24:20 The earth will stagger around 1 like a drunk;
it will sway back and forth like a hut in a windstorm. 2
Its sin will weigh it down,
and it will fall and never get up again.
27:11 When its branches get brittle, 3 they break;
women come and use them for kindling. 4
For these people lack understanding, 5
therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;
the one who formed them has no mercy on them.
30:22 You will desecrate your silver-plated idols 6
and your gold-plated images. 7
You will throw them away as if they were a menstrual rag,
saying to them, “Get out!”
40:28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is an eternal God,
the creator of the whole earth. 8
He does not get tired or weary;
there is no limit to his wisdom. 9
51:17 Wake up! Wake up!
Get up, O Jerusalem!
You drank from the cup the Lord passed to you,
which was full of his anger! 10
You drained dry
the goblet full of intoxicating wine. 11
56:12 Each one says, 12
‘Come on, I’ll get some wine!
Let’s guzzle some beer!
Tomorrow will be just like today!
We’ll have everything we want!’ 13
61:7 Instead of shame, you will get a double portion; 14
instead of humiliation, they will rejoice over the land they receive. 15
Yes, 16 they will possess a double portion in their land
and experience lasting joy.
65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!
Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’
These people are like smoke in my nostrils,
like a fire that keeps burning all day long.
1 tn Heb “staggering, staggers.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb for emphasis and sound play.
2 tn The words “in a windstorm” are supplied in the translation to clarify the metaphor.
3 tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
4 tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.
5 tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”
6 tn Heb “the platings of your silver idols.”
7 tn Heb “the covering of your gold image.”
8 tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.
9 sn Exiled Israel’s complaint (v. 27) implies that God might be limited in some way. Perhaps he, like so many of the pagan gods, has died. Or perhaps his jurisdiction is limited to Judah and does not include Babylon. Maybe he is unable to devise an adequate plan to rescue his people, or is unable to execute it. But v. 28 affirms that he is not limited temporally or spatially nor is his power and wisdom restricted in any way. He can and will deliver his people, if they respond in hopeful faith (v. 31a).
10 tn Heb “[you] who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his anger.”
11 tn Heb “the goblet, the cup [that causes] staggering, you drank, you drained.”
12 tn The words “each one says” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
13 tn Heb “great, [in] abundance, very much,” i.e., “very great indeed.” See HALOT 452 s.v. יֶתֶר.
14 tn Heb “instead of your shame, a double portion.”
15 tn Heb “and [instead of] humiliation they will rejoice [over] their portion.” The term תָחָת (takhat, “instead of”) is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).
16 tn Heb “therefore” (so KJV, NASB); NIV “and so.”