf. NAB “the nether world”; TEV, CEV “the world of the dead”; NLT “the grave.”

[5:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “so Sheol will make wide its throat, and open its mouth without limit.”

[5:14]  sn Death is portrayed in both the OT (Prov 1:12; Hab 2:5) and Canaanite myth as voraciously swallowing up its prey. In the myths Death is portrayed as having “a lip to the earth, a lip to the heavens … and a tongue to the stars.” (G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 69, text 5 ii 2-3.) Death describes his own appetite as follows: “But my appetite is the appetite of lions in the waste…If it is in very truth my desire to consume ‘clay’ [a reference to his human victims], then in truth by the handfuls I must eat it, whether my seven portions [indicating fullness and completeness] are already in the bowl or whether Nahar [the god of the river responsible for ferrying victims from the land of the living to the land of the dead] has to mix the cup.” (Driver, 68-69, text 5 i 14-22).

[5:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “and her splendor and her masses will go down, and her tumult and the one who exults in her.” The antecedent of the four feminine singular pronominal suffixes used in v. 14b is unclear. The likely referent is personified Zion/Jerusalem (see 3:25-26; 4:4-5).

[6:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “for us.” The plural pronoun refers to the Lord, the seraphs, and the rest of the heavenly assembly.

[7:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[8:14]  ¹⁰ tn Because the metaphor of protection (“sanctuary”) does not fit the negative mood that follows in vv. 14b-15, some contend that מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash, “sanctuary”) is probably a corruption of an original מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh, “snare”), a word that appears in the next line (cf. NAB and H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:355-56). If the MT reading is retained (as in the above translation), the fact that Yahweh is a sanctuary wraps up the point of v. 13 and stands in contrast to God’s treatment of those who rebel against him (the rest of v. 14).

[8:14]  ¹¹ sn The two “houses” of Israel (= the patriarch Jacob) are the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.

[8:14]  ¹² tn These words are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. וְהָיָה (vÿhayah, “and he will be”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.

[8:14]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[10:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “except one kneels in the place of the prisoner, and in the place of the slain [who] fall.” On the force of בִּלְתִּי (bilti, “except”) and its logical connection to what precedes, see BDB 116 s.v. בֵלֶת. On the force of תַּחַת (takhat, “in the place of”) here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:258, n. 6.

[10:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in all this his anger was not turned, and still his hand was outstretched”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “his had is stretched out still.”

[10:4]  sn See the note at 9:12.

[14:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “concerning you.”

[14:8]  ¹⁷ tn The word “singing” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. Note that the personified trees speak in the second half of the verse.

[14:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “lay down” (in death); cf. NAB “laid to rest.”

[14:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the [wood]cutter does not come up against us.”

[14:30]  ²⁰ tc The Hebrew text has, “the firstborn of the poor will graze.” “Firstborn” may be used here in an idiomatic sense to indicate the very poorest of the poor. See BDB 114 s.v. בְּכוֹר. The translation above assumes an emendation of בְּכוֹרֵי (bÿkhorey, “firstborn of”) to בְּכָרַי (bekharay, “in my pastures”).

[14:30]  ²¹ tn Heb “your remnant” (so NAB, NRSV).

[16:7]  ²² tn Heb “So Moab wails for Moab.”

[16:7]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text has, “for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth you [masculine plural] moan, surely destroyed.” The “raisin cakes” could have cultic significance (see Hos 3:1), but the next verse focuses on agricultural disaster, so here the raisin cakes are mentioned as an example of the fine foods that are no longer available (see 2 Sam 6:19; Song 2:5) because the vines have been destroyed by the invader (see v. 8). Some prefer to take אֲשִׁישֵׁי (’ashishe, “raisin cakes of”) as “men of” (see HALOT 95 s.v. *אָשִׁישׁ; cf. NIV). The verb form תֶהְגּוּ (tehgu, “you moan”) is probably the result of dittography (note that the preceding word ends in tav [ת]) and should be emended to הגו (a perfect, third plural form), “they moan.”

[18:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).

[18:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).

[25:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[25:2]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text has “you have made from the city.” The prefixed mem (מ) on עִיר (’ir, “city”) was probably originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:456, n. 3.

[25:2]  ²⁸ tc Some with support from the LXX emend זָרִים (zarim, “foreigners”) to זֵדִים (zedim, “the insolent”).

[25:5]  ²⁹ tn Or “drought” (TEV).

[25:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the tumult of foreigners.”

[25:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “[like] heat in the shadow of a cloud.”

[25:5]  ³² tn The translation assumes that the verb יַעֲנֶה (ya’aneh) is a Hiphil imperfect from עָנָה (’anah, “be afflicted, humiliated”). In this context with “song” as object it means to “quiet” (see HALOT 853-54 s.v. II ענה). Some prefer to emend the form to the second person singular, so that it will agree with the second person verb earlier in the verse. BDB 776 s.v. III עָנָה Qal.1 understands the form as Qal, with “song” as subject, in which case one might translate “the song of tyrants will be silent.” An emendation of the form to a Niphal (יֵעָנֶה, ye’aneh) would yield the same translation.

[27:3]  ³³ tn Heb “her.” Apparently “vineyard” is the antecedent, though normally this noun is understood as masculine (see Lev 25:3, however).

