14:31 Wail, O city gate!
Cry out, O city!
Melt with fear, 1 all you Philistines!
For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke,
and there are no stragglers in its ranks. 2
40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
Another asks, 3 “What should I cry out?”
The first voice responds: 4 “All people are like grass, 5
and all their promises 6 are like the flowers in the field.
40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; 7
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. 8
He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, 9
and spreads it out 10 like a pitched tent. 11
46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on the scale 12
hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.
They then bow down and worship it.
46:11 who summons an eagle 13 from the east,
from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.
Yes, I have decreed, 14
yes, I will bring it to pass;
I have formulated a plan,
yes, I will carry it out.
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.’ 15
58:9 Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond;
you will cry out, and he will reply, ‘Here I am.’
You must 16 remove the burdensome yoke from among you
and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.
1 tn Or “despair” (see HALOT 555 s.v. מוג). The form נָמוֹג (namog) should be taken here as an infinitive absolute functioning as an imperative. See GKC 199-200 §72.v.
2 tn Heb “and there is no one going alone in his appointed places.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. בּוֹדֵד (boded) appears to be a participle from בָּדַד (badad, “be separate”; see BDB 94 s.v. בָּדַד). מוֹעָד (mo’ad) may mean “assembly” or, by extension, “multitude” (see HALOT 558 s.v. *מוֹעָד), but the referent of the third masculine pronominal suffix attached to the noun is unclear. It probably refers to the “nation” mentioned in the next line.
3 tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”
4 tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.
5 tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.
6 tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.
7 tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
8 tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
9 tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).
10 tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.
11 tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”
12 tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.
13 tn Or, more generally, “a bird of prey” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV; see 18:6).
14 tn Heb “spoken”; KJV “I have spoken it.”
15 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).
16 tn Heb “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 9b-10 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in vv. 9b-10a), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 10b.
17 tn Heb “for their worm will not die.”
18 tn Heb “and their fire will not be extinguished.”
19 tn Heb “and they will be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
sn This verse depicts a huge mass burial site where the seemingly endless pile of maggot-infested corpses are being burned.