5:5 Now I will inform you
what I am about to do to my vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, 1
I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there. 2
11:6 A wolf will reside 3 with a lamb,
and a leopard will lie down with a young goat;
an ox and a young lion will graze together, 4
as a small child leads them along.
27:10 For the fortified city 5 is left alone;
it is a deserted settlement
and abandoned like the desert.
Calves 6 graze there;
they lie down there
and eat its branches bare. 7
49:9 You will say 8 to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
and to those who are in dark dungeons, 9 ‘Emerge.’ 10
They will graze beside the roads;
on all the slopes they will find pasture.
63:14 Like an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, 11
so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest.
In this way 12 you guided your people,
gaining for yourself an honored reputation. 13
65:25 A wolf and a lamb will graze together; 14
a lion, like an ox, will eat straw, 15
and a snake’s food will be dirt. 16
They will no longer injure or destroy
on my entire royal mountain,” 17 says the Lord.
1 tn Heb “and it will become [a place for] grazing.” בָּעַר (ba’ar, “grazing”) is a homonym of the more often used verb “to burn.”
2 tn Heb “and it will become a trampled place” (NASB “trampled ground”).
3 tn The verb גּוּר (gur) normally refers to living as a dependent, resident alien in another society.
4 tc The Hebrew text reads, “and an ox, and a young lion, and a fatling together.” Since the preceding lines refer to two animals and include a verb, many emend וּמְרִיא (umÿri’, “and the fatling”) to an otherwise unattested verb יִמְרְאוּ (yimrÿ’u, “they will graze”); cf. NAB, TEV, CEV. One of the Qumran copies of Isaiah confirms this suggestion (1QIsaa). The present translation assumes this change.
5 sn The identity of this city is uncertain. The context suggests that an Israelite city, perhaps Samaria or Jerusalem, is in view. For discussions of interpretive options see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:496-97, and Paul L. Redditt, “Once Again, the City in Isaiah 24-27,” HAR 10 (1986), 332.
6 tn The singular form in the text is probably collective.
7 tn Heb “and destroy her branches.” The city is the antecedent of the third feminine singular pronominal suffix. Apparently the city is here compared to a tree. See also v. 11.
8 tn Heb “to say.” In the Hebrew text the infinitive construct is subordinated to what precedes.
9 tn Heb “in darkness” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “the prisoners of darkness.”
10 tn Heb “show yourselves” (so ASV, NAB, NASB).
11 tn The words “to graze” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
12 tn Or “so” (KJV, ASV), or “thus” (NAB, NRSV).
13 tn Heb “making for yourself a majestic name.”
14 sn A similar statement appears in 11:6.
15 sn These words also appear in 11:7.
16 sn Some see an allusion to Gen 3:14 (note “you will eat dirt”). The point would be that even in this new era the snake (often taken as a symbol of Satan) remains under God’s curse. However, it is unlikely that such an allusion exists. Even if there is an echo of Gen 3:14, the primary allusion is to 11:8, where snakes are pictured as no longer dangerous. They will no longer attack other living creatures, but will be content to crawl along the ground. (The statement “you will eat dirt” in Gen 3:14 means “you will crawl on the ground.” In the same way the statement “dirt will be its food” in Isa 65:25 means “it will crawl on the ground.”)
17 tn Heb “in all my holy mountain.” These same words appear in 11:9. See the note there.
sn As in 11:1-9 the prophet anticipates a time when the categories predator-prey no longer exist. See the note at the end of 11:8.