Discovery BoxIsaiah 1:31 
Context1:31 The powerful will be like 1 a thread of yarn,
their deeds like a spark;
both will burn together,
and no one will put out the fire.
Isaiah 5:9
Context5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: 2
“Many houses will certainly become desolate,
large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. 3
Isaiah 7:8
Context7:8 For Syria’s leader is Damascus,
and the leader of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim will no longer exist as a nation. 4
Isaiah 13:14
Context13:14 Like a frightened gazelle 5
or a sheep with no shepherd,
each will turn toward home, 6
each will run to his homeland.
Isaiah 13:18
Context13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; 7
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, 8
they will not 9 look with pity on children.
Isaiah 14:8
Context14:8 The evergreens also rejoice over your demise, 10
as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing, 11
‘Since you fell asleep, 12
no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’ 13
Isaiah 15:6
Context15:6 For the waters of Nimrim are gone; 14
the grass is dried up,
the vegetation has disappeared,
and there are no plants.
Isaiah 17:8
Context17:8 They will no longer trust in 15 the altars their hands made,
or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made. 16
Isaiah 27:3
Context27:3 I, the Lord, protect it; 17
I water it regularly. 18
I guard it night and day,
so no one can harm it. 19
Isaiah 29:14
Context29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –
an absolutely extraordinary deed. 20
Wise men will have nothing to say,
the sages will have no explanations.” 21
Isaiah 30:16
Context30:16 You say, ‘No, we will flee on horses,’
so you will indeed flee.
You say, ‘We will ride on fast horses,’
so your pursuers will be fast.
Isaiah 30:20
Context30:20 The sovereign master 22 will give you distress to eat
and suffering to drink; 23
but your teachers will no longer be hidden;
your eyes will see them. 24
Isaiah 33:19
Context33:19 You will no longer see a defiant 25 people
whose language you do not comprehend, 26
whose derisive speech you do not understand. 27
Isaiah 34:10
Context34:10 Night and day it will burn; 28
its smoke will ascend continually.
Generation after generation it will be a wasteland
and no one will ever pass through it again.
Isaiah 43:12-13
Context43:12 I decreed and delivered and proclaimed,
and there was no other god among you.
You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I am God.
43:13 From this day forward I am he;
no one can deliver from my power; 29
I will act, and who can prevent it?”
Isaiah 45:22
Context45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, 30
all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!
For I am God, and I have no peer.
Isaiah 46:9
Context46:9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! 31
Truly I am God, I have no peer; 32
I am God, and there is none like me,
Isaiah 47:5
Context47:5 “Sit silently! Go to a hiding place, 33
O daughter of the Babylonians!
Indeed, 34 you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’
Isaiah 47:15
Context47:15 They will disappoint you, 35
those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth. 36
Each strays off in his own direction, 37
leaving no one to rescue you.”
Isaiah 52:4
Context52:4 For this is what the sovereign Lord says:
“In the beginning my people went to live temporarily in Egypt;
Assyria oppressed them for no good reason.
Isaiah 52:14
Context52:14 (just as many were horrified by the sight of you) 38
he was so disfigured 39 he no longer looked like a man; 40
Isaiah 54:2
Context54:2 Make your tent larger,
stretch your tent curtains farther out! 41
Spare no effort,
lengthen your ropes,
and pound your stakes deep. 42
Isaiah 55:1
Context55:1 “Hey, 43 all who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come!
Buy and eat!
Come! Buy wine and milk
without money and without cost! 44
Isaiah 56:11
Context56:11 The dogs have big appetites;
they are never full. 45
They are shepherds who have no understanding;
they all go their own way,
each one looking for monetary gain. 46
Isaiah 59:15
Context59:15 Honesty has disappeared;
the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed.
The Lord watches and is displeased, 47
for there is no justice.
Isaiah 60:15
Context60:15 You were once abandoned
and despised, with no one passing through,
but I will make you 48 a permanent source of pride
and joy to coming generations.
Isaiah 60:20
Context60:20 Your sun will no longer set;
your moon will not disappear; 49
the Lord will be your permanent source of light;
your time 50 of sorrow will be over.
Isaiah 64:7
Context64:7 No one invokes 51 your name,
or makes an effort 52 to take hold of you.
For you have rejected us 53
and handed us over to our own sins. 54
Isaiah 65:17
Context65:17 For look, I am ready to create
new heavens and a new earth! 55
The former ones 56 will not be remembered;
no one will think about them anymore. 57
1 tn Heb “will become” (so NASB, NIV).
2 tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”
3 tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”
4 tn Heb “Ephraim will be too shattered to be a nation”; NIV “to be a people.”
sn This statement is problematic for several reasons. It seems to intrude stylistically, interrupting the symmetry of the immediately preceding and following lines. Furthermore, such a long range prophecy lacks punch in the midst of the immediate crisis. After all, even if Israel were destroyed sometime within the next 65 years, a lot could still happen during that time, including the conquest of Judah and the demise of the Davidic family. Finally the significance of the time frame is uncertain. Israel became an Assyrian province within the next 15 years and ceased to exist as a nation. For these reasons many regard the statement as a later insertion, but why a later editor would include the reference to “65 years” remains a mystery. Some try to relate the prophecy to the events alluded to in Ezra 4:2, 10, which refers to how the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal settled foreigners in former Israelite territory, perhaps around 670
5 tn Or “like a gazelle being chased.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
6 tn Heb “his people” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “his nation” (cf. TEV “their own countries”).
7 tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.
8 tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”
9 tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.
10 tn Heb “concerning you.”
11 tn The word “singing” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. Note that the personified trees speak in the second half of the verse.
