Isaiah 5:4

5:4 What more can I do for my vineyard

beyond what I have already done?

When I waited for it to produce edible grapes,

why did it produce sour ones instead?

Isaiah 20:2

20:2 At that time the Lord announced through ¹  Isaiah son of Amoz: “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.” He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments ²  and barefoot.

Isaiah 22:2

22:2 The noisy city is full of raucous sounds;

the town is filled with revelry. ³ 

Your slain were not cut down by the sword;

they did not die in battle. ⁴ 

Isaiah 39:3

39:3 Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.”

Isaiah 44:8

44:8 Don’t panic! Don’t be afraid! ⁵ 

Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it?

You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me?

There is no other sheltering rock; ⁶  I know of none.

Isaiah 45:19

45:19 I have not spoken in secret,

in some hidden place. ⁷ 

I did not tell Jacob’s descendants,

‘Seek me in vain!’ ⁸ 

I am the Lord,

the one who speaks honestly,

who makes reliable announcements. ⁹ 

Isaiah 48:5

48:5 I announced them to you beforehand;

before they happened, I predicted them for you,

so you could never say,

‘My image did these things,

my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

Isaiah 49:21

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ¹⁰ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ¹¹ 

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

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¹ tn Heb “spoke by the hand of.”

² tn The word used here (עָרוֹם, ’arom) sometimes means “naked,” but here it appears to mean simply “lightly dressed,” i.e., stripped to one’s undergarments. See HALOT 883 s.v. עָרוֹם. The term also occurs in vv. 3, 4.

³ tn Heb “the boisterous town.” The phrase is parallel to “the noisy city” in the preceding line.

⁴ sn Apparently they died from starvation during the siege that preceded the final conquest of the city. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:409.

⁵ tn BDB 923 s.v. רָהָה derives this verb from an otherwise unattested root, while HALOT 403 s.v. יָרָה defines it as “be stupefied” on the basis of an Arabic cognate. The form is likely a corruption of תיראו, the reading attested in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a.

⁶ tn Heb “rock” or “rocky cliff,” a title that depicts God as a protective refuge in his role as sovereign king; thus the translation “sheltering rock.”

⁷ tn Heb “in a place of a land of darkness” (ASV similar); NASB “in some dark land.”

⁸ tn “In vain” translates תֹהוּ (tohu), used here as an adverbial accusative: “for nothing.”

⁹ tn The translation above assumes that צֶדֶק (tsedeq) and מֵישָׁרִים (mesharim) are adverbial accusatives (see 33:15). If they are taken as direct objects, indicating the content of what is spoken, one might translate, “who proclaims deliverance, who announces justice.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

¹¹ tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”