Discovery BoxIsaiah 1:26 
Context1:26 I will reestablish honest judges as in former times,
wise advisers as in earlier days. 1
Then you will be called, ‘The Just City,
Faithful Town.’”
Isaiah 6:6
Context6:6 But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
Isaiah 7:6
Context7:6 They say, “Let’s attack Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it. 2 Then we’ll set up the son of Tabeel as its king.” 3
Isaiah 8:3
Context8:3 I then had sexual relations with the prophetess; she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord told me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,
Isaiah 8:20
Context8:20 Then you must recall the Lord’s instructions and the prophetic testimony of what would happen. 4 Certainly they say such things because their minds are spiritually darkened. 5
Isaiah 19:22
Context19:22 The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and then healing them. They will turn to the Lord and he will listen to their prayers 6 and heal them.
Isaiah 21:8
Context21:8 Then the guard 7 cries out:
“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, 8
I stand all day long;
at my post
I am stationed every night.
Isaiah 27:4
Context27:4 I am not angry.
I wish I could confront some thorns and briers!
Then I would march against them 9 for battle;
I would set them 10 all on fire,
Isaiah 35:6
Context35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,
the mute tongue will shout for joy;
for water will flow 11 in the desert,
streams in the wilderness. 12
Isaiah 36:13
Context36:13 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, 13 “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Isaiah 37:14
Context37:14 Hezekiah took the letter 14 from the messengers and read it. 15 Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.
Isaiah 38:3
Context38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you 16 faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, 17 and how I have carried out your will.” 18 Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. 19
Isaiah 38:8
Context38:8 Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.” 20 And then the shadow went back ten steps. 21
Isaiah 39:8
Context39:8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word which you have announced is appropriate.” 22 Then he thought, 23 “For 24 there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.”
Isaiah 40:20
Context40:20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot; 25
he then seeks a skilled craftsman
to make 26 an idol that will not fall over.
Isaiah 41:1
Context41:1 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands! 27
Let the nations find renewed strength!
Let them approach and then speak;
let us come together for debate! 28
Isaiah 57:16
Context57:16 For I will not be hostile 29 forever
or perpetually angry,
for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, 30
the life-giving breath I created.
Isaiah 58:10
Context58:10 You must 31 actively help the hungry
and feed the oppressed. 32
Then your light will dispel the darkness, 33
and your darkness will be transformed into noonday. 34
1 tn Heb “I will restore your judges as in the beginning; and your counselors as in the beginning.” In this context, where social injustice and legal corruption are denounced (see v. 23), the “judges” are probably government officials responsible for making legal decisions, while the “advisers” are probably officials who helped the king establish policies. Both offices are also mentioned in 3:2.
2 tn Heb “and let us break it open for ourselves”; NASB “make for ourselves a breach in its walls”; NLT “fight our way into.”
3 tn Heb “and we will make the son of Tabeel king in its midst.”
sn The precise identity of this would-be puppet king is unknown. He may have been a Syrian official or the ruler of one of the small neighboring states. See Y. Aharoni, Land of the Bible, 370.
4 tn Heb “to [the] instruction and to [the] testimony.” The words “then you must recall” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 19-20a are one long sentence, reading literally, “When they say to you…, to the instruction and to the testimony.” On the identity of the “instruction” and “testimony” see the notes at v. 16.
5 tn Heb “If they do not speak according to this word, [it is] because it has no light of dawn.” The literal translation suggests that “this word” refers to the instruction/testimony. However, it is likely that אִם־לֹא (’im-lo’) is asseverative here, as in 5:9. In this case “this word” refers to the quotation recorded in v. 19. For a discussion of the problem see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 230, n. 9. The singular pronoun in the second half of the verse is collective, referring back to the nation (see v. 19b).
6 tn Heb “he will be entreated.” The Niphal has a tolerative sense here, “he will allow himself to be entreated.”
7 tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.
8 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).
9 tn Heb “it.” The feminine singular suffix apparently refers back to the expression “thorns and briers,” understood in a collective sense. For other examples of a cohortative expressing resolve after a hypothetical statement introduced by נָתַן with מִי (miwith natan), see Judg 9:29; Jer 9:1-2; Ps 55:6.
10 tn Heb “it.” The feminine singular suffix apparently refers back to the expression “thorns and briers,” understood in a collective sense.
11 tn Heb “burst forth” (so NAB); KJV “break out.”
12 tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT “desert.”
13 tn The Hebrew text includes “and he said.”
14 tc The Hebrew text has the plural, “letters.” The final mem (ם) may be dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular. If so, one still has to deal with the yod that is part of the plural ending. J. N. Oswalt refers to various commentators who have suggested ways to understand the plural form (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:652).
15 tn In the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:14 the verb has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual corruption (of “letter” to “letters”).
16 tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.
17 tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”
18 tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”
19 tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”
20 tn Heb “the shadow on the steps which [the sun] had gone down, on the steps of Ahaz, with the sun, back ten steps.”
sn These steps probably functioned as a type of sundial. See HALOT 614 s.v. מַעֲלָה and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 256.
21 tn Heb “and the sun returned ten steps on the steps which it had gone down.”
22 tn Heb “good” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “favorable.”
23 tn Heb “and he said.” The verb אָמַר (’amar, “say”) is sometimes used of what one thinks (that is, says to oneself).
24 tn Or “surely”; cf. CEV “At least.”
25 tn The first two words of the verse (הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה, hamsukan tÿrumah) are problematic. Some take מְסֻכָּן as an otherwise unattested Pual participle from סָכַן (sakhan, “be poor”) and translate “the one who is impoverished.” תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah, “contribution”) can then be taken as an adverbial accusative, “with respect to a contribution,” and the entire line translated, “the one who is too impoverished for such a contribution [i.e., the metal idol of v. 19?] selects wood that will not rot.” However, מְסֻכָּן is probably the name of a tree used in idol manufacturing (cognate with Akkadian musukkanu, cf. H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 133). מְסֻכָּן may be a scribal interpretive addition attempting to specify עֵץ (’ets) or עֵץ may be a scribal attempt to categorize מְסֻכָּן. How an idol constitutes a תְּרוּמָה (“contribution”) is not entirely clear.
26 tn Or “set up” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NASB “to prepare.”
27 tn Or “islands” (KJV, NIV, CEV); TEV “distant lands”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”
28 tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) could be translated “judgment,” but here it seems to refer to the dispute or debate between the Lord and the nations.
29 tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
30 tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”
31 tn Heb “if you.” See the note on “you must” in v. 9b.
32 tn Heb “If you furnish for the hungry [with] your being, and the appetite of the oppressed you satisfy.”
33 tn Heb “will rise in the darkness.”
34 tn Heb “and your darkness [will be] like noonday.”