12 tn Heb “lay down” (in death); cf. NAB “laid to rest.”
13 tn Heb “the [wood]cutter does not come up against us.”
14 tn Heb “are waste places”; cf. NRSV “are a desolation.”
15 tn Heb “he will not gaze toward.”
16 tn Heb “and that which his fingers made he will not see, the Asherah poles and the incense altars.”
17 tn Heb “her.” Apparently “vineyard” is the antecedent, though normally this noun is understood as masculine (see Lev 25:3, however).
18 tn Or perhaps, “constantly.” Heb “by moments.”
19 tn Heb “lest [someone] visit [harm] upon it, night and day I guard it.”
20 tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.
21 tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”
22 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).
23 tn Heb “and the Master will give to you bread – distress, and water – oppression.”
24 tn Heb “but your teachers will no longer be hidden, your eyes will be seeing your teachers.” The translation assumes that the form מוֹרֶיךָ (morekha) is a plural participle, referring to spiritual leaders such as prophets and priests. Another possibility is that the form is actually singular (see GKC 273-74 §93.ss) or a plural of respect, referring to God as the master teacher. See HALOT 560-61 s.v. III מוֹרֶה. For discussion of the views, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:560.
25 tn The Hebrew form נוֹעָז (no’az) is a Niphal participle derived from יָעַז (ya’az, an otherwise unattested verb) or from עָזָז (’azaz, “be strong,” unattested elsewhere in the Niphal). Some prefer to emend the form to לוֹעֵז (lo’ez) which occurs in Ps 114:1 with the meaning “speak a foreign language.” See HALOT 809 s.v. עזז, 533 s.v. לעז. In this case, one might translate “people who speak a foreign language.”
26 tn Heb “a people too deep of lip to hear.” The phrase “deep of lip” must be an idiom meaning “lips that speak words that are unfathomable [i.e., incomprehensible].”
27 tn Heb “derision of tongue there is no understanding.” The Niphal of לָעַג (la’ag) occurs only here. In the Qal and Hiphil the verb means “to deride, mock.” A related noun is used in 28:11.
28 tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”
29 tn Heb “hand” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “No one can oppose what I do.”
30 tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”
31 tn Heb “remember the former things, from antiquity”; KJV, ASV “the former things of old.”
32 tn Heb “and there is no other” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
33 tn Heb “darkness,” which may indicate a place of hiding where a fugitive would seek shelter and protection.
34 tn Or “For” (NASB, NRSV).
35 tn Heb “So they will be to you”; NIV “That is all they can do for you.”
36 tn Heb “that for which you toiled, your traders from your youth.” The omen readers and star gazers are likened to merchants with whom Babylon has had an ongoing economic relationship.
37 tn Heb “each to his own side, they err.”
38 tn Some witnesses read “him,” which is more consistent with the context, where the servant is spoken about, not addressed. However, it is possible that the Lord briefly addresses the servant here. The present translation assumes the latter view and places the phrase in parentheses.
39 tn Heb “such was the disfigurement.” The noun מִשְׁחַת (mishkhat) occurs only here. It may be derived from the verbal root שָׁחַת (shakhat, “be ruined”; see BDB 1007-8 s.v. שָׁחַת). The construct form appears here before a prepositional phrase (cf. GKC 421 §130.a).
40 tn Heb “from a man his appearance.” The preposition מִן (min) here carries the sense “away from,” i.e., “so as not to be.” See BDB 583 s.v.
41 tn Heb “the curtains of our dwelling places let them stretch out.”
42 tn Heb “your stakes strengthen.”
43 tn The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments and is often prefixed to judgment oracles for rhetorical effect. But here it appears to be a simple interjection, designed to grab the audience’s attention. Perhaps there is a note of sorrow or pity. See BDB 223 s.v.
44 sn The statement is an oxymoron. Its ironic quality adds to its rhetorical impact. The statement reminds one of the norm (one must normally buy commodities) as it expresses the astounding offer. One might paraphrase the statement: “Come and take freely what you normally have to pay for.”
45 sn The phrase never full alludes to the greed of the leaders.
46 tn Heb “for his gain from his end.”
47 tn Heb “and it is displeasing in his eyes.”
48 tn Heb “Instead of your being abandoned and despised, with no one passing through, I will make you.”
49 sn In this verse “sun” and “moon” refer to the Lord’s light, which will replace the sun and moon (see v. 19). Light here symbolizes the restoration of divine blessing and prosperity in conjunction with the Lord’s presence. See 30:26.
50 tn Heb “days” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
51 tn Or “calls out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “calls on.”
52 tn Or “rouses himself”; NASB “arouses himself.”
53 tn Heb “for you have hidden your face from us.”
54 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and you caused us to melt in the hand of our sin.” The verb וַתְּמוּגֵנוּ (vattÿmugenu) is a Qal preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the root מוּג (mug, “melt”). However, elsewhere the Qal of this verb is intransitive. If the verbal root מוּג (mug) is retained here, the form should be emended to a Polel pattern (וַתְּמֹגְגֵנוּ, vattÿmogÿgenu). The translation assumes an emendation to וַתְּמַגְּנֵנוּ (vattÿmaggÿnenu, “and you handed us over”). This form is a Piel preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the verbal root מִגֵּן (miggen, “hand over, surrender”; see HALOT 545 s.v. מגן and BDB 171 s.v. מָגָן). The point is that God has abandoned them to their sinful ways and no longer seeks reconciliation.
55 sn This hyperbolic statement likens the coming transformation of Jerusalem (see vv. 18-19) to a new creation of the cosmos.
56 tn Or perhaps, “the former things” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “The events of the past.”
57 tn Heb “and they will not come up on the mind.”