[27:3]  ³⁴ tn Or perhaps, “constantly.” Heb “by moments.”

[27:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “lest [someone] visit [harm] upon it, night and day I guard it.”

[32:15]  ³⁶ tn Heb “until a spirit is emptied out on us from on high.” The words “this desolation will continue” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic purposes. The verb עָרָה (’arah), used here in the Niphal, normally means “lay bare, expose.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is often understood here as a reference to the divine spirit (cf. 44:3 and NASB, NIV, CEV, NLT), but it appears here without an article (cf. NRSV “a spirit”), pronominal suffix, or a genitive (such as “of the Lord”). The translation assumes that it carries an impersonal nuance “vivacity, vigor” in this context.

[32:15]  ³⁷ sn The same statement appears in 29:17b, where, in conjunction with the preceding line, it appears to picture a reversal. Here it seems to depict supernatural growth. The desert will blossom into an orchard, and the trees of the orchard will multiply and grow tall, becoming a forest.

[40:12]  ³⁸ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.

[40:12]  ³⁹ tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).

[40:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[40:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”

[40:12]  ⁴² sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is “no one but the Lord. The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.

[43:14]  ⁴³ tn Or “kinsman redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[43:14]  ⁴⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[43:14]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and I bring down [as] fugitives all of them.”

[43:14]  ⁴⁶ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “as for the Babylonians, in ships their joyful shout.” This might be paraphrased, “even the Babylonians in the ships [over which] they joyfully shouted.” The point would be that the Lord caused the Babylonians to flee for safety in the ships in which they took such great pride. A slight change in vocalization yields the reading “into mourning songs,” which provides a good contrast with “joyful shout.” The prefixed bet (בְּ) would indicate identity.

[46:6]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.

[47:1]  ⁴⁸ tn בְּתוּלַה (bÿtulah) often refers to a virgin, but the phrase “virgin daughter” is apparently stylized (see also 23:12; 37:22). In the extended metaphor of this chapter, where Babylon is personified as a queen (vv. 5, 7), she is depicted as being both a wife and mother (vv. 8-9).

[47:1]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).

[51:8]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”

[53:11]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “he will be satisfied by his knowledge,” i.e., “when he knows.” The preposition is understood as temporal and the suffix as a subjective genitive. Some take בְּדַעְתּוֹ (bÿda’to, “by his knowledge”) with what follows and translate “by knowledge of him,” understanding the preposition as instrumental and the suffix as objective.

[53:11]  ⁵² sn The song ends as it began (cf. 52:13-15), with the Lord announcing the servant’s vindication and exaltation.

[53:11]  ⁵³ tn Heb “he will acquit, a righteous one, my servant, many.” צַדִּיק (tsadiq) may refer to the servant, but more likely it is dittographic (note the preceding verb יַצְדִּיק, yatsdiq). The precise meaning of the verb (the Hiphil of צָדַק, tsadaq) is debated. Elsewhere the Hiphil is used at least six times in the sense of “make righteous” in a legal sense, i.e., “pronounce innocent, acquit” (see Exod 23:7; Deut 25:1; 1 Kgs 8:32 = 2 Chr 6:23; Prov 17:15; Isa 5:23). It can also mean “render justice” (as a royal function, see 2 Sam 15:4; Ps 82:3), “concede” (Job 27:5), “vindicate” (Isa 50:8), and “lead to righteousness” (by teaching and example, Dan 12:3). The preceding context and the next line suggest a legal sense here. Because of his willingness to carry the people’s sins, the servant is able to “acquit” them.

[53:11]  sn Some (e.g., H. M. Orlinsky, “The So-called ‘Suffering Servant’ in Isaiah 53,22,” VTSup 14 [1967]: 3-133) object to this legal interpretation of the language, arguing that it would be unjust for the righteous to suffer for the wicked and for the wicked to be declared innocent. However, such a surprising development is consistent with the ironic nature of this song. It does seem unfair for the innocent to die for the guilty. But what is God to do when all have sinned and wandered off like stray sheep (cf. v. 6)? Covenant law demands punishment, but punishment in this case would mean annihilation of what God has created. God’s justice, as demanded by the law, must be satisfied. To satisfy his justice, he does something seemingly unjust. He punishes his sinless servant, the only one who has not strayed off! In the progress of biblical revelation, we discover that the sinless servant is really God in the flesh, who offers himself because he is committed to the world he has created. If his justice can only be satisfied if he himself endures the punishment, then so be it. What appears to be an act of injustice is really love satisfying the demands of justice!

[53:11]  ⁵⁴ tn The circumstantial clause (note the vav [ו] + object + subject + verb pattern) is understood as causal here. The prefixed verb form is either a preterite or an imperfect used in a customary manner.

[55:10]  ⁵⁵ tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.

[56:1]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “guard”; KJV “Keep”; NAB “Observe”; NASB “Preserve”; NIV, NRSV “Maintain.”

[56:1]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “for near is my deliverance to enter, and my vindication [or “righteousness”] to be revealed.”

[61:11]  ⁵⁸ tn Or perhaps, “righteousness,” but the context seems to emphasize deliverance and restoration (see v. 10 and 62:1).

[61:11]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “and praise before all the nations.”