Yesaya 23:12

23:12 He said,

“You will no longer celebrate,

oppressed ¹  virgin daughter Sidon!

Get up, travel to Cyprus,

but you will find no relief there.” ² 

Yesaya 5:14

5:14 So Death ³  will open up its throat,

and open wide its mouth; ⁴ 

Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it,

including those who revel and celebrate within her. ⁵ 

Yesaya 21:5

21:5 Arrange the table,

lay out ⁶  the carpet,

eat and drink! ⁷ 

Get up, you officers,

smear oil on the shields! ⁸ 

Yesaya 32:13

32:13 Mourn ⁹  over the land of my people,

which is overgrown with thorns and briers,

and over all the once-happy houses ¹⁰ 

in the city filled with revelry. ¹¹ 

Yehezkiel 26:13

26:13 I will silence ¹²  the noise of your songs; the sound of your harps will be heard no more.

[23:12]  ¹ tn Or “violated, raped,” the point being that Daughter Sidon has lost her virginity in the most brutal manner possible.

[23:12]  ² tn Heb “[to the] Kittim, get up, cross over; even there there will be no rest for you.” On “Kittim” see the note on “Cyprus” at v. 1.

[5:14]  ³ tn Heb “Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); the underworld, the land of the dead, according to the OT world view. Cf. NAB “the nether world”; TEV, CEV “the world of the dead”; NLT “the grave.”

[5:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “so Sheol will make wide its throat, and open its mouth without limit.”

[5:14]  sn Death is portrayed in both the OT (Prov 1:12; Hab 2:5) and Canaanite myth as voraciously swallowing up its prey. In the myths Death is portrayed as having “a lip to the earth, a lip to the heavens … and a tongue to the stars.” (G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 69, text 5 ii 2-3.) Death describes his own appetite as follows: “But my appetite is the appetite of lions in the waste…If it is in very truth my desire to consume ‘clay’ [a reference to his human victims], then in truth by the handfuls I must eat it, whether my seven portions [indicating fullness and completeness] are already in the bowl or whether Nahar [the god of the river responsible for ferrying victims from the land of the living to the land of the dead] has to mix the cup.” (Driver, 68-69, text 5 i 14-22).

[5:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “and her splendor and her masses will go down, and her tumult and the one who exults in her.” The antecedent of the four feminine singular pronominal suffixes used in v. 14b is unclear. The likely referent is personified Zion/Jerusalem (see 3:25-26; 4:4-5).

[21:5]  ⁶ tn The precise meaning of the verb in this line is debated. Some prefer to derive the form from the homonymic צָפֹה (tsafoh, “keep watch”) and translate “post a guard” (cf. KJV “watch in the watchtower”; ASV “set the watch”).

[21:5]  ⁷ tn The verbal forms in the first three lines are infinitives absolute, which are functioning here as finite verbs. It is uncertain if the forms should have an imperatival or indicative/descriptive force here.

[21:5]  ⁸ sn Smearing the shields with oil would make them more flexible and effective in battle. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:394.

[32:13]  ⁹ tn “Mourn” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 12-13 are one long sentence.

[32:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “indeed, over all the houses of joy.” It is not certain if this refers to individual homes or to places where parties and celebrations were held.

[32:13]  ¹¹ sn This same phrase is used in 22:2.

[26:13]  ¹² tn Heb “cause to end.”