2:20 At that time 1 men will throw
their silver and gold idols,
which they made for themselves to worship, 2
into the caves where rodents and bats live, 3
13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; 4
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, 5
they will not 6 look with pity on children.
19:12 But where, oh where, are your wise men? 7
Let them tell you, let them find out
what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.
29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –
an absolutely extraordinary deed. 8
Wise men will have nothing to say,
the sages will have no explanations.” 9
38:16 O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life;
may years of life be restored to me. 10
Restore my health 11 and preserve my life.’
41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, 12
men of 13 Israel.
I am helping you,” says the Lord,
your protector, 14 the Holy One of Israel. 15
44:25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers 16
and humiliates 17 the omen readers,
who overturns the counsel of the wise men 18
and makes their advice 19 seem foolish,
51:12 “I, I am the one who consoles you. 20
Why are you afraid of mortal men,
of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? 21
1 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
2 tn Or “bow down to.”
3 tn Heb “to the shrews and to the bats.” On the meaning of חֲפַרְפָּרָה (khafarparah, “shrew”), see HALOT 341 s.v. חֲפַרְפָּרָה. The BHS text as it stands (לַחְפֹּר פֵּרוֹת, perot lakhpor), makes no sense. Based on Theodotion’s transliteration and a similar reading in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa, most scholars suggest that the MT mistakenly divided a noun (a hapax legomenon) that should be translated “moles,” “shrews,” or “rodents.”
4 tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.
5 tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”
6 tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.
7 tn Heb “Where are they? Where are your wise men?” The juxtaposition of the interrogative pronouns is emphatic. See HALOT 38 s.v. אֶי.
8 tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.
9 tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”
10 tn The translation offered here is purely speculative. The text as it stands is meaningless and probably corrupt. It reads literally, “O lord, on account of them [the suffix is masculine plural], they live, and to all in them [the suffix is feminine plural], life of my spirit.”
11 tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as indicative, “you restore my health,” but the following imperatival form suggests it be understood as an imperfect of request.
12 tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.
13 tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”
14 tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.
15 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
16 tc The Hebrew text has בַּדִּים (baddim), perhaps meaning “empty talkers” (BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד). In the four other occurrences of this word (Job 11:3; Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30; 50:36) the context does not make the meaning of the term very clear. Its primary point appears to be that the words spoken are meaningless or false. In light of its parallelism with “omen readers,” some have proposed an emendation to בָּרִים (barim, “seers”). The Mesopotamian baru-priests were divination specialists who played an important role in court life. See R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 93-98. Rather than supporting an emendation, J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:189, n. 79) suggests that Isaiah used בַּדִּים purposively as a derisive wordplay on the Akkadian word baru (in light of the close similarity of the d and r consonants).
17 tn Or “makes fools of” (NIV, NRSV); NAB and NASB both similar.
18 tn Heb “who turns back the wise” (so NRSV); NIV “overthrows the learning of the wise”; TEV “The words of the wise I refute.”
19 tn Heb “their knowledge” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).
20 tc The plural suffix should probably be emended to the second masculine singular (which is used in v. 13). The final mem (ם) is probably dittographic; note the mem at the beginning of the next word.
21 tn Heb “Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the son of man who [as] grass is given up?” The feminine singular forms should probably be emended to the masculine singular (see v. 13). They have probably been influenced by the construction אַתְּ־הִיא (’at-hi’) in vv. 9-10.