Yesaya 4:4

4:4 At that time ¹  the sovereign master ²  will wash the excrement ³  from Zion’s women,

he will rinse the bloodstains from Jerusalem’s midst, ⁴ 

as he comes to judge

and to bring devastation. ⁵ 

Yesaya 5:8

Disaster is Coming

5:8 Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ⁶ 

those who also accumulate landed property ⁷ 

until there is no land left, ⁸ 

and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁹ 

Yesaya 7:22

7:22 From the abundance of milk they produce, ¹⁰  he will have sour milk for his meals. Indeed, everyone left in the heart of the land will eat sour milk and honey.

Yesaya 19:1

The Lord Will Judge Egypt

19:1 Here is a message about Egypt:

Look, the Lord rides on a swift-moving cloud

and approaches Egypt.

The idols of Egypt tremble before him;

the Egyptians lose their courage. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 19:3

19:3 The Egyptians will panic, ¹² 

and I will confuse their strategy. ¹³ 

They will seek guidance from the idols and from the spirits of the dead,

from the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, and from the magicians. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 19:14

19:14 The Lord has made them undiscerning; ¹⁵ 

they lead Egypt astray in all she does,

so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 24:13

24:13 This is what will happen throughout ¹⁷  the earth,

among the nations.

It will be like when they beat an olive tree,

and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 26:9

26:9 I ¹⁹  look for ²⁰  you during the night,

my spirit within me seeks you at dawn,

for when your judgments come upon the earth,

those who live in the world learn about justice. ²¹ 

Yesaya 29:23

29:23 For when they see their children,

whom I will produce among them, ²² 

they will honor ²³  my name.

They will honor the Holy One of Jacob; ²⁴ 

they will respect ²⁵  the God of Israel.

Yesaya 63:11

63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. ²⁶ 

Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,

along with the shepherd of ²⁷  his flock?

Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, ²⁸ 

[4:4]  ¹ tn Heb “when” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); CEV “after”; NRSV “once.”

[4:4]  ² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[4:4]  ³ tn The word refers elsewhere to vomit (Isa 28:8) and fecal material (Isa 36:12). Many English versions render this somewhat euphemistically as “filth” (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV). Ironically in God’s sight the beautiful jewelry described earlier is nothing but vomit and feces, for it symbolizes the moral decay of the city’s residents (cf. NLT “moral filth”).

[4:4]  ⁴ sn See 1:21 for a related concept.

[4:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.” The precise meaning of the second half of the verse is uncertain. רוּחַ (ruakh) can be understood as “wind” in which case the passage pictures the Lord using a destructive wind as an instrument of judgment. However, this would create a mixed metaphor, for the first half of the verse uses the imagery of washing and rinsing to depict judgment. Perhaps the image would be that of a windstorm accompanied by heavy rain. רוּחַ can also mean “spirit,” in which case the verse may be referring to the Lord’s Spirit or, more likely, to a disposition that the Lord brings to the task of judgment. It is also uncertain if בָּעַר (ba’ar) here means “burning” or “sweeping away, devastating.”

[5:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who make a house touch a house.” The exclamation הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death.

[5:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “[who] bring a field near a field.”

[5:8]  sn This verse does not condemn real estate endeavors per se, but refers to the way in which the rich bureaucrats of Judah accumulated property by exploiting the poor, in violation of the covenantal principle that the land belonged to God and that every family was to have its own portion of land. See the note at 1:23.

[5:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “until the end of the place”; NASB “until there is no more room.”

[5:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.”

[7:22]  ¹⁰ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated, see note on 2:2.

[19:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the heart of Egypt melts within it.”

[19:3]  ¹² tn Heb “and the spirit of Egypt will be laid waste in its midst.”

[19:3]  ¹³ tn The verb בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”) is a homonym of the more common בָּלַע (bala’, “swallow”); see HALOT 135 s.v. I בלע.

[19:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they will inquire of the idols and of the spirits of the dead and of the ritual pits and of the magicians.” Hebrew אוֹב (’ov, “ritual pit”) refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. See the note on “incantations” in 8:19.

[19:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord has mixed into her midst a spirit of blindness.”

[19:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like the going astray of a drunkard in his vomit.”

[24:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the midst of” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[24:13]  ¹⁸ sn The judgment will severely reduce the earth’s population. See v. 6.

[26:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “with my soul I.” This is a figure for the speaker himself (“I”).

[26:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “long for, desire.” The speaker acknowledges that he is eager to see God come in judgment (see vv. 8, 9b).

[26:9]  ²¹ tn The translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “those who live in the world learn to live in a righteous manner” (cf. NCV).

[29:23]  ²² tn Heb “for when he sees his children, the work of my hands in his midst.”

[29:23]  ²³ tn Or “treat as holy” (also in the following line); NASB, NRSV “will sanctify.”

[29:23]  ²⁴ sn Holy One of Jacob is similar to the phrase “Holy One of Israel” common throughout Isaiah; see the sn at Isa 1:4.

[29:23]  ²⁵ tn Or “fear,” in the sense of “stand in awe of.”

[63:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and he remembered the days of antiquity, Moses, his people.” The syntax of the statement is unclear. The translation assumes that “his people” is the subject of the verb “remembered.” If original, “Moses” is in apposition to “the days of antiquity,” more precisely identifying the time period referred to. However, the syntactical awkwardness suggests that “Moses” may have been an early marginal note (perhaps identifying “the shepherd of his flock” two lines later) that has worked its way into the text.

[63:11]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form, which if retained and taken as a numerical plural, would probably refer to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite tribal leaders at the time of the Exodus. Most prefer to emend the form to the singular (רָעָה, ra’ah) and understand this as a reference just to Moses.

[63:11]  ²⁸ sn See the note at v. 10.