Yesaya 10:7

10:7 But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way, ¹ 

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations. ² 

Yesaya 24:6

24:6 So a treaty curse ³  devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt. ⁴ 

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, ⁵ 

and are reduced to just a handful of people. ⁶ 

Yesaya 30:16

30:16 You say, ‘No, we will flee on horses,’

so you will indeed flee.

You say, ‘We will ride on fast horses,’

so your pursuers will be fast.

Yesaya 30:18

The Lord Will Not Abandon His People

30:18 For this reason the Lord is ready to show you mercy;

he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you. ⁷ 

Indeed, the Lord is a just God;

all who wait for him in faith will be blessed. ⁸ 

Yesaya 50:7

50:7 But the sovereign Lord helps me,

so I am not humiliated.

For that reason I am steadfastly resolved; ⁹ 

I know I will not be put to shame.

[10:7]  ¹ tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”

[10:7]  ² tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”

[24:6]  ³ sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.

[24:6]  ⁴ tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).

[24:6]  ⁵ tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).

[24:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”

[30:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “Therefore the Lord waits to show you mercy, and therefore he is exalted to have compassion on you.” The logical connection between this verse and what precedes is problematic. The point seems to be that Judah’s impending doom does not bring God joy. Rather the prospect of their suffering stirs within him a willingness to show mercy and compassion, if they are willing to seek him on his terms.

[30:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “Blessed are all who wait for him.”

[50:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “Therefore I set my face like flint.”