1:30 For you will be like a tree whose leaves wither,
like an orchard 1 that is unwatered.
44:4 They will sprout up like a tree in the grass, 2
like poplars beside channels of water.
55:8 “Indeed, 3 my plans 4 are not like 5 your plans,
and my deeds 6 are not like 7 your deeds,
60:8 Who are these who float along 8 like a cloud,
who fly like doves to their shelters? 9
1 tn Or “a garden” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
2 tn The Hebrew term בֵין (ven) is usually taken as a preposition, in which case one might translate, “among the grass.” But בֵין is probably the name of a tree (cf. C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 133). If one alters the preposition bet (בְּ) to kaf (כְּ), one can then read, “like a binu-tree.” (The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa supports this reading.) This forms a nice parallel to “like poplars” in the next line. חָצִיר (khatsir) is functioning as an adverbial accusative of location.
3 tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV).
4 tn Or “thoughts” (so many English versions).
5 tn Heb “are not.” “Like” is interpretive, but v. 9 indicates that a comparison is in view.
6 tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).
7 tn Heb “are not.” “Like” is interpretive, but v. 9 indicates that a comparison is in view.
8 tn Heb “fly” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “fly along.”
9 tn Heb “to their windows,” i.e., to the openings in their coops. See HALOT 83 s.v. אֲרֻבָּה.