1:4 1 The sinful nation is as good as dead, 2
the people weighed down by evil deeds.
They are offspring who do wrong,
children 3 who do wicked things.
They have abandoned the Lord,
and rejected the Holy One of Israel. 4
They are alienated from him. 5
17:11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow; 6
the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.
Yet the harvest will disappear 7 in the day of disease
and incurable pain.
31:1 Those who go down to Egypt for help are as good as dead, 8
those who rely on war horses,
and trust in Egypt’s many chariots 9
and in their many, many horsemen. 10
But they do not rely on the Holy One of Israel 11
and do not seek help from the Lord.
51:13 Why do you forget 12 the Lord, who made you,
who stretched out the sky 13
and founded the earth?
Why do you constantly tremble all day long 14
at the anger of the oppressor,
when he makes plans to destroy?
Where is the anger of the oppressor? 15
65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth 16
will do so in the name of the faithful God; 17
whoever makes an oath in the earth
will do so in the name of the faithful God. 18
For past problems will be forgotten;
I will no longer think about them. 19
1 sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.
2 tn Heb “Woe [to the] sinful nation.” The Hebrew term 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. In highly dramatic fashion the prophet acts out Israel’s funeral in advance, emphasizing that their demise is inevitable if they do not repent soon.
3 tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege – nation, people, offspring, children – with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day – sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).
4 sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.
5 tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.
6 tn Heb “in the day of your planting you [?].” The precise meaning of the verb תְּשַׂגְשֵׂגִי (tÿsagsegi) is unclear. It is sometimes derived from שׂוּג/סוּג (sug, “to fence in”; see BDB 691 s.v. II סוּג). In this case one could translate “you build a protective fence.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one derives the form from שָׂגָא/שָׂגָה (saga’/sagah, “to grow”); see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:351, n. 4. For this verb, see BDB 960 s.v. שָׂגָא.
7 tc The Hebrew text has, “a heap of harvest.” However, better sense is achieved if נֵד (ned, “heap”) is emended to a verb. Options include נַד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד [nadad, “flee, depart”]), נָדַד (Qal perfect third masculine singular from נָדַד), נֹדֵד (noded, Qal active participle from נָדַד), and נָד (nad, Qal perfect third masculine singular, or participle masculine singular, from נוּד [nud, “wander, flutter”]). See BDB 626 s.v. נוּד and HALOT 672 s.v. I נדד. One could translate literally: “[the harvest] departs,” or “[the harvest] flies away.”
8 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who go down to Egypt for help.”
9 tn Heb “and trust in chariots for they are many.”
10 tn Heb “and in horsemen for they are very strong [or “numerous”].”
11 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
12 tn Heb “and that you forget.”
13 tn Or “the heavens” (also in v. 16). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
14 tn Heb “and that you tremble constantly all the day.”
15 tn The question anticipates the answer, “Ready to disappear!” See v. 14.
16 tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.
17 tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”
18 tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”
19 tn Heb “for the former distresses will be forgotten, and they will be hidden from my eyes.”