11:6 A wolf will reside 1 with a lamb,
and a leopard will lie down with a young goat;
an ox and a young lion will graze together, 2
as a small child leads them along.
30:28 His battle cry overwhelms like a flooding river 3
that reaches one’s neck.
He shakes the nations in a sieve that isolates the chaff; 4
he puts a bit into the mouth of the nations and leads them to destruction. 5
40:26 Look up at the sky! 6
Who created all these heavenly lights? 7
He is the one who leads out their ranks; 8
he calls them all by name.
Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,
not one of them is missing.
48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, 9 says,
the Holy One of Israel: 10
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.
48:21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;
he makes water flow out of a rock for them;
he splits open a rock and water flows out.’ 11
1 tn The verb גּוּר (gur) normally refers to living as a dependent, resident alien in another society.
2 tc The Hebrew text reads, “and an ox, and a young lion, and a fatling together.” Since the preceding lines refer to two animals and include a verb, many emend וּמְרִיא (umÿri’, “and the fatling”) to an otherwise unattested verb יִמְרְאוּ (yimrÿ’u, “they will graze”); cf. NAB, TEV, CEV. One of the Qumran copies of Isaiah confirms this suggestion (1QIsaa). The present translation assumes this change.
3 tn Heb “his breath is like a flooding river.” This might picture the Lord breathing heavily as he runs down his enemy, but in light of the preceding verse, which mentions his lips and tongue, “breath” probably stands metonymically for the word or battle cry that he expels from his mouth as he shouts. In Isa 34:16 and Ps 33:6 the Lord’s “breath” is associated with his command.
4 tn Heb “shaking nations in a sieve of worthlessness.” It is not certain exactly how שָׁוְא (shavÿ’, “emptiness, worthlessness”) modifies “sieve.” A sieve is used to separate grain from chaff and isolate what is worthless so that it might be discarded. Perhaps the nations are likened to such chaff; God’s judgment will sift them out for destruction.
5 tn Heb “and a bit that leads astray [is] in the jaws of the peoples.” Here the nations are likened to horse that can be controlled by a bit placed in its mouth. In this case the Lord uses his sovereign control over the “horse” to lead it to its demise.
6 tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”
7 tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.
8 tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)
9 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
10 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
11 sn The translation above (present tense) assumes that this verse describes God’s provision for returning Babylonian exiles (see v. 20; 35:6; 49:10) in terms reminiscent of the Exodus from Egypt (see Exod 17:6).