Yesaya 16:1

16:1 Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, ¹ 

from Sela in the desert ² 

to the hill of Daughter Zion.

Yesaya 29:1

Ariel is Besieged

29:1 Ariel is as good as dead ³  –

Ariel, the town David besieged! ⁴ 

Keep observing your annual rituals,

celebrate your festivals on schedule. ⁵ 

Yesaya 38:21

38:21 ⁶  Isaiah ordered, “Let them take a fig cake and apply it to the ulcerated sore and he will get well.”

Yesaya 58:1

The Lord Desires Genuine Devotion

58:1 “Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet!

Yell as loud as a trumpet!

Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; ⁷ 

confront Jacob’s family with their sin! ⁸ 

[16:1]  ¹ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “Send [a plural imperatival form is used] a ram [to] the ruler of the land.” The term כַּר (kar, “ram”) should be emended to the plural כָּרִים (karim). The singular form in the text is probably the result of haplography; note that the next word begins with a mem (מ).

[16:1]  ² tn The Hebrew text has “toward [across?] the desert.”

[29:1]  ³ tn Heb “Woe [to] Ariel.” The meaning of the name “Ariel” is uncertain. The name may mean “altar hearth” (see v. 2) or, if compound, “lion of God.” The name is used here as a title for Mount Zion/Jerusalem (see v. 8).

[29:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “the town where David camped.” The verb חָנָה (khanah, “camp”) probably has the nuance “lay siege to” here. See v. 3. Another option is to take the verb in the sense of “lived, settled.”

[29:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “Add year to year, let your festivals occur in cycles.” This is probably a sarcastic exhortation to the people to keep up their religious rituals, which will not prevent the coming judgment. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:527.

[38:21]  ⁶ tc If original to Isaiah 38, vv. 21-22 have obviously been misplaced in the course of the text’s transmission, and would most naturally be placed here, between Isa 38:6 and 38:7. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8, where these verses are placed at this point in the narrative, not at the end. Another possibility is that these verses were not in the original account, and a scribe, familiar with the 2 Kgs version of the story, appended vv. 21-22 to the end of the account in Isaiah 38.

[58:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “declare to my people their rebellion.”

[58:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and to the house of Jacob their sin.” The verb “declare” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).