28:10 Indeed, they will hear meaningless gibberish,
senseless babbling,
a syllable here, a syllable there. 1
43:11 I, I am the Lord,
and there is no deliverer besides me.
48:22 There will be no prosperity for the wicked,” says the Lord.
57:7 On every high, elevated hill you prepare your bed;
you go up there to offer sacrifices.
57:21 There will be no prosperity,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
1 tn The meaning of this verse has been debated. The text has literally “indeed [or “for”] a little there, a little there” ( כִּי צַו לָצָו צַו לָצָו קַו לָקָו קַו, ki tsav latsav, tsav latsav, qav laqav, qav laqav). The present translation assumes that the repetitive syllables are gibberish that resembles baby talk (cf v. 9b) and mimics what the people will hear when foreign invaders conquer the land (v. 11). In this case זְעֵיר (zÿ’er, “a little”) refers to the short syllabic structure of the babbling (cf. CEV). Some take צַו (tsav) as a derivative of צָוָה (tsavah, “command”) and translate the first part of the statement as “command after command, command after command.” Proponents of this position (followed by many English versions) also take קַו (qav) as a noun meaning “measuring line” (see v. 17), understood here in the abstract sense of “standard” or “rule.”