Yesaya 15:5

15:5 My heart cries out because of Moab’s plight, ¹ 

and for the fugitives ²  stretched out ³  as far as Zoar and Eglath Shelishiyah.

For they weep as they make their way up the ascent of Luhith;

they loudly lament their demise on the road to Horonaim. ⁴ 

Yesaya 24:6

24:6 So a treaty curse ⁵  devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt. ⁶ 

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, ⁷ 

and are reduced to just a handful of people. ⁸ 

Yesaya 42:10

42:10 Sing to the Lord a brand new song!

Praise him ⁹  from the horizon of the earth,

you who go down to the sea, and everything that lives in it, ¹⁰ 

you coastlands ¹¹  and those who live there!

[15:5]  ¹ tn Heb “for Moab.” For rhetorical purposes the speaker (the Lord?, see v. 9) plays the role of a mourner.

[15:5]  ² tn The vocalization of the Hebrew text suggests “the bars of her gates,” but the form should be repointed to yield, “her fugitives.” See HALOT 156-57 s.v. בָּרִחַ, and BDB 138 s.v. בָּרִיהַ.

[15:5]  ³ tn The words “are stretched out” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “For the ascent of Luhith, with weeping they go up it; for [on] the road to Horonaim an outcry over shattering they raise up.”

[24:6]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”

[42:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “his praise.” The phrase stands parallel to “new song” in the previous line.

[42:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and its fullness”; NASB, NIV “and all that is in it.”

[42:10]  ¹¹ tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV); NLT “distant coastlands.”