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 6:11
Context6:11 I replied, “How long, sovereign master?” He said,
“Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated,
and houses are uninhabited,
and the land is ruined and devastated,
Isaiah 14:17
Context14:17 Is this the one who made the world like a desert,
who ruined its 3 cities,
and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’ 4
Isaiah 17:9
Context17:9 At that time 5 their fortified cities will be
like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, 6
which they abandoned because of the Israelites;
there will be desolation.
Isaiah 34:13
Context34:13 Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns;
thickets and weeds will grow 7 in her fortified cities.
Jackals will settle there;
ostriches will live there. 8
Isaiah 36:1
Context36:1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, 9 King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
Isaiah 54:3
Context54:3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your children will conquer 10 nations
and will resettle desolate cities.
Isaiah 61:4
Context61:4 They will rebuild the perpetual ruins
and restore the places that were desolate; 11
they will reestablish the ruined cities,
the places that have been desolate since ancient times.
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 tc The pronominal suffix is masculine, even though its antecedent appears to be the grammatically feminine noun “world.” Some have suggested that the form עָרָיו (’arayv, plural noun with third masculine singular suffix) should be emended to עָרֶיהָ (’areha, plural noun with third feminine singular suffix). This emendation may be unnecessary in light of other examples of lack of agreement a suffix and its antecedent noun.
4 tn Heb “and his prisoners did not let loose to [their] homes.” This really means, “he did not let loose his prisoners and send them back to their homes.’ On the elliptical style, see GKC 366 §117.o.
5 tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).
6 tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “like the abandonment of the wooded height and the top one.” The following relative clause appears to allude back to the Israelite conquest of the land, so it seems preferable to emend הַחֹרֶשׁ וְהָאָמִיר (hakhoresh vÿha’amir, “the wooded height and the top one”) to חֹרֵשֵׁי הָאֱמֹרִי (khoreshe ha’emori, “[like the abandonment] of the wooded heights of the Amorites”).
7 tn The words “will grow” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
8 tc Heb “and she will be a settlement for wild dogs, a dwelling place for ostriches.” The translation assumes an emendation of חָצִיר (khatsir, “grass”) to חָצֵר (khatser, “settlement”). One of the Qumran scrolls of Isaiah (1QIsaa) supports this emendation (cf. HALOT 344 s.v. II חָצִיר)
9 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
10 tn Or “take possession of”; NAB “shall dispossess.”
11 tn Heb “and the formerly desolate places they will raise up.”
