Isaiah 18:4

18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:

“I will wait ¹  and watch from my place,

like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, ² 

like a cloud of mist ³  in the heat ⁴  of harvest.” ⁵ 

Isaiah 22:14

22:14 The Lord who commands armies told me this: ⁶  “Certainly this sin will not be forgiven as long as you live,” ⁷  says the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 36:7

36:7 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’

Isaiah 36:10

36:10 Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’” ⁸ 

Isaiah 40:21

40:21 Do you not know?

Do you not hear?

Has it not been told to you since the very beginning?

Have you not understood from the time the earth’s foundations were made?

Isaiah 41:9

41:9 you whom I am bringing back ⁹  from the earth’s extremities,

and have summoned from the remote regions –

I told you, “You are my servant.”

I have chosen you and not rejected you.

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¹ tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”

² tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.

³ tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”

⁴ tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”

⁵ sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.

⁶ tn Heb “it was revealed in my ears [by?] the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

⁷ tn Heb “Certainly this sin will not be atoned for until you die.” This does not imply that their death will bring atonement; rather it emphasizes that their sin is unpardonable. The statement has the form of an oath.

⁸ sn In v. 10 the chief adviser develops further the argument begun in v. 7. He claims that Hezekiah has offended the Lord and that the Lord has commissioned Assyria as his instrument of discipline and judgment.

⁹ tn Heb “whom I have taken hold of [i.e., to lead back].”