Yesaya 2:6

The Lord’s Day of Judgment

2:6 Indeed, O Lord, ¹  you have abandoned your people,

the descendants of Jacob.

For diviners from the east are everywhere; ² 

they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. ³ 

Plenty of foreigners are around. ⁴ 

Yesaya 10:24

10:24 So ⁵  here is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, even though they beat you with a club and lift their cudgel against you as Egypt did. ⁶ 

Yesaya 37:27

37:27 Their residents are powerless; ⁷ 

they are terrified and ashamed.

They are as short-lived as plants in the field

or green vegetation. ⁸ 

They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ⁹ 

when it is scorched by the east wind. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 37:33

37:33 So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:

‘He will not enter this city,

nor will he shoot an arrow here. ¹¹ 

He will not attack it with his shielded warriors, ¹² 

nor will he build siege works against it.

Yesaya 42:25

42:25 So he poured out his fierce anger on them,

along with the devastation ¹³  of war.

Its flames encircled them, but they did not realize it; ¹⁴ 

it burned against them, but they did notice. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 47:11

47:11 Disaster will overtake you;

you will not know how to charm it away. ¹⁶ 

Destruction will fall on you;

you will not be able to appease it.

Calamity will strike you suddenly,

before you recognize it. ¹⁷ 

Yesaya 63:5

63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ¹⁸ 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 65:7

65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” ²⁰  says the Lord.

“Because they burned incense on the mountains

and offended ²¹  me on the hills,

I will punish them in full measure.” ²² 

[2:6]  ¹ tn The words “O Lord” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Isaiah addresses the Lord in prayer.

[2:6]  ² tc Heb “they are full from the east.” Various scholars retain the BHS reading and suggest that the prophet makes a general statement concerning Israel’s reliance on foreign customs (J. Watts, Isaiah [WBC], 1:32; J. de Waard, Isaiah, 12-13). Nevertheless, it appears that a word is missing. Based on the parallelism (note “omen readers” in 5:6c), many suggest that קֹסְמִים (qosÿmim, “diviners”) or מִקְסָם (miqsam, “divination”) has been accidentally omitted. Homoioteleuton could account for the omission of an original קֹסְמִים (note how this word and the following מִקֶּדֶם [miqqedem, “from the east”] both end in mem); an original מִקְסָם could have fallen out by homoioarcton (note how this word and the following מִקֶּדֶם both begin with mem).

[2:6]  ³ tn Heb “and omen readers like the Philistines.” Through this line and the preceding, the prophet contends that Israel has heavily borrowed the pagan practices of the east and west (in violation of Lev 19:26; Deut 18:9-14).

[2:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “and with the children of foreigners they [?].” The precise meaning of the final word is uncertain. Some take this verb (I שָׂפַק, safaq) to mean “slap,” supply the object “hands,” and translate, “they slap [hands] with foreigners”; HALOT 1349 s.v. I שׂפק. This could be a reference to foreign alliances. This translation has two disadvantages: It requires the conjectural insertion of “hands” and the use of this verb with its object prefixed with a בְּ (bet) preposition with this meaning does not occur elsewhere. The other uses of this verb refer to clapping at someone, an indication of hostility. The translation above assumes the verb is derived from II שׂפק (“to suffice,” attested in the Qal in 1 Kgs 20:10; HALOT 1349 s.v. II שׂפק). In this case the point is that a sufficient number of foreigners (in this case, too many!) live in the land. The disadvantage of this option is that the preposition prefixed to “the children of foreigners” does not occur with this verb elsewhere. The chosen translation is preferred since it continues the idea of abundant foreign influence and does not require a conjectural insertion or emendation.

[10:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “therefore.” The message that follows is one of encouragement, for it focuses on the eventual destruction of the Assyrians. Consequently “therefore” relates back to vv. 5-21, not to vv. 22-23, which must be viewed as a brief parenthesis in an otherwise positive speech.

[10:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the way [or “manner”] of Egypt.”

[37:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “short of hand”; KJV, ASV “of small power”; NASB “short of strength.”

[37:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.

[37:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.

[37:27]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah, “standing grain”) to קָדִים (qadim, “east wind”) with the support of 1Q Isa^a; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:657, n. 8.

[37:33]  ¹¹ tn Heb “there” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). In terms of English style “here” is expected in collocation with “this” in the previous line.

[37:33]  ¹² tn Heb “[with] a shield” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[42:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “strength” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “fury”; NASB “fierceness”; NIV “violence.”

[42:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and it blazed against him all around, but he did not know.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb “blazed” is the divine חֵמָה (khemah, “anger”) mentioned in the previous line.

[42:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and it burned against him, but he did not set [it] upon [the] heart.”

[47:11]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text has שַׁחְרָהּ (shakhrah), which is either a suffixed noun (“its dawning,” i.e., origin) or infinitive (“to look early for it”). Some have suggested an emendation to שַׁחֲדָהּ (shakhadah), a suffixed infinitive from שָׁחַד (shakhad, “[how] to buy it off”; see BDB 1005 s.v. שָׁחַד). This forms a nice parallel with the following couplet. The above translation is based on a different etymology of the verb in question. HALOT 1466 s.v. III שׁחר references a verbal root with these letters (שׁחד) that refers to magical activity.

[47:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “you will not know”; NIV “you cannot foresee.”

[63:5]  ¹⁸ sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”

[65:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the iniquities of your fathers.”

[65:7]  ²¹ tn Or perhaps, “taunted”; KJV “blasphemed”; NAB “disgraced”; NASB “scorned”; NIV “defied”; NRSV “reviled.”

[65:7]  ²² tn Heb “I will measure out their pay [from the] beginning into their lap,” i.e., he will give them everything they have earned.