Isaiah 37:30

37:30 “This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: This year you will eat what grows wild, and next year what grows on its own. But the year after that you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce.

Isaiah 44:13

44:13 A carpenter takes measurements;

he marks out an outline of its form;

he scrapes it with chisels,

and marks it with a compass.

He patterns it after the human form, 10 

like a well-built human being,

and puts it in a shrine. 11 

Isaiah 58:2

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, 12 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.


tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 22-29) ends and the Lord again addresses Hezekiah and the people directly (see v. 21).

tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) is a future reminder of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.

sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.

tn Heb “and in the second year” (so ASV).

tn Heb “in the third year” (so KJV, NAB).

tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 30b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity.

tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”

tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”

tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”

10 tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”

11 tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”

12 tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”