6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, 1 for my lips are contaminated by sin, 2 and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. 3 My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” 4
10:12 But when 13 the sovereign master 14 finishes judging 15 Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I 16 will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. 17
10:17 The light of Israel 18 will become a fire,
their Holy One 19 will become a flame;
it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s 20 briers
and his thorns in one day.
16:5 Then a trustworthy king will be established;
he will rule in a reliable manner,
this one from David’s family. 21
He will be sure to make just decisions
and will be experienced in executing justice. 22
20:1 The Lord revealed the following message during the year in which King Sargon of Assyria sent his commanding general to Ashdod, and he fought against it and captured it. 23
23:15 At that time 27 Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, 28 the typical life span of a king. 29 At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: 30
30:33 For 31 the burial place is already prepared; 32
it has been made deep and wide for the king. 33
The firewood is piled high on it. 34
The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone,
will ignite it.
33:21 Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king. 35
Rivers and wide streams will flow through it; 36
no war galley will enter; 37
no large ships will sail through. 38
39:1 At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been ill and had recovered.
44:6 This is what the Lord, Israel’s king, says,
their protector, 45 the Lord who commands armies:
“I am the first and I am the last,
there is no God but me.
1 tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”
2 tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.
3 tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”
4 tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.
5 tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB); KJV “In the same day.”
6 tn Heb “the river” (so KJV); NASB “the Euphrates.” The name of the river has been supplied in the present translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “the hair of the feet.” The translation assumes that the word “feet” is used here as a euphemism for the genitals. See BDB 920 s.v. רֶגֶל.
8 map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.
9 sn The child’s name foreshadows what will happen to Judah’s enemies; when their defeat takes place, the child will be a reminder that God predicted the event and brought it to pass. As such the child will be a reminder of God’s protective presence with his people.
10 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
11 tn Heb “the mighty and abundant waters of the river.” The referent of “the river” here, the Euphrates River, has been specified in the translation for clarity. As the immediately following words indicate, these waters symbolize the Assyrian king and his armies which will, as it were, inundate the land.
12 tn Heb “it will go up over all its stream beds and go over all its banks.”
13 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
14 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
15 tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”
16 tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.
17 tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.
18 tn In this context the “Light of Israel” is a divine title (note the parallel title “his holy one”). The title points to God’s royal splendor, which overshadows and, when transformed into fire, destroys the “majestic glory” of the king of Assyria (v. 16b).
19 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
20 tn Heb “his.” In vv. 17-19 the Assyrian king and his empire is compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).
21 tn Heb “and a throne will be established in faithfulness, and he will sit on it in reliability, in the tent of David.”
22 tn Heb “one who judges and seeks justice, and one experienced in fairness.” Many understand מְהִר (mÿhir) to mean “quick, prompt” (see BDB 555 s.v. מָהִיר), but HALOT 552 s.v. מָהִיר offers the meaning “skillful, experienced,” and translates the phrase in v. 5 “zealous for what is right.”
23 tn Heb “In the year the commanding general came to Ashdod, when Sargon king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and captured it.”
sn This probably refers to the Assyrian campaign against Philistia in 712 or 711
24 tn Heb “lightly dressed and barefoot, and bare with respect to the buttocks, the nakedness of Egypt.”
25 tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).
26 sn This probably refers to the coastal region of Philistia (cf. TEV).
27 tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
28 sn The number seventy is probably used in a stereotypical, nonliteral sense here to indicate a long period of time that satisfies completely the demands of God’s judgment.
29 tn Heb “like the days of a king.”
30 tn Heb “At the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute.”
31 tn Or “indeed.”
32 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for arranged from before [or “yesterday”] is [?].” The meaning of תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh), which occurs only here, is unknown. The translation above (as with most English versions) assumes an emendation to תֹּפֶת (tofet, “Topheth”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) and places the final hey (ה) on the beginning of the next word as an interrogative particle. Topheth was a place near Jerusalem used as a burial ground (see Jer 7:32; 19:11).
33 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Also it is made ready for the king, one makes it deep and wide.” If one takes the final hey (ה) on תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh) and prefixes it to גָּם (gam) as an interrogative particle (see the preceding note), one can translate, “Is it also made ready for the king?” In this case the question is rhetorical and expects an emphatic affirmative answer, “Of course it is!”
34 tn Heb “its pile of wood, fire and wood one makes abundant.”
sn Apparently this alludes to some type of funeral rite.
35 tn Heb “But there [as] a mighty one [will be] the Lord for us.”
36 tn Heb “a place of rivers, streams wide of hands [i.e., on both sides].”
37 tn Heb “a ship of rowing will not go into it.”
38 tn Heb “and a mighty ship will not pass through it.”
39 tn Heb “Have the gods of the nations rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”
40 tn Heb “by which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me.”
41 sn The assassination of King Sennacherib probably took place in 681
42 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
43 sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name Nisroch is a corruption of Nusku.
44 sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.
45 tn Heb “his kinsman redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.