41:5 The coastlands 1 see and are afraid;
the whole earth 2 trembles;
they approach and come.
57:3 But approach, you sons of omen readers,
you offspring of adulteresses and prostitutes! 3
1 tn Or “islands” (NIV, CEV); NCV “faraway places”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”
2 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.
3 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “offspring of an adulterer [masculine] and [one who] has committed adultery.” Perhaps the text has suffered from transposition of vav (ו) and tav (ת) and מְנָאֵף וַתִּזְנֶה (mÿna’ef vattizneh) should be emended to מְנָאֶפֶת וְזֹנָה (mÿna’efet vÿzonah, “an adulteress and a prostitute”). Both singular nouns would be understood in a collective sense. Most modern English versions render both forms as nouns.