Yesaya 3:14

3:14 The Lord comes to pronounce judgment

on the leaders of his people and their officials.

He says, ¹  “It is you ²  who have ruined ³  the vineyard! ⁴ 

You have stashed in your houses what you have stolen from the poor. ⁵ 

Yesaya 10:3

10:3 What will you do on judgment day, ⁶ 

when destruction arrives from a distant place?

To whom will you run for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

Yesaya 11:4

11:4 He will treat the poor fairly, ⁷ 

and make right decisions ⁸  for the downtrodden of the earth. ⁹ 

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, ¹⁰ 

and order the wicked to be executed. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 28:15

28:15 For you say,

“We have made a treaty with death,

with Sheol ¹²  we have made an agreement. ¹³ 

When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ¹⁴ 

it will not reach us.

For we have made a lie our refuge,

we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 30:10

30:10 They ¹⁶  say to the visionaries, “See no more visions!”

and to the seers, “Don’t relate messages to us about what is right! ¹⁷ 

Tell us nice things,

relate deceptive messages. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 33:15

33:15 The one who lives ¹⁹  uprightly ²⁰ 

and speaks honestly;

the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures

and rejects a bribe; ²¹ 

the one who does not plot violent crimes ²² 

and does not seek to harm others ²³  –

[3:14]  ¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:14]  ² tn The pronominal element is masculine plural; the leaders are addressed.

[3:14]  ³ tn The verb בָּעַר (ba’ar, “graze, ruin”; HALOT 146 s.v. II בער) is a homonym of the more common בָּעַר (ba’ar, “burn”; see HALOT 145 s.v. I בער).

[3:14]  ⁴ sn The vineyard is a metaphor for the nation here. See 5:1-7.

[3:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “the plunder of the poor [is] in your houses” (so NASB).

[10:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.

[11:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “with justice” (so NAB) or “with righteousness” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[11:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “make decisions with rectitude”; cf. ASV, NRSV “and decide with equity.”

[11:4]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.

[28:15]  ¹² sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.

[28:15]  ¹³ tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.

[28:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).

[28:15]  ¹⁵ sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.

[30:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “who” (so NASB, NRSV). A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Do not see for us right things.”

[30:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Tell us smooth things, see deceptive things.”

[33:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).

[33:15]  ²⁰ tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”

[33:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”

[33:15]  ²² tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”

[33:15]  ²³ tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”