21:3 For this reason my stomach churns; 1
cramps overwhelm me
like the contractions of a woman in labor.
I am disturbed 2 by what I hear,
horrified by what I see.
23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,
for the sea 3 says this, O fortress of the sea:
“I have not gone into labor
or given birth;
I have not raised young men
or brought up young women.” 4
31:8 Assyria will fall by a sword, but not one human-made; 5
a sword not made by humankind will destroy them. 6
They will run away from this sword 7
and their young men will be forced to do hard labor.
60:21 All of your people will be godly; 8
they will possess the land permanently.
I will plant them like a shoot;
they will be the product of my labor,
through whom I reveal my splendor. 9
1 tn Heb “my waist is filled with shaking [or “anguish”].”
2 tn Or perhaps, “bent over [in pain]”; cf. NRSV “I am bowed down.”
3 tn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:430-31) sees here a reference to Yam, the Canaanite god of the sea. He interprets the phrase מָעוֹז הַיָּם (ma’oz hayyam, “fortress of the sea”) as a title of Yam, translating “Mighty One of the Sea.” A more traditional view is that the phrase refers to Sidon.
4 tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).
sn The sea is personified here as a lamenting childless woman. The foreboding language anticipates the following announcement of Tyre’s demise, viewed here as a child of the sea, as it were.
5 tn Heb “Assyria will fall by a sword, not of a man.”
6 tn Heb “and a sword not of humankind will devour him.”
7 tn Heb “he will flee for himself from before a sword.”
8 tn Or “righteous” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “just.”
9 tn Heb “a shoot of his planting, the work of my hands, to reveal splendor.”