Yesaya 9:17

9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased ¹  with their young men,

he took no pity ²  on their orphans and widows;

for the whole nation was godless ³  and did wicked things, ⁴ 

every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. ⁵ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ⁶ 

Yesaya 17:13

17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ⁷ 

when he shouts at ⁸  them, they will flee to a distant land,

driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,

or like dead thistles ⁹  before a strong gale.

[9:17]  ¹ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”

[9:17]  ² tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)

[9:17]  ³ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”

[9:17]  ⁴ tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.

[9:17]  ⁵ tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.

[9:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[9:17]  sn See the note at 9:12.

[17:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”

[17:13]  ⁸ tn Or “rebukes.” The verb and related noun are used in theophanies of God’s battle cry which terrifies his enemies. See, for example, Pss 18:15; 76:7; 106:9; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4, and A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.

[17:13]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”