Discovery BoxIsaiah 1:19 
Context1:19 If you have a willing attitude and obey, 1
then you will again eat the good crops of the land.
Isaiah 5:23
Context5:23 They pronounce the guilty innocent for a payoff,
they ignore the just cause of the innocent. 2
Isaiah 24:17
Context24:17 Terror, pit, and snare
are ready to overtake you inhabitants of the earth! 3
Isaiah 40:18
Context40:18 To whom can you compare God?
To what image can you liken him?
Isaiah 43:18
Context43:18 “Don’t remember these earlier events; 4
don’t recall these former events.
Isaiah 51:21
Context51:21 So listen to this, oppressed one,
who is drunk, but not from wine!
1 tn Heb “listen”; KJV “obedient”; NASB “If you consent and obey.”
2 tn Heb “and the just cause of the innocent ones they turn aside from him.”
sn In vv. 22-23 the prophet returns to themes with which he opened his speech. The accusatory elements of vv. 8, 11-12, 18-23 are arranged in a chiastic manner: (A) social injustice (8), (B) carousing (11-12a), (C) spiritual insensitivity (12b) // (C') spiritual insensitivity (18-21), (B') carousing (22), (A') social injustice (23).
3 tn Heb “[are] upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.” The first line of v. 17 provides another classic example of Hebrew wordplay. The names of the three instruments of judgment (פָח,פַחַת,פַּחַד [pakhad, fakhat, fakh]) all begin with the letters פח (peh-khet) and the first two end in dental consonants (ת/ד, tet/dalet). Once again the repetition of sound draws attention to the statement and contributes to the theme of the inescapability of judgment. As their similar-sounding names suggest, terror, pit, and snare are allies in destroying the objects of divine wrath.
4 tn Heb “the former things” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “forget all that.”
