Discovery BoxIsaiah 1:7 
Context1:7 Your land is devastated,
your cities burned with fire.
Right before your eyes your crops
are being destroyed by foreign invaders. 1
They leave behind devastation and destruction. 2
Isaiah 10:3
Context10:3 What will you do on judgment day, 3
when destruction arrives from a distant place?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
Isaiah 22:4
Context22:4 So I say:
“Don’t look at me! 4
I am weeping bitterly.
Don’t try 5 to console me
concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” 6
Isaiah 51:19
Context51:19 These double disasters confronted you.
But who feels sorry for you?
Destruction and devastation,
famine and sword.
But who consoles you? 7
1 tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”
2 tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the
3 tn Heb “the day of visitation” (so KJV, ASV), that is, the day when God arrives to execute justice on the oppressors.
4 tn Heb “look away from me” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “don’t hurry” (so NCV).
6 tn Heb “the daughter of my people.” “Daughter” is here used metaphorically to express the speaker’s emotional attachment to his people, as well as their vulnerability and weakness.
7 tc The Hebrew text has אֲנַחֲמֵךְ (’anakhamekh), a first person form, but the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads correctly יִנַחֲמֵךְ (yinakhamekh), a third person form.
