Yesaya 11:4

11:4 He will treat the poor fairly, ¹ 

and make right decisions ²  for the downtrodden of the earth. ³ 

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, ⁴ 

and order the wicked to be executed. ⁵ 

Yesaya 34:6

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ⁶  with fat;

it drips ⁷  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ⁸  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁹  in Bozrah, ¹⁰ 

a bloody ¹¹  slaughter in the land of Edom.

Yesaya 40:26

40:26 Look up at the sky! ¹² 

Who created all these heavenly lights? ¹³ 

He is the one who leads out their ranks; ¹⁴ 

he calls them all by name.

Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,

not one of them is missing.

Yesaya 45:9

The Lord Gives a Warning

45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ¹⁵ 

one who is like a mere ¹⁶  shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter, ¹⁷ 

“What in the world ¹⁸  are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!” ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 50:1

50:1 This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s divorce certificate

by which I divorced her?

Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? ²⁰ 

Look, you were sold because of your sins; ²¹ 

because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother. ²² 

Yesaya 56:3

56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of ²³  the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly ²⁴  exclude me from his people.’

The eunuch should not say,

‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

Yesaya 58:2

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ²⁵ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

Yesaya 63:3

63:3 “I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself;

no one from the nations joined me.

I stomped on them ²⁶  in my anger;

I trampled them down in my rage.

Their juice splashed on my garments,

and stained ²⁷  all my clothes.

[11:4]  ¹ tn Heb “with justice” (so NAB) or “with righteousness” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[11:4]  ² tn Heb “make decisions with rectitude”; cf. ASV, NRSV “and decide with equity.”

[11:4]  ³ tn Or “land” (NAB, NCV, CEV). It is uncertain if the passage is picturing universal dominion or focusing on the king’s rule over his covenant people. The reference to God’s “holy mountain” in v. 9 and the description of renewed Israelite conquests in v. 14 suggest the latter, though v. 10 seems to refer to a universal kingdom (see 2:2-4).

[11:4]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and he will strike the earth with the scepter of his mouth.” Some have suggested that in this context אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) as an object of judgment seems too broad in scope. The parallelism is tighter if one emends the word to ץ(י)עָרִ (’arits, “potentate, tyrant”). The phrase “scepter of his mouth” refers to the royal (note “scepter”) decrees that he proclaims with his mouth. Because these decrees will have authority and power (see v. 2) behind them, they can be described as “striking” the tyrants down. Nevertheless, the MT reading may not need emending. Isaiah refers to the entire “earth” as the object of God’s judgment in several places without specifying the wicked as the object of the judgment (Isa 24:17-21; 26:9, 21; 28:22; cf. 13:11).

[11:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.” The “breath of his lips” refers to his speech, specifically in this context his official decrees that the wicked oppressors be eliminated from his realm. See the preceding note.

[34:6]  ⁶ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ⁷ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁸ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹⁰ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[40:26]  ¹² tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”

[40:26]  ¹³ tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.

[40:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)

[45:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”

[45:9]  ¹⁶ tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[45:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”

[45:9]  ¹⁸ tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.

[45:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your work, there are no hands for it,” i.e., “your work looks like something made by a person who has no hands.”

[50:1]  ²⁰ sn The Lord challenges the exiles (Zion’s children) to bring incriminating evidence against him. The rhetorical questions imply that Israel accused the Lord of divorcing his wife (Zion) and selling his children (the Israelites) into slavery to pay off a debt.

[50:1]  ²¹ sn The Lord admits that he did sell the Israelites, but it was because of their sins, not because of some debt he owed. If he had sold them to a creditor, they ought to be able to point him out, but the preceding rhetorical question implies they would not be able to do so.

[50:1]  ²² sn The Lord admits he did divorce Zion, but that too was the result of the nation’s sins. The force of the earlier rhetorical question comes into clearer focus now. The question does not imply that a certificate does not exist and that no divorce occurred. Rather, the question asks for the certificate to be produced so the accuser can see the reason for the divorce in black and white. The Lord did not put Zion away arbitrarily.

[56:3]  ²³ tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”

[56:3]  ²⁴ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[58:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[63:3]  ²⁶ sn Nations, headed by Edom, are the object of the Lord’s anger (see v. 6). He compares military slaughter to stomping on grapes in a vat.

[63:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and I stained.” For discussion of the difficult verb form, see HALOT 170 s.v. II גאל. Perhaps the form is mixed, combining the first person forms of the imperfect (note the alef prefix) and perfect (note the תי- ending).